Cherry Bomb [H.S.]

CHAPTER NINE

TW: Talks of drug usage and talks of an abuse from a parent's partner

Pulling my jacket tighter around my body, I continue down the street towards the restaurant that I was meeting Lane at for the night. This was going to be our fourth date, and I've had a really good time getting to know him. It was a little weird knowing that he was so close to Rylan's brother, meaning it could potentially be another uncomfortable situation of having to be around Rylan here and there, but I tried to get over that as much as possible.

I haven't seen her or Harry since her house party. I haven't heard from them either. Maybe me putting up that wall between Harry and I in the bathroom that night did the trick.

Unfortunately, him doing that just added onto the confusion I felt regarding where we stood in general. Between his confession, and him trying to make a move on me, it all felt like too much. I welcomed the silence from him with open arms because at least not hearing from him meant that he couldn't add any more clutter to my mind.

There's still a large part of me that continues to worry for Harry though. Clearly he and Rylan are not good together, and I feel like she only helps feed his addiction. I can only wonder what he would be like right now if they weren't dating, but if he really is still living with his mom, and she continues to have shitty men coming in and out of her house, maybe Rylan is the lesser of the two evils. At least at her house, he had a safe place to sleep. The same couldn't be said at his mom's.

Harry's mom never cared about his well being when it came to whatever strange men she would allow into her home. Once I turned sixteen and had my own car and my license, he would call me a lot late at night to ask if I could come and get him. Almost every time I could hear fighting in the background, and I knew that Tamara was caught in a screaming match with whatever the flavor of the week it was. I would never hesitate to get in my car and go to him, and then he'd stay the night on the couch in our living room.

The one really good thing about having parents that didn't really care, and let me do my own thing, was that they never said anything about waking up in the morning to Harry in our house. I think it got to the point where it was just expected.

As far as Lane goes, although I'm excited about finding a connection with someone so easily, I'm still trying to take things slow. It wasn't until our last date that I let things go a little further, and it resulted in a heated make-out session in the back of his car before we went our separate ways for the night. We've still been driving ourselves to the dates. It wasn't that I didn't trust him to know where I lived, but this will actually be the first time I'm allowing someone new into my home. Everyone else that's been there are people I know - regardless of Harry and I being like strangers now. I just like to be cautious when it comes to these things.

Crossing one more street, I see the sign from the restaurant Lane chose jutting out from the side of the building on a pole, and I step inside the building. It was a little Italian eatery that he had come across a couple of years ago from what he told me. He was really excited about letting me try some of his favorite dishes tonight.