His Salvation [Eddie Munson]

Chapter Four

I spread strawberry jam on my toast and take a bite while walking back to my room from the kitchen. I barely made it three steps before coming face to face with my grandmother.

"Oh, hi dear," she says as she walks past me.

I keep thinking about yesterday and how I gave up an opportunity to go eat breakfast with Eddie because I thought my grandmother would have been worried about where I was all night. Now I want to laugh at myself for those thoughts.

I'm thankful she took me in after my parents died, but we aren't close. I visited her a couple of times growing up, but we never had a relationship. Even my mom's relationship with her was estranged.

My heart aches when I think of my parents. I push the thoughts away and grab my orange juice. I mutter a hello to my grandmother and walk to my room.

My room is bare and at times doesn't even feel like it's mine. I have a bed near the large window that opens toward the front yard, a small dresser, and a chair near the door of the closet.

I've only been here a couple of weeks, but I haven't had any motivation to do anything about it. Most days I've spent crying and thinking about my parents. I didn't tell Eddie the details of my life and how my parents died. I painted him a pretty picture of my life and managed to skip over the imperfections deep within the painting.

I finish eating my breakfast and throw myself on the bed. I stare out the window and envision Eddie's van parked out front.

Christ! I shake my head and shove my face into my pillow. This boy has invaded my thoughts and I can't think of anything else. He's bewitched me!

His eyes. His voice. His hands. His laugh. How goofy he is. The way he's so unapologetically himself. He's making me go mental!

I pull my hand out from the pillow and stare at his handwriting. I trace my finger over every letter while trying to talk myself out of going to his show.

I want to go, but do I want to seem so available? I can't get involved with him and find out later that he doesn't feel the same way. I can't bear it.

I have to remind myself that I haven't known him for long. This is the first time I've felt excited about anything since my parent's death. I groan in frustration.

"Madi, you have a phone call." My grandmother says through my shut bedroom door and I'm thankful to be pulled from my thoughts.

I grab the phone off the wall and hold it up to my ear.

"Hello?" I say while grabbing the long phone cord dangling over my shoulder.

"Madi, did you stay the night with Eddie Munson?" Robin's voice is almost a whisper. My heart skips a beat at Eddie's name.

I pull the phone with me around the corner of the hallway to get further from my grandmother's ears but almost trip over the cord in the process. "Who told you that?" I hiss.

"I told you to just make sure he returned home, not stay the night with him." She snapped back.

I could hear through the phone a bell ring in the background as if someone just opened a door. She's calling me from work. I roll my eyes.

Robin is my cousin but on my dad's side. We don't share the same grandmother, at least not the one I'm living with. Robin and I are the same age, but she's always treated me as if I'm younger than her.

"It was nothing. I just made sure he was okay and I fell asleep. It was late and I wasn't going to bike home in the middle of the night." I groan out of frustration.