After walking back to the store and purchasing another carton of eggs, I discarded the first in the dumpster beside the grocery store. I slide carefully into the passenger seat this time, cradling the eggs in my lap like a small child, Marine giggled as she watched me, pulling the car out of the parking lot.
The car turned back onto the main road, fifteen minutes had passed since we'd drove along this initially.
The jazz compilation had long since finished but in lieu of the silence that blanketed the vehicle Marine leaned forward and restarted it. I groaned outwardly as the beginning song began its gentle hum.
Marine chuckled and began to hum along with it as she turned the car into my street. My familiar blue weatherboard house stared at me as we drove along, it's glowing windows like the eyes of a monster.
Marine stopped the car in front of my house, a sad smile playing on her lips.
"Well, see you. Thanks for the ride, by the way," I added as I opened the door and placed my foot on the damp grass until Marine's hand wrapped around my upper arm.
"Wait, just until the end of this song. It's practically a crime to leave mid-Nat King Cole," she urged, gesturing toward the stereo and the soft jazz tune that played by proxy.
I chuckled but obliged, sliding back into the seat and resting my head against the head rest, "Or maybe I'm just stalling because I don't want you to leave," she added.
She said it so casually, you could have thought she'd been commenting on the rather unfortunate weather we'd been having recently, yet it seemed to make my entire world stop.
My heart rate increased, the butterflies that were always in my stomach when I was around Marine stopped their gentle flutter and seemed to beat their wings violently inside me. I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately searching my mind for a response.
"M-me too," I stuttered, heat rising to my seemingly constantly blushing cheeks.
Marine chuckled, leaning her head against my shoulder, "God, I love this song."
I nodded, "Me too," I mumbled but with more confidence this time, the nerves that had ripped through me had morphed into a strange feeling of warmth, oozing through my veins.
We sat in silence for a moment, the only sounds being the jazz song and Marine's quiet humming along to it until the song finally ended and Marine, with a heavy sigh, lifted her head off my shoulder.
"Well, as much as I wish you didn't have to go, you do have milk and eggs in that bag and I'm not sure how long they can sit in this heat," she joked, nodding at the plastic bag I cradled in my arms.
I chuckled and reluctantly opened the door, swinging out my feet and standing on the dying grass.
Marine waved goodbye and I mimicked her as she started the ignition and drove away. I followed her blue Hyundai with my eyes until I couldn't see her anymore or make out the worrying roar of the dying engine.
I dropped the bag to the ground, forgetting yet again about the eggs in the bottom, and pulled out the crumpled list from my back pocket.
I smoothed the paper on my jean clad thigh and pulled out a pen. I rolled the idea around in my head for a moment, deciding on whether or not I should write it down before, with a sigh, scrawling on the paper:
Number Eleven: I'm in love with Marine.
YOU ARE READING
Wind Blown ✔️
Short Story❝ Heaven help the fools that fall in love. ❞ ** In which a young boy is tasked with writing a list of everything he knows to be true and discovers some things along the way.
