Shh, Just Kiss Me (18+)

t h i r t y - s e v e n

"Did I do something wrong?" He asks while we wait in the car.

"No," I said delicately. "I think I'm getting a headache. I've been up all night doing my homework." I smile at him feeling a little guilty that I made him feel that way. I don't know what Matthew is trying to do but it feels like he wants me involved in his life again.

"Give yourself a break before you kill yourself," He smiles back. He starts the car. "How does it feel to be a high school graduate?" He took his eyes off the road. " You always you used to say you couldn't wait to leave that hell hole. Now that you're out, how do you feel?" How does he remember that? I don't remember that. He's just throwing memories at me and I'm here wondering why he wants to speak all of a sudden.

"Matt, did your grandma really turn eighty?" At this point, he knew I wasn't falling for his stratagem. It was clear that he came back in town for something else.

"Yeah, why?" I looked at him. He's lying. I know he is.

"Matt, what's the real reason you came to New York?"

He grumbles silently. He knows he can't lie to me. He puts the vehicle in park as we reached a nearby ally. He turns off the radio, takes off his baseball hat, and scratches his head like he's had enough of his own lies.

"I came to New York because" he paused. "I missed my life here. I had it all back then. I had you, Reef, football, everything. I had it all until my mother married that fucking Eatmadik bastard. I hate that guy. I left Ohio because nothing was going on for me there."

I thought he loved Eatmadik.

"Sure, going somewhere new was a great experience but no other place is like New York. It's so cluttered here, you don't know who you'll bump into. Everything is fast paced, the culture, the people. I fucking love it. It's was slow for me in Ohio. Yeah, I lived in a big house better than the ones in NYC, but I'm a Brooklyn baby, Jaide. Ohio is not for me, NYC is where I wanna be." He disclosed, before catching his breath. He was speaking rapidly and my focus was trying to remember the last thing he said.

"Well, you're here. My thing is, what does this have to do with me?"

"Because I want you back."

Oh. . .hell no.

"I spent the last two years wishing you were still my girlfriend."

"Why?"

"Because you made me happy. When my parents got divorced, I was really depressed. That shit fucked me up on the field. But then I heard the coolest girl in school had a crush on me and then all that changed." I can't even process this. "You showed me the world out there. I was so stuck on my parents lives that I forgot about my own. You gave me another shot at believing myself that's why I went so hard on that field." He giggled. "I wanna feel that way again, I wanna go that far, I wanna feel the rush. I wanna feel the adrenaline in my veins. I wanna go back to the time when I ran the forty yard dash, staring at you while you were on the bleachers yelling my name as the crowd did the same. I was running my ass off for that fucking touchdown, man. I just wish I was looking out for that tackle that came out of nowhere that fucked up my knee."

I remember that tackle. The other player came out of nowhere and smacked Matthew to the ground. The other player savagely tackled him down going head first by the hip. The tackle was so strong, Matthew landed on his leg which tore his meniscus. The tear in his meniscus caused the cartilage in his knee to twist. The cartilage broke loose and it locked up. I remember him screaming in pain, yelling for help. The entire crowd was silenced. Not a word was said until the paramedics came and got him off the field. That tragic accident was the topic of the school for months.