life's rain // bruno mars

chapter fourteen

chapter fourteen

I nearly swerved off the road. “What are you saying, you have no home?” 

“What I'm saying is,” she clarified. “I have a place to stay, but no home, really.”

“There's something wrong with where you stay?” We were driving down some empty streets, the moon a full lit circle amongst other smaller, glittering circles. “I can't sleep,” she mumbled, her face turned towards the window. My voice was soft. “Nightmares?”

She turned around to face me, her body shuddering with laughter. “Bruno, I wish it was.” Her laughing died to a single sigh. “Steph keeps bringing random men into the house at night. The noises are pissing me off, messing with my sleep.”

“That's not safe.” I thought about random men just going into her house at night, random men who could creep into her room at anytime. A sick feeling arose in my stomach and a spark of anger at Stephanie. “You want to stay with me? You can, you know. You're always welcomed.”

“You said that on the day I stayed at yours,” she reminisced softly, staring straight ahead of her. “But I'm okay. I might move in back with my mom, change colleges. Maybe even drop out. Turn on this street?”

I turned the wheel. “You're thinking about dropping out?” I said, a shock pulsing through me. All Lena did was get good grades and was amazing at her art. She was headed somewhere, while I was headed nowhere.

At least, that's what it seemed like. A small part of me failed to believe it, but the other, bigger part, was drowning in the belief of failure. Surrounded by the imaginative of waking up the next morning, booking the next flight to Hawaii, then leaving my friends, and Lena, behind.

“I want to travel,” she said. “You can park here.”

We were in the parking lot of an auto body shop that was closed for the night. I joked, “Oh man, we're not going to break in here too?” and earned an eye roll from Lena. She didn't move to get out so we just sat here. I drummed my fingers along the steering wheel. “You really wanna travel? I never knew that.”

“Yes.” She looked at me, her eyes wide. “And I'll keep all the places in frozen moments. Good memories smoothing the edges of the bad ones. No more jagged edges, just flat surfaces to skate and live upon. No more tripping, no more falling. . . just, free.” I closed my eyes, loving when she spoke like this. “Keep talking,” I whispered.

She leaned closer to me, but an arm's length of space was still between us. “Why?”

“You're beautiful,” I murmured, cracking an eye open to look at her. “You know that?”

Her gaze went to the shop in front of us, a line of parked cars. “Those cars right there,” she began, “are here for the rest of the night. Their owners drop them off during the afternoon, and the mechanics work on them until the day ends. The next morning, they get picked up.”

“How do you know this?”

“I heard my brother say this on the phone once. Okay, break's over. Drive.”

*

The clock inched towards two thirty as we rolled into a gas station. Lena pulled out a wallet from her hoodie's pocket. She was wearing a plain, gray one, and black shorts. “Put your wallet away.” I dug in my pocket for my own. “I got it.”

“No, I do,” she argued lightheartedly. “I'm the one dragging you into this.”

“Who says you're dragging?” She was reaching to open the car door but whirled around to face me so quickly at my words. Her eyes were amazing, almost pure gold, and I had a hard time keeping her gaze, the strength of it overwhelming me, making my heart beat fast. Her face held a mixture of gratitude, and, appreciation.