It was another boring Saturday night for me to spend alone. I slumped on the couch and flipped through TV channels absentmindedly. As usual, there was anything on so I settled for a cooking show and pulled a blanket over my legs. The chip bag crinkled as I stuffed my hand inside to only find crumbs. It seems like I'm always the last to get to the snacks.
This was a typical Saturday night for me. It's just that I wasn't really used to doing it alone, yet. Usually Lauren would come over and even though what we did was pretty boring, she always found a way to make it fun. That wouldn't happen again, though.
I looked down at my phone to check for the millionth time if maybe Drew had texted. Of course I had no alerts. After we started dating (which had only been a few days at this time) Drew would text me atleast a couple times a day, and occasionally he'd call and we would just talk. On this particular day, though, I hadn't heard anything from him.
"Why won't you call?" I asked out loud, clutching my phone close to my face. As if my phone was really going to give me an answer.
I must have said that louder than I thought because a few seconds later my mom poked her head in the living room. "Why won't who call?" She asked, holding a spatula in one hand. I guess she had been in the kitchen cooking something.
I still hadn't told my parents about Drew. I knew that they would be super mad so I had been avoiding it for a whole week.
"I..um...Ryan!," he was the first person who came to mind," Ryan is supposed to call me," I lied, and put on an innocent and very fake looking smile.
My mom knitted her brows together and gave me a weird look. "Okaaay," she responded, drawing out the 'a'. "Why is Ryan supposed to call you?"
I turned my head so she couldn't see the stumped look on my face. What would I tell her? She was looking at me expectantly so I said the first thing that came to mind. "He was supposed to help me with a math problem."
She nodded her head slowly. "I can help you if you really need it that bad," she offered, and layed the spatula back down on the counter.
"No!" I blurted out quickly and a little too loudly. She really gave me weird look then. "I mean...that's okay. I'm sure he'll call soon."
Then, as if on cue my phone started ringing. I grabbed my phone off the back of the couch and looked at the caller ID. It was Drew. I almost didn't answer it since my mom was still standing there and watching me. Curiosity overcame me, though, so I answered the phone anyways.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kels. What are you doing?"
I looked over at my mom who was still eyeing me carefully. "I'm not doing anything. You?" I asked. I made sure I worded everything carefully so she wouldn't suspect that it was anyone but Ryan.
"Not much. I was calling to see if you could come over? I have something I need to ask you about."
"Yeah, I'll be there in a little bit," I replied quickly and hung up the phone. I still hadn't asked him about the whole Jade thing, yet. So this was a good opportunity to ask.
"That was Ryan. He wants me to come over," I told my mother and hopped off the couch. She seemed to believe me and went back into the kitchen.
I went upstairs and changed into some more decent clothes and grabbed my bag. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and bounded back down the steps. I sad goodbye to my mom and went out the door before she could ask me anymore questions. I would have to tell her about Drew sooner or later. I was opting for later, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I clutched my arms around myself as I waited for Drew to come to the door. I could hear a TV on and I could see it flashing from behind the thin curtains. A light turned on in an upstairs window, catching my eye. Someone walked past it and then disappeared. Why did he ask me to come over if no one was going to answer the door.
I knocked again, a little louder this time to make sure it would be easily heard. A woman's voice rang out from inside the house, but I couldn't make out what she was saying.
I was just about to give up and leave when I heard the long, low creak of the door. My back was already turned and I froze in my tracks.
"Yes?" The same woman's voice asked.
I turned around slowly and forced a polite smile in the process. Drew's mother was standing in the doorway with one dainty hand on the doorknob and the other on the doorframe. She was dressed much more casual than the first time we had met. Her blouse and cotton pants still looked a bit too dressy, but my oversized taupe sweater, thick black leggings, and studded motorcycle boots looked better than the sweats she had seen me in before. I tucked a stray hair behind my ear and stepped closer.
"Hi, Mrs. Oakley. Drew asked me to come over. Is he here?" I asked. I discreetly looked over her shoulder, and noticed a figure coming down the stairs. It was quite dark inside the house so I couldn't really tell if it was Mr. Oakley or Drew. Once whoever it was got to about the third or fourth stair from the bottom, it stopped. I don't thin they could see me considering Mrs. Oakley was rather tall and I'm pretty short for my age. Mrs. Oakley was probably about 5'6"; whereas I'm only 5'2".
"Mom? Is Kelsey here?" So it was Drew. Mrs. Oakley pressed her lips together and nodded her head.
"Yes, honey," she responded to him, "Come in." She stepped to the side, but not until she cast me a glare. If I wasn't trying to make a good impression my mouth would have completely fell open, but my lips only slightly parted.
Why didn't she like me? What did I do to her? I didn't have much time to think about it because the next thing I knew Drew had grabbed my wrist and began pulling me up the white, carpeted staircase. I glanced down at my boots and over to Drew's bare feet. I really should have taken those off.
"Where are we going?" I managed to squeak out once Drew let go of my wrist. He was a few steps ahead of me so I could only see the back of him.
He didn't say anything until we reached the top of the steps. He pointed to a cream colored door on the right side of the hallway. "My bedroom."
I nodded and followed him into the room. It could probably make two or three of my bedroom. It was painted a similar shade of blue as Ryan's, and had all black matching furniture. A dresser on one side of the room, a full sized bed on the other side with a nightstand on either side, and some other dresser/chest type things. A large closet was on the same wall as the larger dresser. The double doors were open, exposing an extremely deep walk-in closet. What part of this house wasn't amazing?
It was much neater than most boys' rooms I'd seen. In fact, it was a lot cleaner than mine. It was also really plain, though. There weren't any posters or pictures anywhere. It definitley didn't look like a teen's room.
Drew stood beside his perfectly made bed, watching me as I turned my head every which way to take it all in. I blushed a little once I noticed his green eyes staring at me. He smiled without showing his teeth. "You like it?" He asked, opening his arms and gesturing around the room.
I smiled back at him and reluctantly tore my eyes away from his to look around the room once more. "It's really big," I replied vaguely and then turned back to him when I heard him chuckle.
"That's it? It's just really big?" He sat down on his bed and the comforter rustled. It was the only thing in his room that wasn't dreadfully plain. The base color of it was a charcoal grey, but it had a bright blue graphic print on it.
I shrugged and walked aross the room to sit next to him. I pulled off my boots on tucked one leg underneath me. "No offence or anything, but it's kind of...plain. It's not very personalized, y'know? Or maybe it's just not what I expected." The rest of the house, or atleast the rest of the house that I had seen, was quite extravagantly decorated.
Drew twisted his mouth to the side and leaned back on one arm. "I've never really thought about it. I'm not here most of the time anyways. I'm usually at some football thing or with my friends. I don't really have time to decorate."
Things went silent for a minute and I could hear the faint voices of the TV downstairs. "Well, what did you want to ask me?" I looked up at him and readjusted the chunky scarf that hung loosely from my neck.
Drew's eyes snapped back up from where he had been staring at the floor. He looked at me for a second like he didn't know what I was talking about. What could he have been thinking about that could have distracted him so much. "What did you say?"
I watched him for a second. I couldn't help but notice his nervous like movements. The way he chewed at his lip, and how his leg bounced up and down. "I said, what did you want to ask me? You told me you wanted to ask me something when you called me earlier," I repeated myself and leaned a little closer to him.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I wanted to tell you about a phone call I got this morning," he explained, and shifted his position so he could sit up straighter, "I got a call from one of the guys who are working on Quentin and Will's case. He wanted to know if I could testify against them when they go to court in a little over a week."
I nodded my head and clasped my hands together. It had almost slipped my mind that they would have to go to court. So, technically this wasn't all over, yet. "What did you tell them?"
Drew averted his eyes from mine when I asked the question. He stared down at his lap and ran his tongue over his lips. "I said that I'd have to think about it. My mom doesn't want me to do it. She says that it would be too much for me. That's why I wanted you to come over. I wanted your opinion." He looked back up at me expectantly. Since when did people base their decisions off my opinion? That was new for me.
"I think you should do it. I mean you're the only other person who was inside the house. You saw it happen. If you think about it, you would be a huge help to the case. In fact, you're testimony would probably help the jury make their desicion a lot," I reasoned. Personally, I thought it was a no brainer decision. If he testified against them it could bring justice for Lauren. I tried to not be pushy, though. It wasn't my decision to make. I wasn't the person who would have to go up in front of everyone and testify against people who I once considered my best friends. "Do what you feel comfortable with," I added, and grabbed one of his hands, lacing my fingers with his.
He pressed his lips together and looked down at our intertwined hands for a few moments. Then he raised his head and smiled at me a little. "I agree with you. If my mom doesn't like it then that's her problem. They asked me, not her." Something in his eyes always seemed to change when he talked about his mother. It was like there was something he kept wanting to say, but he couldn't. Something about her made him keep his mouth shut.
I shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his mother. There wasn't much I could say about that. It's not like I was going to be 'Oh yeah, your mother is terrible. You should walk all over her opinion and do what you want.' I may have wanted to say that, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have ended well.
"If that's what you think is best," is the answer I settled on. I squeezed his hand lightly.
"Will you and Ryan go with me? My mom probably won't, and this might sound a little pathetic, but I don't want to go by myself."
I nodded my head quickly. "Of course I'll go with you. I'm not sure about Ryan, but I can ask him."
Drew smiled, finally looking more like himself rather than a scared little kid. "Good." He plopped back on his bad so that he was lying on his back, and his feet dangled off the edge.
I smirked and layed down beside him. I was so small that I fit perfectly and my feet barely even reached the edge. Drew extended one arm, and I raised my head so he could wrap it around me. I rested my head on his chest and he wrapped his other arm around my waist so I was pressed snugly against him.
I gazed up at the ceiling and bit at my lip. It was so strange feeling like this for any boy other than Ryan. And then as my eyes bore into the ceiling, and Drew's steady breaths lifted my head up and down just the slightest bit, my mind wandered to Lauren. She probably layed in this same position with Drew in this same room not all that long ago. What was I thinking being with him? Why did I not consider how wrong it was before I let my heart get so wrapped up in it? I just kept telling myself that Lauren would want me to be happy. That was the only way I could justify it.
"You awake?" Drew asked me and shook my arm a little.
I hadn't realized how long I had been laying there without saying anything. "Yeah, I'm awake. I was just thinking," I replied. My lips brushed across his shirt as I spoke.
Then, I remembered the question I wanted to ask him before. "Drew, how come you didn't tell me that Jade was your ex-girlfriend?"
His grip on me loosened and he stayed quiet for a moment and then gripped me tighter than he had before. "I didn't think that day was a good time to mention it, I guess. We didn't date for long. It wasn't like it was anything serious."
It wasn't anything serious. I couldn't help but wonder if that was true. He isn't as nice as everyone thinks he is. Jade's words played through my mind like an annoying song that you just couldn't seem to forget.
I tilted my head up so I could look him in the eye. "You aren't lying to me, are you?"
Drew knitted his eyebrows together. The look on his face was as if someone had slapped him. He unwrapped one if his arms from around my waist and reached up to brush my bangs out of my face. "Of course not."
I nodded and layed my head back on his chest. As quick as someone could snap their fingers all my suspicions flew away. Drew had a way about him that could make you believe anything he said. If he told me aliens had just landed in his backyard I would have stood up to look out the window. If the words came from his candy colored red lips, then it must be true.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I jammed the key in the lock of my car, and sleepily slumped into the driver's seat. I glanced down at the watch I wore religiously on my wrist. 11:45. I had stayed at Drew's much longer than I expected. We mainly just talked about random things, and then we both fell asleep for almost thirty minutes. When I woke up I decided it was time to go home.
I stuck the key in the ignition, but when I turned it on my car made a noise that was similar to a dying animal and then I turned off.
I groaned and tried again, but there was no use. It was not going to start up. I slammed my hand on the steering wheel, and massaged the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger.
I let out an exasperated sigh, and reached for my phone. Can you come out here?, I texted Drew.
A few minutes later the door of Drew's house opened and he slipped outside. Everything on my car was manual so I could roll down my window without the car being on. I only rolled it down a little, but the bitter cold air hit me in the face anyways.
Drew leaned down a little and peered inside the window at me.
"My car won't start," I explained, throwing my hands up in the air. I was way too tired to deal with this.
Drew tapped his fingers on the hood. "Okay. Well, I don't know much about cars so I wouldn't know what to do to fix it. I can drive you home, though."
I didn't care about the car. I was doing good to keep my eyes open. All I cared about was getting home. "That's fine."
"Alright. Let me go get my coat, and tell my mom where I'm going. I'll be right back." I watched as he jogged back up the steps of his house and slipped back inside.
A few minutes later he came back out of the house wearing a heavy brown coat and a grey beanie. He stopped on the porch and that's when I noticed his mom standing in the doorway. His back was turned to me, but by the way his mom was looking at him I could tell that he was talking to her.
Then she looked up and straight at me. Her icy stare made my blood run cold. Even though I was bundled up in many layers, a shiver ran down my spine. There was something wrong with that woman.
I watched as she said something to Drew and then closed the door. Drew scampered down the stairs and waved for me to get in his car.
I climbed out of my own car and locked the door before I closed it. I practically ran to his car so I wouldn't have to be in the cold any longer than I had to. I slipped inside and closed the door quickly.
"Why does it have to be so freaking cold?" I asked as I put on my seatbelt.
Drew chuckled and started up the car. "Well, it is October."
I didn't have the chance to reply because as soon as the heated seats came on, and the warm air from the vents hit me, I was out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up to Drew shaking my arm lightly. I moaned and rubbed at my blurry eyes. It took me a minute to register that we were parked in front of my house.
"We can't be together anymore, Kelsey. You sleep with your mouth open. That's a deal breaker."
For a second I was so sleepy that I almost thought he was serious. After I realized he was just kidding a groggy smile spread across my face. "Shut up," my voice was cracky and strained like it usually is when I just wake up. I shoved his arm lightly.
"Thanks for taking me home," I said as I gathered my keys and bag from off the floor.
Drew leaned over to my side of the car and kissed me gently. He placed one hand on my cheek and the other stayed firm on his steering wheel.
My shoulders slumped and I practically melted right there. His warm lips made me want to stay in that car forever. He pulled away slowly, but left his hand on my face.
"I'll get my dad to look at your car in the morning. He knows more about stuff like that than me. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
I smiled and nodded my head. "Into the cold I go," I mumbled and stepped out into the freezing night. I stood on the curb and waved as Drew pulled away.
I sighed and made my way towards my house, searching through my keys to find the one that opened the door. I found it after a few seconds of jingling and started to press it into the lock. Before I could even turn it the door swung open. In the doorway was my mother, and she didn't look happy. My heart felt like it fell to my stomach. I thought she would have been asleep by now.
"Did I see what I think I saw?" She demanded, her white nightgown seemingly glowing against the dark background.
I slipped past her and braced myself for lots of yelling as the door slammed behind me. "Yes. You did see what you think I saw." I shut my eyes tight and clenched my fists.
"What are you thinking? You should know that boy is nothing but trouble!"
I spun around on my heel. "He isn't trouble! He cares about me, and I really like him. He's been there for me when I needed someone to talk to about Lauren. He understands how I feel, and you can't keep me from seeing him." Defending Drew seemed like a natural instinct.
"You better listen to me, Kelsey! My daughter is not going to-"
I stomped down the hallway and slammed my door. I was too caught up in the World of Drew to heed anyone's warnings. Little did I know, the World of Drew was spiraling down faster than I thought.
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