“Bull is sending him into Ashland with a few others for something. Just work. Don’t worry about them, though. Let’s hang out, hm? C’mon!” He lifts me out of bed, carrying me bridal style from my room, and back into the kitchen again. When I see the table, I feel a pang in my chest. He’d found the food I’d made, heated it up, and set the table for the two of us. I guess this is what he’d been doing while I was-
Noooope! Don’t think about it while he’s carrying you! Awkwaaaard! I scold myself as Shay sets me down in a chair. When he takes the seat across from me, I notice the daisy he’d left by my plate. My heart immediately melts at the sight of it and I carefully stroke the white petals.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you a proper corsage,” he mutters as he starts shoveling food onto his plate, as though he hasn’t had anything to eat all day.
“I don’t give a crap about the corsage,” I tell him, surprised that he remembered my Junior Prom is tonight. “I just appreciate you being here.”
His eyes flash to me and I can see the apology in them.
I quickly cut him off before he starts grovelling again. “Don’t. It’s okay… I’m okay.” I shiver a little at the darkness beyond the windows. Anyone could be out there right now, watching us, unseen in the shadows. The fork I’m holding starts to rattle against my plate as my hand begins to shake.
“Hey, Mina… hey. Hey!” Shay reaches across the tabletop and gently grips my wrist, stopping my anxious worries before they can properly manifest. “It’s okay. The house is locked up and armed. I’m here. No one is going to fuck with you. Got it? I’ll kill anyone who’s stupid enough to try.”
I take a long, deep breath and hold it before I slowly exhale, and nod. He’s right. If anyone tried to get in here, it would be the last thing they ever did.
“Good. Now eat up. This is fucking awesome, by the way. How the hell did you manage?” He releases my wrist as he digs into his meal again.
“Very carefully, and very slowly,” I say, still concentrating on my breathing.
Shay bursts out laughing. “Oh man, I’m kinda pissed I missed that. How many times did you biff it?”
I know he’s just teasing. He would never actually find the thought of me falling while I’m hurt like this funny. But I smile and play along anyways. “Maybe once or twice. You should have seen me when I spilled the salsa everywhere. Luckily, I was wearing one of your shirts, so I just used it to clean up.”
“Better not have been my Rolling Stones shirt.” He narrows his eyes at me, but I can see how the corner of his mouth is twitching slightly as he fights back a smile.
“Oops!” I grin and laugh.
He simply rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “What else have you been up to today?” he asks as he bends over his plate.
I bite the inside of my cheek, trying not to think about the new burner cell I’ve got hidden beneath my floorboards. “Been texting back and forth with Becca and Ashley. They’re at the dance.”
Shay glances at me, his eyes searching, while his jaw clenches a bit. I know if I wasn’t injured, I would be at prom alongside my friends, but Shay would likely have tagged along, lurking outside the gym until his patience wore thin. I can picture him storming into the school and hauling me out mid-dance. At least with missing tonight, I’m spared that humiliation.
“What else did you do?” he asks, changing the subject.
I shrug. “The usual. Watched YouTube, read a little, watched TV…” ugh, my life was so boring right now.
“Do you regret not being able to go to your little dance?”
I scoff. “It’s not a little dance. It’s Junior Prom. It’s like a right of passage!”
He rolls his eyes. “Oh please, no one gives a shit about Junior Prom.”
“I do! I mean, it would have been nice to get all dressed up… go dancing… just normal teen stuff, you know?” I don’t add the other thought in my head, that instead, I’m stuck at home, terrified of the dark like I’m just a little kid again.
But Shay knows. He always does. He stops eating and watches me as I pick at my own food, feeling my mood plummet significantly.
“You know,” he says slowly. “We could have our own prom, if you like?”
I raise my brows at him. “What? What are you talking about?”
The corners of his mouth lift just the tiniest fraction as he pulls out his phone and scrolls through it. He taps the screen, puts it on the table, then rises to his feet and moves around to me just as Ghost on the Shore by Lord Huron starts to play. Holding a hand out to me, the smallest of smiles on his lips, he murmurs, “May I have this dance?”
“Oh my God, you are so lame.” I laugh and shake my head. “And I can’t. My stupid leg-”
But before I can finish my thought, Shay swoops down, grips the small of my waist in his hands, and lifts me out of my chair like I weigh nothing.
“Shay!” I wrap my arms around his neck, terrified about being dropped on my stupid broken limb. Undeterred by my reaction, he wraps his arms around my waist, holding me against himself so that my feet are literally dangling in the air, and starts to sway us back and forth to the music, slowly turning on the spot. I’m nearly face-to-face with him, my nose at level with his collarbone. We’re so close, I can feel his breath on my forehead. Tentatively, I peek up at him, only to see him staring down at me with such unsettling intensity that it makes me blush.
“Shay…” I whisper, “… put me down.”
“Just enjoy this, Sweetness,” he tells me as he gradually revolves us on the spot.
I'm just a man but I know that I'm damned
All the dead seem to know where I am
‘Til it began on the night of my birth
We'll be done in a turn of the earth...
Over the years, Shay and I have always been physically affectionate with each other, but this… this feels different. It leaves me feeling a little unsure, to the point where I can’t even meet his eyes. So, I keep my focus on his throat, noticing how the pulse in his neck appears to be racing. Though I know he can hold me up with ease, I keep my arms around his neck, like I would if I was dancing with any boy. I concentrate on the song, telling myself not to be nervous, that there’s nothing to read into. Shay is just being Shay, my protector.
Die if I must let my bones turn to dust
I'm the Lord of the lake and I don't want to leave
All who sail off the coast ever more
Will remember the tale of the ghost on the shore...
I could sense Shay moving his face closer to mine. I shift my focus over his shoulder, watching as the room gradually spins around us. His jaw touches my temple, pressing ever so slightly against it, and his muscled arms give my waist a little squeeze. I can’t help it, dancing here with him, being held in his arms, the daisy by my plate… my arms around his neck squeeze a little in return as I hug him closer. Big, scary Shay does have a gentle side, one that no one gets to see. And that’s because he saves it only for me, which makes me feel pretty damn special.
I'm goin' away for a long time…