Just Keep Driving - Jeremiah Fisher

008

"Don't you think you had a little too much?" I asked Conrad as I took the champagne bottle from his hands. I didn't know what to say or what to do to help him. I know he is processing this in his own way, but when can you say it's gotten out of hand?

"Don't be a bitch Rachel" Conrad snapped in response grabbing the bottle back.

"Do not disrespect me for caring Conrad" I mumbled, and walked away from him. I tried with Conrad, but I won't be talked to like that. He will open up when he's ready. If he didn't want the help right now I would not force him to accept any.

I walked over to tweedle dee and tweedle dumb stacking books as high as they could on Steven. I shook my head and couldn't help but laugh at the two idiots making fun out of nothing. Once I approached them I guess I startled Steven because the books all came crashing down.

"We really can't take you two anywhere" I joked

"What can't we have a little fun, I mean Conrad is. He's basically downed a whole bottle of champagne. I don't get what his deal is." Jeremiah said mildly annoyed.

"Just cut him some slack" I said as I started to help pick up the books.

"Everyone is cutting him so much slack though. It's like I don't even know my own brother anymore. First football, now drinking" Jeremiah said shaking his head.

"Hey" I said, reaching over and putting my hand over his "I hear you. I know it sucks, but he'll open up soon"

He looked at me and nodded. Then he looked down at our hands and intertwined our fingers making me blush.

"Thank you. I just .. It's hard seeing him this way" He said

I gave his fingers a squeeze to let him know I understood.

***

"You know, this shit is so boring. Can we go somewhere?" Asked Conrad

"Yeah. Where?" Steven said not even looking up from his phone.

"We could go into town. I don't know, buy some weed from that guy with the Rainbow Dash tattoo?" Jere chimed in

"We can't do that because he got arrested last summer" I said joining in on the conversation. As much as I loved Laurel I too wanted to get away from this boring party.

"Yeah, we could go to the drive-in" Steven suggested. I didn't like where these ideas were heading. I knew exactly what all three boys were thinking when Steven said that. They wanted to crash Belly's date.

"Absolutely not" I said shaking my head in disgust

"Yeah no, I don't want to watch Belly hooking up with some kid in the back seat of a minivan" Jeremiah said agreeing with me

"Yo actually let's go to the drive-in" Conrad said

Steven was all in but Jeremiah looked hesitant. He looked over to me and I shook my head. I wanted at least one out of the three boys to have some sense left in them. It looked like Jeremiah did because he said ..

"Yeah guys I'm not really feeling the plan. You go though and face the wrath of Belly later"

The other two boys shrugged and left without us. It was stupid of me to not try and stop the other two, but I know there was no talking sense into Conrad in his drunken state.

"I guess it's just me and you" Jeremiah said with a cheeky grin

***

"WHAT" Jeremiah said loudly with a laugh as he handed me the joint we were sharing.

"Stop it, it was a spare moment type thing." I said giggling while I took a drag.

"So you're telling me Rachel Thompson is an equal opportunist like myself" Jeremiah said sounding impressed.

"You're not the only one who gets to have fun" I said sarcastically, passing it back to Jeremiah.

After Steven and Conrad left the party, Jeremiah and myself snuck off to find something to do as well. We found ourselves back at his house smoking one of Susannah's secret stashes.

"This stuff is hitting different" Jeremiah said inspecting the joint "I wonder why my mom is smoking a lot more now than she used too"

As soon as he said that my stomach dropped. I suddenly wanted to hurl the contents left in my stomach. My heart started to beat really fast, and my breathing started to become erratic. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"Ray! Oh my god" He said when he started to notice my shaking body and unnatural breaths. "Inhaler, where is your inhaler?"

I shook my head knowing that this wasn't an asthma attack. This was a panic attack due to all the stress I've been holding in. These secrets being too much for me to hold anymore. Am I having a heart attack?

"What do you mean no inhaler!" He practically shouted as he was becoming more nervous at my worsening state. I then showed him my trembling hands, and I think he got the gist of what I was trying to say. He then sat down next to me and grabbed my face. "Hey look at me, it's okay!"

I looked into his blue eyes and I was memorized. Even though they held panic as well they sent a wave of comfort through my body. His hands on my face made my mind forget about all the worry I held.

"Breath with me" He said, moving both his thumbs up and down my cheek. I mimicked his breaths, and slowly but surely my breathing went back to normal. My heart was still racing, but for different reasons now. "Are you okay?"

"Yes" I whispered back looking into his eyes

I think he noticed our close proximity and didn't know what to do. His hands were still over my cheeks, so I put my hands over his and gave him a shy smile.

 "You know at bonfire when Conrad was helping you in this exact same position I couldn't help but wish it was me"

It was at that moment we both realized the intensity of the moment, and what he just said. How intimate our positioning was, and that none of us bothered to move. Then Jeremiah started to move in. This was it ...

Though it ended just before it started. Our heads snapped to the hush whispers we heard on the beach just a few feet away from us. It was a couple that was getting hot and heavy. Their silhouettes looked oddly familiar.

"Wait a minute, is that Steven?" I asked

"And Shayla! Oh man dude he's done for!"