Witness to a Love Story

Twenty-Five: Food Bank

"Do I have to be here?" Jay whines while leaning against me. His head is snuggled on my shoulder. I can't tell if the warmth flooding my cheeks are from Jay or my imagination going bonkers again.

I flick Jay's forehead. "Yes, piercings." He picks up his head and rubs the spot I flicked. A victorious smile appears on my face. I continue speaking, "Besides, this is our last volunteer day. After this, we are home free."

"Yay," Jay says in a mock voice of excitement.

I elbow him as the guy in charge clears his throat. "To those who have never seen the operation of a food bank, this is how it works. Two of you will be assigned to one station. Each station has simple to follow instructions. Your job is to make sure that the rule at your station is followed. It is to also assist and bag their groceries as needed." The man speaks, his voice echoing off the high ceiling.

He then assigns jobs to everyone. Surprise, surprise, Jay and I are working the same station. Though, my soul isn't irritated that I have to spend more time with Jay. Which troubles me more than anything.

"So, bread..." Jay trails off as he stares at the three industrial sized cardboard boxes filled with just that.

I shrug. "I don't know. I just find it too tasteless."

"I know something that tastes good." Jay winks at me as our first person of the day comes up to our station with their shopping cart.

To cover up my embarrassment, I plaster on a fake smile and begin doing my job. When Jay and I aren't busy, we try to strike up a conversation. I notice Jay being a little bit on the joker side today. It's as if he's trying to approach a hard topic in a playful manner.

Finally, towards the end of the day, Jay decides to ask what must have been on his mind this whole time. He's pacing a little as he calls my name. "B-Beatrice?"

A tingle rushes through my spine from hearing Jay call my name. Not exactly knowing why that happened, I go on the defense and instantly shut Jay down. "Don't call me by my full name. It's weird. Bea would be better." I mumble the last sentence, my brain only realizing what I was saying as I was saying it. I really hope Jay didn't hear that.

Jay nods his head then shakes it. He takes a breath in. It's safe to assume he didn't hear me because he goes on to say, "I have been meaning to talk to you..." Instead of finishing his sentence, Jay goes silent.

"About?" I question farther as I help bag a woman's bread and place it in her cart. I send her onto the next station and turn back to Jay for an answer.

"Well..." Jay starts but stops.

Suddenly, irritation creeps back into my soul. I roll my eyes. Becoming impatient, I give Jay a demand. "Just tell me already, piercings."

"It's about you and Merrick!" Jay blurts out rather loudly. I see him freeze as soon as the words leave his mouth. In those dark green eyes of his, I can see emotions crashing around. Most of it is hurt, but there's a twinge of hope in them.

My heart squeezes itself into a crevice and I can feel all the blood drain from my body. For a millisecond, the thought of a crushed Jay causes pain in my chest. I have to tear my eyes away from his and look at the ground. I can't look in his eyes as I say, "We are dating."

It's almost as if the world stopped for a minute when I said that. It was as if time itself heard me and tripped over my ridiculous nonsense. It got right back up, though, because someone new came up to our station. I stood by and watched as Jay wordlessly helped them. After he sent them on that way, he turned away from me.

Oh, how I wish I could see into his eyes and know all the pain I just caused him. Usually, the thought of anyone in pain would put a small smile on my face. The thought of Jay being in pain I caused only formed a frown on my face, though. I wonder why.

"Jay?" I reached a hand out to him. I don't know what I was going to do. At this moment, I'm just responding to my instinct. Maybe I was going to place my hand on his shoulder or back.

I'll never know what I had in mind because Jay slapped my hand away. He turned around only to look at me as if I betrayed him. I was taken aback. I think Jay was a bit surprised that he did that as well because he mumbled sorry and turned away again.

That irritated me more than anything. Why is he ignoring me? I haven't done anything wrong. So why is my heart telling me that I've committed an unspeakable sin?

I can't stand to look at his back. It frustrates me to even look at Jay right now. Turning away, I huff. "Why are you even mad at me?"

"I don't know. Why don't you go ask your boyfriend?" Jay says in a passive aggressive tone.

My ears prick from him using that word to address Merrick. I wait a minute before responding because my mouth was about to blow my cover by shouting 'Merrick's not my boyfriend!' Thankful someone came by for me to bag their bread.

The spare minutes were a little helpful. Clearing my throat, I find myself able to turn back to Jay. "Listen, I don't want to fight you." I have to stop myself because the words 'I wanna love you,' was very close to following that sentence.

What the hell heart? We have to get on the same page. And don't make me say words that will only lead to heartache in the future.

Jay interrupts me scolding my heart. "You don't want to fight me?" He sounds extremely confused. "Did you switch bodies with that old man that just walked by or what?"

I roll my eyes at his dumb theory. "Yes. My name's Melvin and I'm 63 years old. Do you want to hang out on Labor Day?" I say sarcastically and slip in my question.

I'm sure my method nearly worked because Jay seemed briefly amused. I only say briefly because that amusement died faster than my cells. "Don't you have to check with your boyfriend?"

Is he going to keep doing this? "Just answer the damn question, piercings."

"Fine. Only because your ass looks good in those pants, kitty." Jay grumbles as he looks away.

"They are called skinny jeans." I inform him while wearing an irritated look. I really can't decide if I hate the heat rising to my cheeks anymore.