Love Lessons

Chapter Twenty Nine: Holy Ground

29 | Jess

                ~*~Holy Ground ~*~

                “Want to tell me what’s going on with your father?” Cole asked gently. We were seated on the train and his arms were wrapped around mine, holding me as if he was afraid I was going to leave him. I didn’t admit to him how stupid I felt earlier when he pulled a dramatic movie action and told me he loved me. I was positive that when I left his house, we were finished. Maybe I just needed to have more faith in people and I needed to let my guard down. I was being stupid, there was no way around it; I was being stupid and I was only being dramatic.

                “I don’t know much, I just got a call saying that he was involved in a bombing accident and he’s being flown to a hospital. When he’s stable he’s going to be flown to our usual hospital.” I sighed. Cole rubbed the back of my neck and played with my fingers.

                “Is there anything you’re supposed to do or get?” He asked.

                “I don’t know, I’ve never-“

                “Hey, it’s alright.” He reassured me.

                “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” I shrugged, holding back my tears.

                “What you’re going to have to do is know that your father is going to be okay. You have to believe that he’s going to come out of this alive.” He said carefully. “You need to eat something and when we get back to your house we’re going to figure this out.”

                “I haven’t been in my house since…”

                “It’s going to take you a while to get comfortable in your own house again, Jess, that’s okay. It’s okay to be faced with all of these emotions when you get there because you’ve had a lot on your plate all these years.” He said, stroking my hair. “I promise, this will be hard but I’ll be with you the whole time.”

                An hour later, we were finally in my hometown. Unfortunately, Cole left his car at the train station and since my car was still at home, we had to take the bus. It must have been something he wasn’t used to because Cole didn’t know how he was supposed to pay so I ended up giving the bus driver the exact money and guided Cole to a seat in the middle. At this time of night, there was no one around, people were probably enjoying Thanksgiving with their families. When we finally made it to where the bus driver was going to drop us off, we only had to walk two blocks before we made it to my neighborhood. Cole was silent beside me the whole time and I was praying that he wasn’t judging me.

                Compared to him, I lived in a poor neighborhood. The houses were older and they were close together and all looked the same. I was nervously walking beside him as we made it to my neighborhood. I was hoping he wasn’t judging me, but I had a feeling that this was the first time he’s been anywhere that wasn’t filled with mansions in upscale neighborhoods.

                “It’s nothing fancy.” I whispered as I walked up my driveway. It felt so different- it looked empty and almost abandoned. The outside was taken care of and due to the winter weather; we didn’t have to worry about grass being mowed because it was covered in snow. Unlocking the door, I was engulfed in cold air. I sucked in my breath and turned on the lights. It looked exactly the way we had left it. It was perfectly clean and seemed cleared out.