No, You Gotta

THE REST WILL COME LATER

“Jeff?”

“Yeah?”

“What did we do?”

“I don’t know…”  Jeff sat up against the backboard, cradling Nora in his lap, both of them bare-chested and Nora clinging to him—her arms wrapped around him, her cheek against his neck.  He brought Nora’s face around with his hands so that he could see it.  She didn’t look scared, and regret wasn’t the right word. Jeff didn’t regret it either.  It seemed as if they were both at a loss for logic at that moment—both unable to make sense of pretty much anything.

“I don’t know either,” Nora said through a half smile.  All she felt and all she knew were Jeff’s hands upon her face, grazing her jaw, and that was all she wanted to feel or know.  Contentment in not knowing what exactly this was would have to do for now, Jeff thought to himself.

“Are you okay?” he asked, just to be sure. Nora blinked slowly a few times, checking her heart once more.

“I am perfectly okay,” was her calm reply. Jeff pulled the sheet up over them like a cocoon and floated his calloused hands down Nora’s pale back, then smoothed one down her thigh, pushing his face into her hair and resuming their embrace.

“Then let’s just be,” he murmured through to her ear, and Nora closed her eyes with a sigh.

That’s when the bedroom door pushed open and Chris appeared, looking worse for wear and an expression of complete shock, almost horror on his face.  

“Oh… my… god.  Are you two crazy?!” he exclaimed, befuddled by the picture of Nora and Jeff clearly shirtless under the sheets.

“Hey, back off Chris,” Jeff said coolly.

“I’m not coming at you man, I was just coming to check in on Nora and then… and then this…”

“I’m fine Chris,” Nora peeped.  “That’s really sweet—thank you for coming to keep an eye on me…”  It was so intensely awkward and all three of them felt it.

“Um… yeah.  Yeah, no sweat Nor,” Chris said sarcastically.  “Well I guess you won’t be needing anyone to keep you company. I see you’ve got that covered, so I’ll just—“

“Why don’t you stay, Chris?” Nora interrupted his rant.  “I can fix some dinner and we can all stay here together.”  That was her best attempt at diffusing the situation.

“No thanks, I’m not a threesome kinda guy,” Chris retorted, only half serious, and the tension in the room was instantly cracked.  Jeff let out a rather loud laugh and rolled his eyes, helping to put Nora and Chris more at ease.

“Chris, I’m serious!  Please stay… I’ve got plenty of food to share.  I insist,” Nora offered a little more forcefully, and smiling this time.

“Fine,” Chris replied, “but only because I’m really confused and I’ve got an empty fridge at home.  And I don’t really want to be there anyway…”  There was a slight silence then, bringing all three of them back to memories of their tearful goodbyes at the hospital.  

“Um… can you shut the door for just a sec, Chris?” Nora chirped softly after letting the thoughts of Andy percolate through them a few moments longer.  

“Oh!  Oh, right.  Yes. I’ll be out in the front room,” Chris said, realizing that Nora and Jeff were still in a delicate position under the covers of the bed.  He gracelessly fiddled with the doorknob and left the room so that the pair could get decent in private.

...

The guys were talking quietly in the living room in front of the fireplace, finishing up their supper while Nora cleaned some things in the kitchen.  As she tidied up, she hoped Stone was doing somewhat all right.  She hoped he wasn’t sitting alone somewhere—he had a tendency to retreat into solitude when bad things happened.  Maybe she would try calling his parents’ house later, she thought to herself, making her way back to the blanket the boys sat on in the other room and trying to jump back into the conversation.