I Fell For You At The Cemetery

09.

09

After opening the door, Sarah had let Joey inside but she put a finger on her lips and he nodded, understanding. She was talking to somebody on the phone and she went into her room, closing the door behind her, to continue the conversation.

Joey sat down on the sofa and shrugged off his bag. It was a little before five so naturally Kevin wasn't here yet. Joey leaned back and looked towards the closed door, wondering who Sarah was talking to. He couldn't hear her but she had a slight smile on her lips when she had opened the door for him a few seconds ago.

And she had been smiling today in class as well.

It was a bit weird when Sarah had smiled at him. He had blinked at her, confused before he realized that Sarah was smiling at everyone - which was a bit disappointing since it wasn't a special gesture for him.

He wondered what caused her to be happy today. She'd been absent for two days and a substitute had filled in for her. Maybe she needed a break to sort out her thoughts or something. She certainly looked like a little break had been good for her.

Joey had been worried for no reason. She was fine.

Even though, she had smiled at him, Sarah didn't make any eye contact with him for the rest of the class.

She came out a few minutes later and sat down from across him. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out a question that had been bothering him for a while.

"Boyfriend?" He asked casually, raising an eyebrow.

She stared at him for a second before shaking her head, her eyes wandering onto the floor. "It was someone else."

Joey noticed how her eyes became clouded once again and he instantly regretted asking her that. It couldn't be her boyfriend who she'd lost, could it?

"Sarah," he called and she exhaled slowly.

"Joey," she said, her voice firm, "it seems that you don't understand what you should've by now."

But he wasn't going to get into that argument again. "Who did you lose?"

That question caught her off guard and she paused, not understanding at first. "What?"

"Who did you lose?"

Her eyes flashed at his question and when she spoke, her voice was cold. "That is none of your concern."

"Who do you keep visiting?" He thought out loud. "Who is it, Sarah?"

"I told you not to call me Sarah!" She flung a magazine at him and it hit him straight in the face. It wasn't that he wasn't prepared for her to be angry, he just didn't expect her to lash out like that.

His head tipped back at the impact and the magazine fell onto his lap. His nose ached a little and he looked at her, his eyes wide only to find her looking at him with the same surprised expression as his.

The next second, Joey looked away and placed the magazine back on the table quietly and folded his arms across his chest.

"I'm sorry."

He didn't respond.

"I'm really sorry," she tried again. "I shouldn't have done that. I... It was wrong of me. I'm so sorry."

He didn't look at her or even acknowledge her presence. The doorbell rang and Joey could still feel Sarah's eyes on him. She got up to answer the door when he refused to look at her.

For the next one and a half hour, Joey didn't take his eyes off of his book or talk at all. Sarah tried her best to stop glancing at him every few minutes but couldn't help it. She really was sorry. She hadn't meant to hit him. It was just that she stopped thinking clearly whenever she was angry or upset. Or both.

She thought about how horrified Mammy would be if she ever found out that Sarah had hit a student. She glanced at Joey from under her eyelashes again.

Kevin was the first to walk out of the house and Joey had almost crossed the threshold when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Wordlessly, Sarah's grip tightened and she tugged onto his shirt, as if telling him to not leave.

"What?" He asked, curtly.

He didn't see her flinch at his tone. "I wanna tell you something," she said slowly, her voice gentle this time. "Will you come inside and listen?"

He was silent for a few seconds and Sarah thought for sure that he would leave but he didn't. He turned around and without looking at her, went back into the house. Sarah followed him, relieved that he hadn't walked away. When Joey sat down on the double sofa, Sarah paused wondering whether to sit from across him or beside him.

She decided that sitting from across him would be a bit formal and distant and what she was about to tell him was personal. So she sat down beside him and noticed how Joey glanced at her momentarily with surprise in his eyes. But he looked away before she could meet his eyes.

Even though she was sitting beside him, there was enough room between them for another person to fit in. Sarah sighed before she started to talk.

"The person that I keep visiting in the cemetery is my fiancé."

He looked at her now, his eyes wide. But she was staring off into the distance. "Well, was anyway. He proposed and we got engaged and we were going to get married in the next year or so. But...well..."

She shrugged.

Joey was stunned by this information and he couldn't find any voice to speak.

"It was a car accident," Sarah continued, her voice surprisingly firm. "He liked to drive fast. Loved the thrill and all that. And I would tell him over and over again how dangerous it was but obviously he didn't listen."

Sarah was making hand movements and she had shrugged at least multiple times in the last few minutes. Joey saw the tears in her eyes.

She stopped talking and there was silence between them for minutes. Joey started to fiddle with his hands. "I'm uh... I'm really sorry about what happened. I'm sorry that I asked. I shouldn't have."

"And I shouldn't have hit you," she said coolly, shrugging yet again. "But we all do things. It can't be helped."

They went silent after that before Joey broke it. He glanced at her sideways. There were no longer tears in her eyes.

"But why?"

She frowned at him and he elaborated.

"Why did you tell me all this?"

"You wanted to know, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but...you didn't exactly seem eager to give all this information out before. So, why now?"

Her lips quirked up slightly. "Think of it as an apology for hitting you."

Her eyes turned serious again. "I really am sorry for what I did. I don't normally go around hitting students, you know."

He smiled at her. "My nose still hurts, by the way."

Chapter 09 to be continued...