I Felt The Sparks | Jaya

Not Home, Not Again (10)

Nya:

I faded in and out of sleep throughout the night.

It's not very comfortable on the bare ground, truth be told.

At one point, I was in someone's arms.

"Jay? You came." Escaped my lips in my groggy state. I didn't know what I meant or who was carrying me, but I felt safe with Jay. I wanted this person to be Jay.

He made me happy.

I snuggled into this person's chest and tried to go back to sleep.

My head was killing me, and my throat was sore. Not to mention, my knees felt like they were on fire.

"It's okay, Nya. We're taking you home. You scared us. You scared me." The stranger said 'me' like there was some importance to the word.

But there was only one thing I was sure of. "I don't want to go home. I want to go with Jay."

I could hear the stranger's heartbeat pick up.

"Nya, you can't. Your brother is worried about you."

That woke me up a little more. "Put me down." I was not going with my imbecile brother.

When he put me down, I recognized the figure of the freckled blue-eyed boy I'd come to appreciate.

I resisted the urge to hug him. 

It was really dark out, but I could make out another car parked in the distant streetlights.

"You're not going to run again, are you?" He eyed me skeptically.

"Please," I pleaded, trying to sound as helpless as possible. "Don't make me go back with him." Even if it was only for one night, I wasn't ready to face Kai after making light of one of the things that wrecked my life.

"Where else would you go? You can't stay here." He wraps his arms around me, and once more, I can hear his thundering heartbeat.

Wait a minute, is that his heartbeat going a million miles an hour, or is it mine?

"Maybe I could stay at your place?" My voice is feeble and weak, much like my body. At this point, I'm certain Jay is the reason I haven't toppled over yet.

He runs his hand over my braid. That braid, like my life, is in the process of falling apart.

I pull out my elastic and let my hair fall out of its twists by itself.

"Nya... I," he pauses, as if he doesn't want to say the words. "I can't. Your brother would kill me. I think you need to go sort this out with him."

My nails dig into Jay at the thought.

"Ow."

"Sorry," I release my grip and step back from the hug that went on too long. "I just can't face him right now."

"And I get that, but him and Skylor are kind of our only options for a drive, so..."

I hold up the car keys. "Are they?"

Jay:

I get into the car with Nya.

As someone with a license compared to someone without a license, I argued that I should drive.

I lost that argument.

I was sure that the sound of a starting car would alert Skylor and Kai that Nya had been found, so they wouldn't be looking fruitlessly all night.

I did have my reservations about leaving Mr Cuddlywomp, but Nya assured me that I could get him back tomorrow.

"But Nya," I whined. "I can't fall asleep without him!"