“Am I hearing this correctly?” he asked, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. He leaned forward so that his face was in front of mine. “Say it, so I can relish the words.”
I fought a smile. “You were right, Jaxon.”
“Never thought I’d hear you say that, but you shouldn’t.” His amusement faded and he was back to frowning. “You wanted to be there in case something happened to your mom, but now you know she’s not your responsibility. Not with the way she treats you, Sara.”
I nodded in return. My throat closed tight as I gulped away the sadness I felt for her. And disappointment.
“Where does it hurt on your head?”
I pointed to the side of my head, and he put a warm hand there, feeling the growing swell with a broken expression. “I’ll get you an ice pack for that. What about your shoulder?”
I pointed to it. Since my collar was torn from the monster’s shove, Jaxon was able to pull it down my right shoulder to have a look.
“It looks awful, Sara. You’re going to be in for a hell of a bruising tomorrow.”
I shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
By the look on his face, he didn’t believe it. He brought me closer to him and tugged me tight against his chest, breathing deeply into my hair. I could feel his heart beating faster through his chest. He kissed the top of my head and whispered, “No one’s ever going to touch you again.” I remember thinking I’d never felt so warm and protected in all my life than in his embrace.
*****
I slept in his bed while he sorted out some layers of blankets on the floor for himself. I idly thought that sharing a room with the opposite sex might have been uncomfortable for other people, but not for Jaxon and me. We’d grown up together, and I’d been at his house almost every single day since we became friends. There was nothing awkward about this.
He kept asking me if I was alright throughout the night. Every time I shifted and groaned in pain, he was by my side, overly worried. Eventually, exhaustion won him over and he fell asleep through most of my groans in the early hours of the morning.
The door creaked, and I opened my eyes to it. Lucinda stared at me, wide eyed, and then down at Jaxon. There was a nanosecond of shock on her face before it washed away into a broad smile. “Saw your suitcase,” she whispered to me as she walked into the room. “Jaxon told me yesterday afternoon you would be coming to stay…” She paused and eyed the wet rag on his dresser, the thawed ice pack, and the painkillers. Her cheeriness deteriorated into awareness. “What happened, Sara?”
“A tiny altercation with my father,” I muttered, forcing myself to sit up. I stiffened against the headboard. My head felt like a ticking time bomb ready to explode, and my shoulder was too painful to move.
Lucinda walked over Jaxon’s passed out body on the floor and took a seat on the bed next to me. “Are you alright?” Her eyes misted as she took me in with a long contemplative look.
“I’m fine,” I nodded. I reached out and stroked her arm to reassure her. “It would have been bad if Jaxon didn’t make it in time.”
“Did he hurt your father?”
“My father hurt me first.” There was no way I would allow her to get angry at Jaxon for this. By the softening of her expression, she agreed.
“I’m glad Jaxon’s past experience in fights actually helped for a good cause,” she mumbled, eyeing her son. “There’s a first for everything, I guess.”
She sighed. “Now, I have to ask this, so don’t be angry with me, but should I be worried that you’re sleeping in my son’s room?”
We attempted to make serious eye contact, but I burst into laughter soon after, and she followed. The lunacy of her statement was too much to stifle down.
“I’m sorry,” she said, touching my good shoulder. “I know nothing did, but it’s my responsibility to ask, right?” I nodded at her, wiping away the tears of laughter on my face. “I wish something would have, though.”
My eyes widened, and I raised my brows at her. “What?”
She shrugged. “I’ll take you over those bimbo bitches he goes out with any day. You know what I’m talking about: those expiration date hook ups he forgets the next day. They don’t even care for him.”
“Does he take them here?” I suddenly felt grossed out being in his bed. Knowing Jaxon, he probably wouldn’t have cleaned up after himself.
“Don’t give me a heart attack,” she replied with a shudder. “His flings are strictly unwelcome under my roof.”
“That reminds me, you need to change your parental controls.”
“What… Again?”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah. Again.”
She sighed in annoyance. “That little bastard. Boys. I wanted a lovely little girl like you, but God gave me that.” She motioned to Jaxon’s sprawled out, unmoving body, sleeping like the dead face down in his pillow. Right on cue he let out a loud, unabashed snore. How could someone sleep so deep?
Because they have nothing to fear.
Four
Lucinda banned me from going back to my house. She said since I was a month shy of eighteen, I was going to be an adult soon and didn’t need my parents anymore for anything. Not that they ever gave me anything anyway.
I tried to swap Jaxon’s sleeping arrangements so that I got the floor and he got the bed, but he refused. Lucinda did too. Then I began to see why; Jaxon went out almost every single night and wouldn’t come home until the early hours of the morning. Sometimes he would crash on the couch, other times on the blanketed floor next to my bed. He told me to cover for him every time Lucinda asked him when he came home the next morning. He’d say eleven knowing full well that his Mom couldn’t keep her eyes open longer than ten, and I would have to nod in agreement at his answer every bloody time.
School was winding down, and prom was on the horizon. Every day I’d wait in anticipation to be approached by a boy. I got so many looks – looks that clearly screamed they were interested in me, but nobody asked me. I was so desperate I knew I’d say yes to anyone – even Garrett Abbott. But not even he approached me despite the fact it was so obviously apparent he had no date either.
What the hell was everyone’s problem? I felt like I was in a quarantine and people were too in fear of catching some kind of zombie mutant disease from me. It wounded me deeply. After working hard on my appearance, it was a low blow to watch even the most unlikely girls get asked.
“Anyone ask you out to prom yet, Tiny?” Jaxon would probe me every single day I came home from school.
But one particular day I’d had enough. “No, Jaxon, nobody!” I snapped, running up to the bedroom to get away from his annoying smirk.
“You okay?” he asked me sometime after.
I was crying in his bed with the covers over me. It was embarrassing because, really, why did Prom even matter so much to me all of a sudden? It wasn’t like I was the most popular girl in school.
Still. Nobody asked me. Why?
“I’m fine,” I lied. But he ripped the covers off before I had the chance to wipe away my tears.
“You look like shit.”