You Saved Me Once Book 1 novel Chapter 35

When everyone’s up, and it’s not just Hayes and me, I was able to loosen up.

Hayes hovered me, he was worried from earlier today. I didn’t want him to worry, I shouldn’t have hugged him. I’ll try to keep my dis-tance.

“Let’s get doughnuts, Little Richards.” Hayes says.

Hayes tosses me his car keys. I look at Jeff.

“Jeff, you want to go with me?” I ask him.

I look at Hayes, he smiles. It’s forced, I can tell.

“Sure. Don’t scratch it Little Richards.” He nudges me.

I toss the keys to Jeff.

“I’m a terrible driver.” I laugh.

“If that’s okay?” Jeff asks.

I look at Hayes, he’s looks at me. I brush him off, because his warmness gives me chills. Hayes nods to Jeff.

“Let’s go.” I say.

We get in Hayes’s car, and drive to Roger’s Bakery.

The entire ride is silent, I don’t take my eyes off of Jeff though.

The rain gets heavy, and I start to reminisce.

~~~~~

The sky was grey, the thunder shook the house. The lightning was bright.

It was storm season in Versa.

I was 11 years old. It was spring break.

Ms. Bartley’s car was in our driveway, I ran to the garage to see her. I hadn’t seen her in months, I missed her.

After Ms. Bartley found out about the affair, I thought she hated me. I still thought it was my fault, for everything.

But it wasn’t Ms. Bartley in our driveway, it was Mr. Bartley.

I walk up to him, slowly. He quietly watches me, yet he doesn’t say anything. He’s slumped against the car. He is crying. I’ve never seen him like this. I’ve never looked at him for this long.

My mother comes out from behind me and hugs him.

She starts to cry.

I stepped out into the rain to ask him about Hayes. My pajamas are soaked now. My slippers are drenched in the warm rain. I felt but-terflies.

I felt scared.

Mr. Bartley ignores my questions. He keeps looking at me but won’t say anything. I walk closer to them.

I’m close enough to hear everything, now. I’m close enough to know why Mr. Bartley and my mother were crying. I’m close enough to know what had happened to Timmy, at The Coast.

Everything goes numb. A strong drop in my stomach pulses and doesn’t go away. I cry.

“Alex, go inside!” My mother shouts to me.

In shock, I do as I’m told.

~~~~~

“We’re Here.” Jeff’s voice wakes me up.

It’s pouring out now. Jeff parks far from cars, which meant we had to dash to the door.

Once we get inside, our clothes are soaked, my slippers are full of water. They bring back memories.

I press the water in my slippers, out onto the laminated tile, in si-lence. The rain, buzzing lights, and un-needed ac, covered the noise.

“Hayes texted me, told me to get three weird doughnuts, for you.” Jeff smiles.

“I’m not hungry.” I lie.

“Okay.” He says.

Hands in pocket, he goes to order. Jeff orders a dozen doughnuts, including three for me, and two coffees.

“Here.” He hands me a coffee.

“Just black. It will wake you up.” He says.

I take the coffee and drink it. It burns my tongue. I hold the cup, it warms me in the cold bakery.

When everything’s ready, Jeff looks panicked. The heavy rain, a box of doughnuts, and driving a car that doesn’t belong to him. He smiles through it though, which warms me even more.

We open the bakery door, and I run to the car. Jeff walks, with one hand in pocket.

I’m sitting in the car, watching, and laughing at Jeff. Eventual-ly, I go back out into the rain, to help him.

The car goes silent when we get inside. Each time we make eye contact, we laugh.

The ride home wasn’t quiet though, the rain was loud enough. The radio stayed off, until we reached Rochelle’s.

Jeff parks across the street.

“I don’t want to go inside yet.” I tell him.

He turns up the volume on the radio, and we sit in silence, watch-ing the rain, and watching each other.

I bite my lip and kiss him. Our bodies collide again. I hear the doughnut box. I feel it crushing between our bodies.

While we’re kissing, I glide my hands down Jeff’s pants. They glide over his briefs, then under.

As the rain fell, I felt Jeff, and he felt me. We are now drenched in rain, sticky and wet.

When we stop, our breaths are heavy, our lungs are stretched, and our bodies are buzzing.

Jeff grabs the crushed doughnut box, and we race inside the house.

I’m happy now. I won.

“Where were you guys?” Rochelle asks.

Jeff and I are still trying to catch our breaths.

“The rain got us.” Jeff exhales.

I watch as he takes off his shirt and goes to the washroom.

My eyes follow him, until I see Hayes. I’m avoiding eye contact now. I toss him the wet keys and thank him. He’s about to say some-thing, but I feel too embarrassed. So, I go to the kitchen. He follows me.

“How are you feeling?” He asks.

He was clean, and dry. I was sticky, wet, and guilty. He looks worried, yet I dodge another conversation with him.

I start to eat a doughnut, in front of Hayes.

I feel better, my pulsing stomach is quieter.

Followed by the rain flavored, now cold coffee that aided my burnt tongue. It’s bitter, and earthy. I like it.

When there’s too much silence between the two of us, I go upstairs, and put on some clothes Rochelle gave me.

I’m dressed in Rochelle’s post freshmen cheer gear. I’m wearing a school cheer hoodie, and neon teal shorts.

~~~~~

We were rained in most of the day, because it’s storm season.

It was movies, polaroid’s, music, frozen pizza, and Rochelle’s favor-ite, board games. I was glued to Jeff the entire time, and he was glued to me. He made me forget about a lot of things.

When I’m with Jeff, all I can feel, is him. I enjoy being around him. I really like him.

Rochelle gave Jeff and I, googly eyes every minute. Hayes kept his distance, he was drinking a lot. Too much.

Each time Hayes and I made eye contact, I’d feel guilty. I’d think about my dream last night, I’d think about my secrets.

We passed the time and waited for the rain to stop. Once it did, we decided to eat out at a restaurant, one of the only restaurants, in Versa.

There are no more than two real “restaurants” in Versa. There is Rizzo’s, and Fisherman Sea Side.

We went to Rizzo’s, which is on the waterfront.

However, the rain smell, masked the garlic and pasta aroma. The restaurant looked vacant, and grey which made things feel, and look blue. It was too wet, and still too gloom to even call this a double “date”. To even call Rizzo’s, a restaurant.

It’s still better than sitting in silence, while I wait for everyone else to finish eating a shared, frozen pizza.