Serendipity (Jamilton)

Chapter Thirteen

Jefferson pulls away from me slowly. I’m still sniffing, stray tears still slipping down my cheeks. I look down. I don’t want to see anymore pity in his or anybody else’s eyes.

“Hey, uh… Do you wanna head back? To the apartments, I mean?” he asks and there’s a slight awkwardness in his voice.

I don’t feel like I can form words so I just nod. I fear that my voice will crack or sound hoarse when I do speak. Actually, I just don’t want to talk in general. My throat feels swollen and dry from the screaming that I did at the hospital earlier and me crying afterwards probably didn’t help.

“Alright.” He stands first and then I stand also, shakily. My legs feel like jelly. I know that people use this comparison a lot, but I didn’t know until now what it actually feels like. It literally feels like my legs are so wobbly and weak that they could just give way, just like jelly. How messed up am I right now?

My legs give way and Jefferson catches me by my shoulders. A small breath- of relief?- escapes him and he pulls me closer to him. For a moment I feel uncomfortable about this but then just ignore it and enjoy that at least someone is caring about me right now, even if it is Jefferson.

It doesn’t take us long to get back to the apartments so we must not have been too far away to begin with. I pull away from Jefferson and start heading for my apartment door, pulling my keys out.

“No way.”

I turn around slightly to see Jefferson looking at me. “What…?” Just as I had suspected, my voice sounds hoarse and it feels like there’s sandpaper in my throat.

“There’s no way I’m letting you go in there.”

“Why not?” I frown.

“Because I’m not letting you sit through the night alone. I won’t let someone else go through that.” For a moment, it seems like his mind is elsewhere and his eyes go distant and blank but then it goes away just as soon as it came.

“I’ll be fine. It’s not-”

He grabs my wrist. “Please just come on.” I brace myself for pain to come shooting through my wrist but nothing comes. He’s holding onto my wrist carefully, gently, even, as if he’s afraid he’ll break me. He should know by now that he won’t… not that I mind him being careful. I guess.

Jefferson pulls me over to his apartment next door to mine and I follow. He unlocks the door and allows me to go in first before following me, shutting and locking the door behind him.

I look around once I get inside. His apartment is nice, way nicer than mine. The floors are all super shiny and the furniture is super nice. It’s all tidy and neat. There’s a big screen TV sitting on top of a stand in the living room area. All of the counters in the kitchen are a nice white granite and all of the appliances look brand new.

I had bought most of my stuff from places that resell. Boy, is this an upgrade from all of that.

“Sit down on the couch. I’ll bring you something to drink.” He walks into the kitchen. I watch him go and cautiously go over to the couch and sit down. It’s comfy. You practically sink into it when you sit down.

I hug my knees to my chest and stare down at the floor, thinking. In the distance I can hear Jefferson doing something in the kitchen, probably making that drink that he told me about. I can’t concentrate on that too much, though. My mind keeps having me replay the events of the night over and over in my head. I wish it would stop. Each time it makes my heart clench up more.

“Here.” My head snaps up. First I look at Jefferson and then at the cup that he’s holding out to me. It’s steaming. I take it and wrap my hands around it.