Jenny

It was a long, long night. I’d barely slept, except the couple of times I’d dozed off. Sometime around three a.m. Mom checked his temperature again, and found that it had gone done a couple of degrees. She told me not to worry, that he was going to be okay. 

What a relief.

He was still a very sick guy, but his fever wasn’t in that dangerously high category anymore. Probably with a lot of rest, he’d be better soon, or at least well enough to go home. 

I didn’t know which was scarier -watching him through this sickness, or sending him home to that apartment. There had to be something we could do. It wasn’t right for him to be there by himself. 

It was around six o’ clock Saturday morning when I finally moved away from my rooted spot on the floor next to him. I had to stretch, and I was in serious need of a shower and some coffee. Mom agreed to sit next to him for a bit while I stepped away. He didn’t want to be left alone, and I made sure that he wasn’t. 

Inside the upstairs bathroom, I stripped down in front of the mirror. My reflection was tired. I looked absolutely exhausted. The few hours of sleep that I actually got were spent on the ground propped up against the couch. My neck felt cramped, and my shoulder was achy. It was a crappy nights rest, if you could even call it rest. 

After the quickest shower in history, I threw on a pair of leggings and an old tee shirt before slipping my hair into a knot on the top of my head. It certainly wasn’t the best I’d ever looked, but my eyes seemed a little more alive. Plus I smelled better. There wasn’t time for me to scrutinize the whole package in the mirror. My face was clean, my clothes were clean, and my ass was clean. That’s the best it was going to be.

I tiptoed down the steps, and Mom eyed me from the spot on the living room floor. Nodding my head toward the kitchen, she followed me in. 

My toes had barely hit the tiled floor when she pulled me in for a hug. My Mom and I were nearly the same height, so I easily rested my head on her shoulder.

“I’m very proud of you for being there for your friend,” she said. “Despite what people would think of you.”

I pulled back from her, and looked her in the eyes. “You knew this whole time?”

“Oh honey,” she smirked with a nod of her head. “Momma’s know everything. I know you hate having any attention on you. I know that you and Lola spend every waking minute avoiding social situations that would involve unnecessary talks about you guys.” She was right. “You think that because we are a tiny little town that we have nothing here but gossip and lies. But I’ve been trying to tell you for years that it doesn’t matter where you grow up. Every town has gossip and lies, no matter how big or small. You can’t live your life in the shadows, honey. Not when you were born to stand out.” 

“I’m not.” I paused. “I wasn’t born to stand out.” Far from it actually. 

“You’re a beautiful girl Jenny. You may not realize it, but someday you will. People are talking about you. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in that corner booth or in the back of the library. Somewhere, somebody has something to say about you. Having your nose in a book doesn’t change it, it just makes you oblivious to it,” she told me with that look on her face. The look that meant she was serious. “You don’t want to look back on your life and regret that you missed out on so much. Do you?”

I shook my head no. 

My Mother was the wisest woman on the planet. 

“So, this whole tutoring thing with Draven?” I questioned.

“You wouldn’t ever take my advice, so I agreed on your behalf.” She smiled. “I just wanted you to take a chance. Try something new, you know? It lasted longer than I thought it would.” 

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Oh your little plan worked. But now I have much bigger fish to fry.”

“Why?” Mom asked.

I had to tell her. 

I walked over to the coffee pot, to start the coffee first. “When I went to Draven’s last night, I wasn’t really quite sure what I was going to say when I got there. I wanted to apologize for this whole fight we’d gotten into and I wanted to try and convince him to come back to school so he could graduate. That was my plan, I guess. But Mom,” I said to her. “It was bad.” Tears formed in my eyes when I tried to tell her. “There was nothing in that apartment. There was no food, no laundry, and I’m not even sure there was running water. He had a couch that looked like it was falling apart, and an old T.V. that was nothing but static. There were these brown looking sheets over his window. It smelled dirty. It was bad Mom.” I explained. 

She pulled me close to her. “We’ll figure something out, okay? Don’t you worry.”

“He can’t live in that place like that.”

“We’ll figure it out. I promise.” She rubbed the tops of my arms. “I am proud of you, you know?” 

“I know.” I sighed. “But I’m scared shitless.” I told her.

“Jenny,” she laughed. 

Mom wasn’t used to hearing me curse, but if I was being honest, then that was exactly how I felt. 

A loud moan came from the living room, and I rushed back to Draven’s side in a flash. 

“I’m right here.” I told him.

His eyes opened and he gave me a small smile. It wasn’t your average smile. It was his smile; the one that made you want to smack him in the face. Only half his lips turned up, like he was up to something. That was his smile. It really used to piss me off when he did it, but it was a relief this time. He was obviously feeling a little better. 

I felt his head, and it was still pretty warm. 

“I think you still have some fever. Let me have Mom get you some more medicine,” I told him. I yelled for her in the kitchen. “Can you measure him out some more medicine?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she replied. “You’re looking a little better.” She gave him a warm smile.

Sitting next to him on the couch, I helped him sit up. His body shook as he leaned forward. He was still so weak. I didn’t realize just how small he was either. He had a tiny frame, and I could feel the bones in his back where my hand rested. 

Mom gave him his medicine and he stayed sitting up on the couch. It was like he was trying to steady himself so that he wouldn’t have to lie back down. 

“Is there any way I can shower or wash up?” He asked me, and I looked at Mom. She was the wellness master and I wasn’t sure what the bathing protocol would require. There was no way I was sponge bathing him. My mouth turned up in a grin just thinking about it. Sure, I liked the guy, but I wasn’t ready for that kind of one on one treatment just yet.

“Steve is gone to work this morning, so you could use our bathroom to wash up. We can help you get there, but are you strong enough?” Mom asked him.

“I don’t know. But I feel like some soap and water might do me some good.”

I was surprised at his words. It was the most he’d said since I’d brought him home. It wasn’t like him to be so invasive either. I’m surprised he didn’t ask us to take him back to his place. I would’ve had to fight him on that one. 

“Try not to overdo it,” Mom told him, and I agreed. It seemed like a little too much for him. We just got his fever lowered a few hours ago. 

He nodded, and we helped him to his feet. There was unsteadiness to him, but after he stood there a minute he seemed okay. 

We walked him to the bathroom and I gave him a towel and rag. I showed him where he could find everything, and I told him to leave the door unlocked in case he fell or something. I’d just sat down on my Mom’s bed when she told me she had to run out. Something about getting Trevor to practice, and stopping by the market for a few things. Mom barely worked anymore, besides part time at the nursing home. She used to work full-time until she had kids. Since Dad took on a management position, she hadn’t really had to work. I think she just did it so that she could get out of the house a few times a week. 

She asked me if I’d be okay getting Draven back to the couch, and I told her I would be. If I could help him down a flight of stairs, then I could certainly help him back to the couch. Nine, one, one was readily available for any type of emergency. 

Mom had already done so much to help out, and Dad was fine having him here. I couldn’t ask them to do anything more. Just letting him stay with us was help enough. She stayed up half the night with me, watching over him. Despite how I sometimes felt, they really were amazing parents. 

I strummed through my phone while sitting on the bed waiting for Draven. I wasn’t sure if he was going to shower, or sink bathe. Either way, I didn’t want to be too far away in case he tumbled to the ground or passed out. 

I texted what happened to Lo. There wasn’t an immediate response, but I knew she’d be burning my phone up later. She’d want to know the scoop and I couldn’t wait to tell her. She was my best friend, and I didn’t keep much from her. Of course I hadn’t been completely honest about how the kiss, if you could even call it that, with Draven made me feel, but I’d fill her in. I hated that she was in Florida. I needed her home.

“Shit.” I spoke out loud. He didn’t have any clean clothes. I hurried to the laundry room and grabbed a pair of Trevor’s loose basketball shorts that were folded atop the dryer. He wouldn’t miss them.

Knocking gently on the bathroom door, he answered. “Yeah.” His voice was sickly. 

“I got you a clean pair of shorts,” I spoke to the wooden door in front of me.

“What?” 

“I got you a clean pair of shorts,” I yelled this time.

“You can bring them in.”

“Oh no!” I yelled. My voice was an octave higher than normal. I sounded like a twelve-year-old girl. 

“It’s fine,” he grumbled. 

FUDGE!

I opened the door softly and eased it open just a little bit. I had my eyes closed like I was afraid of what might jump out at me. Keeping the shorts in my hand, I felt for the countertop. I was going to leave them wherever my hand landed. 

His laughter caught me off guard. It made me open my eyes, and I could see him standing just inches away from me in the mirror. He was plenty close enough to grab the shorts from my hands, yet he had me standing there looking like an idiot. 

“Oh,” he said reaching for the counter to steady himself. 

“Are you okay?” The situation went from light-hearted to serious in seconds. I thought something was genuinely wrong. 

He looked up at me. “It hurts to laugh.”

“Take your damn shorts.” I shoved them at him. 

“I need you to help me put them on.”

“You can’t be serious?” There was a towel wrapped around his waist covering all his manly parts.

“If I bend down, I get dizzy. And I don’t have much strength in my arms.”

I ground my teeth and narrowed my eyes at him. 

“I’m serious,” he said.

“Oh, you owe me big time, Buddy.” I pushed the door further open. Grabbing the shorts from him, I bent down to the floor. I was directly eye level with everything that towel was covering up. One wrong move and it would spring free and slap me in the face. Opening the shorts, he could easily step into them. I swore that he was finding this all way too amusing. “If you drop that towel, so help me God.” I glared up at him.

His eyes had another look about them. Something was different. I had a feeling everything under the towel was going to come poking out at me whether I was ready or not. I knew it because it was having the same effect on me minus the boner.

Ah, Damn.

I slid the shorts up his legs, and made it to his thick thighs. Now was not the time to be thinking sexually. I should’ve just let him keep his dirty shorts. 

“I got it from here,” he said stopping me. His hand covered mine. 

I stood face to face with him, and quickly turned to leave. I wasn’t giving myself one more second alone with him in that bathroom. My face was probably fourteen shades of red, and I needed to escape fast. “I’ll be out here when you’re done.” I told him before closing the door behind me.

HOLY HOT AND BOTHERED! 

No more bath time rituals for me.