Chapter 25

   Bzzz.

A vibration from her phone went off for the second time.

          Lizzy knew she should answer it, but a lethargic feeling seemed to glue her to the floor.

          Bzzz.

She had replayed the moments that had taken place just an hour ago over and over in her head. The glares. The betrayal. The stupid rain.

After she had stood there stunned in silence, Lizzy finally built up the courage to go back inside. Sneaking past Braden, she slipped upstairs for a shower, letting the almost scorching water calm her nerves.

Now she was wrapped in a towel, letting all the hurtful words echo in her mind, losing peace by the second.

Bzzz.

Her face was parallel to the neutral carpet, her arms circled around her head like a frozen ballerina. Lizzy sighed, listening to the booming thunder. The storm hadn’t passed at all; the minimal sunshine she had seen disappeared soon after her shower, and turned right back into a massive torrential downpour.

Bzzz.

Lightning flashed in the sky, bolts exploding downward like fireworks. Her room was dark, and she liked it that way.

Lizzy did not know why she was lying on the carpet, as opposed to her bed. For some reason, marinating in misery on the floor just seemed right. It helped her think. Kind of.

The phone vibrated once more.

Exasperated with its nagging presence, Lizzy reached carelessly over to her purse, snatching the irritating object out of the open zipper pocket.

Bzz--

She slid it open, without the smallest bit of concern of who it was.

“Hello?” She asked. Hearing her own voice, she realized her greeting sounded a lot like a grumbled intone.

“Lizzy? Ah, so glad you picked up. I’ve been trying Braden, and the house phone, but no one answered!” Jerry said, relieved, in his usual chipper tone.

“Oh,” Lizzy’s voice crackled, as she sat up. “Sorry, I have been up in my room…and, the storm is so loud I can barely hear anything,” She said, trying to come with an excuse.

“No worries,” Jerry said. “But,” he prompted in a concerned tone, “I’m afraid this weather isn’t going to get any better. The other teachers and I were watching the report on the telly after the conferences and--”

Lizzy heard a small chorus of sporadic gasps from Jerry’s side of the line.

“And there goes the power.” He said, chuckling. “Anyhow, Sylvia’s at L’Arome, and I think Gwen’s at Sean’s…but we’ve all been watching and a severe storm warning has been issued. So, for the time being, or until one of us gets back I’d like you and Braden to stay in the basement, all right?” Jerry explained.

Lizzy felt her body tense up. This is not what I need right now.

“Y…” Lizzy tried to respond. But being alone with Braden in the same room without being able to leave ‘for the time being’ was enough to make her speechless.

“Lizzy?” Jerry asked.

 She snapped back into reality. “Mhmm.” She let out. “Yeah. Th-thanks. We’ll just, uh, stay until…” She trailed off, her mind going in a million different places.

“Until Sylvia or I get home.” Jerry finished.
“All right,” he said. “Be safe. Bring some food down if you want, just not too much or we’ll get ants!” He chuckled.

“Okay.” Lizzy said flatly, finding it humorous that Jerry was worried about ants when it practically looked like a category eight hurricane outside. “Bye, Jerry,” she said, nonetheless.

“Bye Lizzy, see you soon.” Jerry replied.

The conversation ended with a click.

Lizzy pulled the phone away from her ear, hitting the ‘end’ button just in case. She set the phone on her bed, and sighed.

In addition to staying in the basement with him for who knows how long, Lizzy also was cognizant of the fact that she had to actually go into his room, and tell him Jerry’s command as well. So, she really didn’t have a way around it. She had to speak with him, even though the words would be minimal.

Lizzy pushed her face into her sheets, frustrated.

She didn’t want to see Braden. She didn’t want to talk to him. She especially didn’t want to not talk to him, all while sitting in the same room with him, awkwardly fidgeting trying to ignore his presence. No. Not at all. But she had to.

Grabbing a set of lounging clothes, Lizzy flicked on the light, trying to see.

But no light.

“Ugh!” She grumbled, forgetting that the power was out.

Nonetheless, she got into her yoga pants and a large gray hoodie within a few seconds. She tried to look in the mirror to see if her freshly washed locks of hair sprang up in all kinds of ridiculous directions.

They did.

She sighed again, irritated.

“Whatever,” she muttered to herself, grabbing a hair tie. She threw it up in a high ponytail, just wanting the wet, tangled mess out of her face.

She didn’t bother to reapply her makeup. Dark collections of mascara and eyeliner circled her eyes, but she didn’t care. Looking pretty for Braden seemed like a lost cause.

And with that, Lizzy stepped out into the hall, realizing the house itself was darker than her own room. The basement would be even worse.

Taking wobbly strides toward Braden’s room, she stopped, unsure, in front of the closed door. The handle seemed to push away her hovering hand with every force it could.

Closing her eyes, she turned the knob.

The door opened, revealing the same gloomy shade of gray her room held.

Lizzy opened her eyes. Braden was lying on his bed, asleep.

For a second she was relieved.

But then she realized that involved waking him up.

Unsteadily, Lizzy tip-toed over to his bed. She stepped over his pile of muddy clothes, seeing that he was in fresh shorts and an old t-shirt.

Suddenly a smile snuck onto her face.

This was the first time she had been in his presence…and didn’t feel awkward or stressed. She felt comfortable. For a few moments, she looked at him.  His peaceful face, unburdened of anger or any other thing that made her want to curl up and wish for someone to take back every stupid thing she said and had done.

But Lizzy knew she couldn’t stand there forever, entrapped in the perfect moment.

Reluctantly, she reached for his shoulder. Before she even touched it, his eyes opened steadily, averting her face.

Her hand froze where it was.

“What?” Braden asked dully. His expression was spiteful.

Lizzy felt like her eyes had enlarged to the size of beach balls. Again, her tongue failed to supply her with the ability to form words.

Even so, his expression stayed the same; seeming as if he cared less if she answered or not.

She took a short breath in.

“Um, Jer-I mean, uh, your dad called and said there’s a, uh, warning for a sever storm, and that, we, you know, should probably go in the basement, ‘cause...” She involuntarily cleared her throat, making things even more uncomfortable. “You know, just to be safe.”

Lizzy stopped herself form rambling any longer. She already felt like an idiot, no matter what she said.

But Braden didn’t respond. He just lay there.

Lizzy endured a long, ten seconds of silence before deciding to speak again.

“So…I’m going to go down now, I think.” She said, stepping away from his bedside. “Yeah,” she added inaudibly, moving toward the door.

She didn’t bother looking back as she walked out the door. An ocean of frustration boiled up inside of her, not allowing her to stop tears from spilling out of her eyes.

Stop. She commanded herself, as she reached the door to the basement. Just stop.

Touching the handle, she felt a massive wave of pain move over head.

Telling herself to stop crying only gave her a headache, which aggravated the tears even more.

Lizzy forcefully opened the door, slamming it response to her own short temper. She stepped carelessly down the stairs, into the dark room where only a rectangle of dim light shone through a small, squished window from the top of the wall.
          Her feet touched the stony, concrete floor. She shivered, becoming cold inside the dark basement. Although it was small, she knew there were couches and chairs and such on one side of the room. The rest of it was taken up with old, unused thing and large cardboard pictures stuffed with miscellaneous objects.

She took half a step forward when the door opened from the top of the stairs. Lizzy snapped her head back, although she knew full well who it was.

Braden’s defeated silhouette stood at the top of the stairs. He took a step down them, closing the door in the process.

Lizzy felt paralyzed. Thankfully, her feet kept moving, as if on autopilot. Within a moment, she found herself folded into a corner of the soft, leathery couch. It was cold, but soon her body warmed the spot where she lay.

Lizzy stared blankly in front of her, trying not to look at Braden. But her eyes darted over anyway.

He sat, still, on the last step of the staircase. His hands were folded together, cradling his bent head. His elbows rested on his knees.

She forced herself to look away.

Lizzy figured he probably couldn’t see her gaze through the darkness, but she didn’t want to take any chances. Receiving another bitter glare was something she definitely didn’t need.

Fat drops of rain slammed loudly against the pavement, and the puddles trickled and splashed noisily in response. Every thirty seconds or so, lightning would flash like electric webs over the sky, leaving only seconds for thunder to boom deafeningly afterward.

Minutes ticked past, and the storm stayed as it was; strong and unending. Lizzy closed her eyes most of the time, trying to pretend that Braden wasn’t sitting uncomfortably ten feet away. For a few moments, it would work and she would feel content. But then the booming shots of thunder would throw her back into reality.

Reality. Lizzy thought. Complicated, uncompromising, awful reality.

She gave herself on angry scowl. If she hadn’t gone off with Alejandro, none of the horribleness occurring would be taking place. It was all because of her, and she knew it. But that wasn’t even the worst part. What killed was, she did everything she could to fix it, yet Braden wouldn’t budge.

Lizzy felt desperate, laying there…just a few steps away from the one person who could end her constant questions, and make her at ease again.

She couldn’t even cry anymore. Her tear glands seemed to have eked out their last drop a while ago.

But Lizzy was fine with that. Crying didn’t do much for her. It never did. It only made her feel worse about what happened, and how every happy moment that had taken place beforehand, had seemingly gone to waste. Thinking about that, a large pit formed in her stomach. The one thing she wanted was out of reach. And that was Braden’s forgiveness. At this point, she couldn’t even fathom Braden taking her back. She just wanted him to stop looking at her like she was a piece of dirt. She wanted him to look at her the way he used to; like she was the most amazing person to exist. Like she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on. But that was just a thought. It was just…thinking. It was all she had done for the past two hours, and so far, it hadn’t gotten her anywhere good.

A rumble of thunder cracked like a whip, reverberating through the sky, followed by a pool of lighting, making the whole sky glow.

Lizzy yelped. Involuntarily, of course. But it still caused Braden to look over. And in the momentary flash of light, she saw his eyes.

His eyes. For a nanosecond, they looked scared. Not for himself, but for her. Because she was scared. And he wanted to fix that. Just for a second, though. But they were his eyes.

His caring, concerned, kind eyes that she knew. Not the ones that had been hiding feelings, displaying formal friendship, or more recently, showing heavy amounts of scorn.

And those eyes made her heart flurry and spin like a cyclone. It renewed the feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time. The fake friendship that had taken place for months on end had killed almost every memory she had of their better relationship. That look from him, that one look, revived the smallest piece she had left. And that’s all she needed to get up. Get up, stop thinking, and do.

Lizzy pulled herself from the broken-in leather couch. A buzzing current of energy swept through her like a gunshot.

She walked swiftly to the steps, forgetting the hesitation that bubbled under her confidence.

She stopped in front of the stairs, standing in front of him.

He looked up.

Lizzy took a breath in. Then let it out. Then she spoke.

 “You kissed me, and ignored me. I felt…rejected. What I did was wrong, and really stupid, but you left me in the dark. And even though,” Lizzy took a deep breath, “Even though I shouldn’t have gone off and did anything with anyone…you really gave me no place to go but down.” She said; her voice steady. “I’m not…blaming you. I just want you to know how I feel. ” Lizzy said as she inhaled deeply, “I miss you. And having to be ‘friends’ has been torture for me, and this afternoon has been ten million times worse.” She saw an inflection of surprise in his eyes.

Lizzy continued. “And…I don’t want to spend my last months here pretending. Because I like you.” She said; her voice quieting, sincerely. “I really like you. And that isn’t going to change, no matter wha--” 

Lizzy felt his hands clasp hers, intertwining their fingers. He stood up, pushing her against the concrete wall, pressing his lips on hers. Lizzy could hear the thunder rumbling, the lighting exploding outside. But nothing compared to the exploding fireworks she had right then. Not even the biggest storm could compare the mountain of relief she felt wash over her. Nothing could compare to anything.

 He kissed her for a long time before he finally pulled away.

Braden looked at her, his bright eyes glowing with a hint of playfulness.

Lizzy smiled coyly, trying to hide her happiness. But that was kind of impossible.

“Last time that happened--” Lizzy began to say, but Braden cut her off.

“… I ran away. I stopped talking to you because I was afraid of the end of this. But when you went with Vasquez…it made me forget everything I felt for you, even though I was the one who said we should be friends. And I got angry anyway. But that was wrong.” He gave her a genuinely reassuring expression. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when you leave, but…I don’t want to think about that. And I don’t,” he emphasized his words, “I don’t want to miss you before you’re gone.”

Lizzy had to process what he had just said to her. It was everything she didn’t expect, everything she didn’t know was going on in his head.

“Promise me,” Lizzy said.

Braden’s expression stayed full of its surety. “It’s a promise I couldn’t break, even if you asked me to.” He said.

Lizzy smiled widely, not caring how silly it looked. She kissed him this time, knowing that, for once; she would wake up the next morning without worry of things getting worse. She could fall asleep every night without wishing she could go into the next room, spill her feelings out and fix everything; she didn’t have to spend every day wondering when things would change.

She could breathe in, breathe out, and for once…know everything was okay. 

Reviews

[compositionc]

WONDERFUL

[Short.Nerd]

Aww..... They are speaking again. GOod! :D I loved this chapter a lot. Great job! (: CAn't wait to read more!