change of pace

date night

chapter twenty two

Her same laugh is heard from a far distance. This time no collapsing trees. I start running around trying to find her. I see a glimpse of her long blonde hair hide behind a large tree so I run after her. Eddie is there. He's on the floor, hurting. My eyes swell with tears as I try saying his name for him to hear me.

"Jess..." a concerned voice says out.
"Jessie, come on." it says again.

Eddie is holding me in his lap. I wake up gasping and feel the tears drenched every where. Longing seems to appear again. I look up and meet his very concerned eyes and start crying again. He's okay.

"Hey...no, no, no..." he pulls me in close to his bare chest and I wrap my limbs around him not wanting to let go.
"It's just a dream..." he rocks me back and forth.
"I'm sorry..." I manage to say aloud still clinging to him.
"You don't have to be sorry." he pulls away to grab my face and look into my eyes. His thumbs wipe away my tears.
"You wanna talk about it?" he says after tucking me back in. I stay silent.
"What happened in your dream, Jess?" he says laying next to me now.
"My mom was there..." I mumble and I feel his breath stop. "She was laughing, but I couldn't see her. I could only hear her." my focus stays on the picture on my vanity.
"You were saying my name in your sleep." he says with one of his arms balancing the weight of his head as he laid down.
"You were there. But you were hurting. I thought you were gone." I say and feel the tears coming back. His grip pulled me in tightly and I nestled my head into his chest and quietly sobbed.
"I'm right here, baby. I'm not going anywhere." he says quietly before humming me to sleep again.

I wake up again to Eddie's quiet snoring at around 9:35AM. My body wiggles out from his grip to walk to the kitchen. Dad is passed out on the couch when I step in so I find the quilt on the arm rest and lay it over him. Mornings are always so chilly and quiet. A nice feeling when you aren't alone.

I make some scrambled eggs and pop a few waffles into the toaster. A plate covered with plastic wrap is left out for Dad when he wakes up, but I bring two other plates up to my bedroom. Eddie is now sprawled out on my bed. His hair is covering his face. My arms shake as I finally let go of the weight of the plates and set them on my vanity. I sit back on the bed and start moving his hair from his face.

"Eddieeee..." I say softly. He groans but stays asleep.
"Let's have some breakfast, baby." I try again to wake him up. This time his very tired doe eyes look around the room before finding me. He rubs them before laying his head back down on the pillow.
"Did you say breakfast..." his raspy voice says as he closes his eyes once more.
"Yes, but you have to wake up first." I smile why rubbing my palm against his bare back.
"Okay, my love." he lifts himself up and attacks me in kisses. I laugh as he does so which only makes him continue.

We sit on my bed eating and talking about Hellfire. I could tell Eddie was really proud of this campaign and enjoys everyone's involvement in it. After eating, Eddie puts back on his Hellfire shirt and I whip out a few of my old math notes from prior years so we can start working on his homework. It takes over an hour to explain it to him but he gradually got it. I cheered once finishing the last problem which made him blush.

A knock came from the door.

"Come in!" I say focusing my attention. Dad walks in, looking tired.
"Hello Ed. Hi honey, I came in to let y'all know I'm stepping out to help your Uncle Greg with his truck." Dad says, trying to ignore that Eddie and I are sitting on my bed together.
"Oh okay, I left you some breakfast on the counter."
"It was delicious, thank you. I should be back later tonight, so no funny business, you two." Dad says looking at Eddie.
"Of course not, sir." an unfamiliar voice comes from Eddie.
"Thank you, son. I'll see you later, Jess." Dad says before closing the door.

I look over at Eddie who has a weird expression on his face. Kind of like he was processing something.

"Everything okay?" I say placing my hand on his shoulder.
"Yep..." he says snapping his focus away from the floor. "Um, Jessie...?"
"Yes?"
"Do you want to go on a date with me?" he says looking nervous and I smirk.
"Where to?"
"I was thinking the movies...Dustin and I were talking during passing period yesterday and he told me about this movie he saw with Harrington called Weird Science, and he said it was pretty funny and this is the last week its sho-"
"I'd love to go." I reach up to kiss him and he starts smiling big.

Eddie left back to his place to get ready so I decided to do the same. While in the shower, I thought about that dream I keep having. What does it mean? There was never really a note explaining her suicide, but both Dad and I knew something was wrong long before that. It was stress and a buildup of everything, and I tried so hard to fix it but I guess I just got lost in everything when I was hanging out with my old friends. I still haven't visited her grave after all this time. I don't even know if Dad has. We don't talk about her that often, let alone her being gone. Our dinner last week I think was the first time we actually talked about her in a long time.

My eyes were sore from the mix of crying and staying in place under the hot water so I decided to jump out. I grabbed the towel and held it against my face to try to stop the tears from coming out. The warm hair dryer helped quickly dry my hair as I was running out of time. I tried to cover up my slightly swollen eyes with thick mascara to hide it. As I was about to grab my favorite pair of dark grey trousers, I noticed a dress hanging in my closet. It was Mom's favorite sundress, I moved some of her clothes into my closet after she died because they still had her scent to them. Now, that scent has gone away. She used to wear it all the time during summer. The dark green color with little blue flowers always looked so nice with her long hair. I smiled when I grabbed it off the hanger and decided that I was going to wear this tonight. I paired with with my sneakers and combed my hair out to look decently nice. Once looking in the mirror I couldn't help but tear up. Her dress actually fit me and it was perfect. Knocking came from the door and I rushed down the hall to go answer it once grabbing my purse.

Eddie awkwardly stood in the door with his head tilted toward the floor and his eyes looking up at me through his messily grown out bangs. His attire was a plain denim jacket with a few pins on it, a black Dio shirt that appeared to be brand new, dark blue denim jeans (not clashing with his denim jacket), his usual chain bracelets, and a scent of cologne rang off of him. He slowly moved his head upwards staring down at the rest of me before biting his lip.

"Are we ready?" I ask smiling nervously at him.
"Ready to cancel the date and do something else..." he mumbles continuing to check me out.
"Let's go, Eddie..." I laugh it off and grab his hand leading him to his own car. I can feel the stares continuing.

The theater wasn't packed considering it was a Saturday night. Eddie's long arms wrapped around me as we walked up to the ticket booth. I couldn't help but think of how warm he was and how I just wanted to stay in his arms. The worker at the ticket booth was a young nerdy looking kid who looked tired. He yawned while handing us our tickets which I pushed Eddie out of the way to pay for.

"Oh god, the freak's here..." a girl mumbled watching us walk in. Eddie didn't even glance at her, but I did.
"Leave it be." his deep voice says grabbing my hand.

There was a strong scent of butter which made me crave popcorn. A strong pull on my arm from Eddie led me to the snack bar. This time, Eddie pushed me out of the way to pay for some popcorn.

The movie was great, don't get me wrong, but that's not what his main point of focus was the full hour and a half. His big brown eyes kept making glances at me with his gentle expression. My smile wasn't even able to hold. Roll of the credits was Eddie's queue to grab my hand and head out of the uncomfortable chairs. Cold air struck me like knives the second we exited out the theater. Evenings were always so chilly. We stopped outside of the theater against some posters for upcoming films. The sound of chattering teeth came from my mouth so I clenched my jaw to make it stop.

"Are you cold?" his toothy smile appeared. My knees went weak.
"No..." I lie and he starts to chuckle before taking off his jacket and wrapping it around me. The weight of the jacket made it difficult to put on but I managed.
"You're so beautiful..." he says looking down at me and then back up at my eyes.
"I think you are too..." I give a slight smile which causes him to place his fingers under my chin and push it up before leaving a soft kiss.