I'm Into You

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Jessica?” It’s Luke.

I compose my posture and sit upright on the edge of my bed.  I wipe my finger under my eyes and smear the tears away. 

“Hold on.” I say and my voice cracks.  My breathing pattern has changed due to my crying and suffocating in my pillow.  I take deep breaths and open my eyes wide.  I am one hundred percent sure they are red from my crying.  Taking deep breaths and letting the air in to them seems to decrease the redness.  I stand to my feet slowly and pad over to my bedroom door.  I turn the handle slowly and open it only a little.

“Hi.” I say shyly to the green eyed boy in front of me.  He smiles causing me to do the same.  Those darn dimples.

“Hi.  Are you okay?” he asks.

“Do you think I’m okay?” 

Way to sound rude Jessica. My subconscious tells me.

“I mean, I was only almost raped, beat up, and now I’m being threatened and so is my brother. But besides that I am absolutely fantastic.”  Sarcasm protrudes through my tone.  Wow.  I can be really mean when I’m mad.  But I’m not mad at Luke, so why am I taking this out on him.  He doesn’t deserve this.

He stares back with his lips parted like he is about to talk.  He closes them almost immediately.  Hurt is evident in his eyes and I feel bad because I caused it.

He is only trying to help Jessica.

“I’m sorry Luke.  I didn’t mean to sound rude.”  I apologize and cover my face with my hands.  I turn back into my room and sit on my bed once again. 

“It’s alright.  You are upset and scared.  That’s understandable.”  He is so nice.  He walks into my room closing the door partially.  The mattress dips on my side alerting me that he is sitting next to me. 

“You don’t deserve to be dragged into this.  I shouldn’t lash out on you, and you shouldn’t be in this mess.  This is my screwed up problem because I’m stubborn and don’t listen to people when they warn me.”  I keep my face covered in fear of looking at him and I will start crying again. 

“Jess look at me.” He takes a hold of my hands and gently pulls them to my lap.  I keep my head down and my eyes focused on the pink rug below my feet. 

His fingers go beneath my chin and he slowly lifts my head up until my eyes meet his.  My eyes start to sting.  Tears are forming behind my eyes but I hold them back long enough to hear what is has to say.

“Don’t worry about me.  I’m only going to worry about you.  I will not let anyone hurt you.  I don’t care if he fights better than I do.  I will protect you until I’m in a coma.  He will never touch you or do anything to your brother.  I won’t let that happen to you.”  My cheeks redden.  Why does he care about me so much?

“Why do you even care about me?”  Did I just say that out loud?

“What?” he asks.

“You have only known me for like, two days.  Why do you care about my protection so much?”  Well, now that I said it I can’t take it back.  No matter how bad I want to turn back time and pull those words out of my mouth and shove them into a dark abyss. 

“You have only known me for two days.  I have known you since third grade.”  He takes a deep breath and inches closer to me. 

“And ever since then, I knew there was something about you that I liked.  From that first day of third grade, when you walked in wearing a pink skirt and white shirt with your hair in pigtails, I knew I wanted to be friends with you.  You played hopscotch with me once during recess and a couple times you gave me a pencil.”  He explains everything in detail from so long ago.  I can’t believe I forgot all of that.  I am just remembering this.  Everything is coming back to me.