October to October

{Chapter Twenty}

    "I can't believe I'm leaving you again," Jake said; his face against the shoulder of Lauren's fuzzy pink sweater as he held her. They were at the airport, and he was about to leave. "We didn't get to spend enough time together. We kept putting off that Chicago trip, and you were so busy with school. Gosh, it just went so quickly."

  "I know," Lauren said as she ran her hand up and down his back. "We'll see each other in the spring, right? Then we'll have all summer together, and I won't be busy with school. I might even take some time off work."

  "That would be amazing," Jake said, and he kissed her gently on the neck. "I guess I better go. It takes forever to get through security. I love you."

  "I love you too," she said and gently kissed him on the lips.

  She didn't want him to go, and there were a few different reasons why although she didn't want to admit it. Jake kept her busy the rest of winter break, and she spent more time with him than ever. He was thrilled with her attention, and they almost had sex one night in his room, but Alex walked in on them just as Jake was about to take off her underwear. That ruined the mood, and Lauren quickly left.

  Alex had closed the door without a word, but later he gave Jake a lecture. Lauren knew Alex also told Ruth although she didn't say anything, but she was oddly quiet and distant for a few days after the incident. As if she was disappointed in her little sister. Lauren found the whole incident incredibly embarrassing and annoying. Her and Jake's sex life was no one's business except their own as she kept telling her guilty boyfriend.

  Jake felt so guilty about the incident that they'd stopped fooling around altogether. Lauren couldn't pretend she wasn't relieved although she knew she shouldn't feel that way. She was nineteen, she told herself. It was okay for her to be fooling around with her boyfriend. She could do whatever she wanted. She wanted to yell at Alex, and she tell him not to boss his little brother around, but Jake said that Alex was just looking out for him.

   After Jake left; Lauren sat in her car in the airport parking lot, and she watched the planes taking off. She wondered which Jake's. She felt oddly empty inside as she played with her key ring, and she ignored a text from Wren who was upset that Lauren and Joan weren't speaking to one another. 

    Wren said Joan was being mopey and annoying now, and Wren kept demanding to know what happened between them, but Lauren insisted that they were still friends. They were both just busy. Wren wasn't buying it though, and Lauren suspected Henry knew what happened. 

  Lauren ran into Wren, and Henry at a gas station a few days after Christmas, and Henry had a smirk on his face that Lauren couldn't quite interpret. She didn't want to either. He didn't say anything though, and clearly he hadn't told Wren. Lauren was grateful that he hadn't. No one could know.

  She drove home, and she ate dinner with her parents. Ruth was at the movies with Alex. Lauren was grateful her sister wasn't home. Ruth was always staring at Lauren now as if trying to read her mind and see her dirty secrets. She knew her sister had been in her room at least once as if searching for evidence that Jake and Lauren were having sex. Lauren could tell that someone had been looking under her bed and in her dresser drawers. Everything was just slightly disheveled like someone rushed in and out. Ruth was probably looking for a diary. Lauren wanted to complain to her parents, but she was afraid Ruth would blab about what had almost happened so she kept her mouth shut.

  "I cannot stand living with her," Lauren said to Wren.

  Lauren and Wren were sitting on the porch in the cold since Ruth came home after the movie with Alex. Wren liked to walk down the street to see Lauren from time to time since she spend most of her time at Henry and Joan's house now. Lauren noticed that Wren had paint on her a lot now too. There was always a speck in her hair or somewhere on her clothes. It seemed like an unavoidable side effect of being Henry's girlfriend.

  "Then move out," Wren said with a shrug. "I'm sure Joan would let you stay with her."

  "Ruth will be gone soon so why bother? I'm not moving in with Joan either."

  "Why not since you guys are still best buddies according to both of you?" Wren asked mockingly. "She has plenty of room. You were always over all the time anyway. Hell, you were there more than I was."

  "Wren, shut up."

  "Okay," Wren said after a moment. "Sandra is over all the time now. It's so annoying. I know it isn't nice, but I don't like her. She's such a snob. She puts down Henry all the time. Like it's really subtle, but you can tell she doesn't respect him. Henry doesn't care though. He gives it right back to her, and I think he gets some sort of sick joy out of it. Like they're the antagonist couple in one of those stupid sitcoms Joan likes. I honestly don't know how she's friends with someone like Sandra. They don't even seem to like each other actually."

  "Hmm."

  "I guess it's because they go way back. Joan's loyal like that. Look at how good she's been to Henry, but at least he's a good person. Sandra isn't."

  "I wouldn't know."

  "... You know, it's cool how Joan turned out considering her family situation," Wren said thoughtfully. "I really like her. She's one of my best friends these days which is why I worry about her friendship with Sandra. I don't like how it affects her."

   "So you know about her family?"

   "I know some of it. We've talked about it, and Henry has mentioned things. Oh, and her Mom stopped by once to drop off a few of her things. You should have seen Joan's face. She was so mad," Wren said, and Lauren was hanging on every word. "She didn't even know her Mom knew her address, and I don't think she wanted her Mom to have it. Her Mom seemed nice though, but she was strangely distant. It was like she and Joan were just neighbors, and she was dropping off some mail. It was weird. She didn't have a motherly vibe at all. Like Joan is her kid, but you couldn't tell."

  Lauren felt terrible as she glanced down the street. "So does her Mom look like her?"

  "They could be twins, I swear. Joan went up to her room after, and she didn't come downstairs all day."

  Lauren didn't say anything as she sipped at her coffee, and finally Wren had to go back to Henry's. He called, and he said he wanted to cook her dinner before he left for work. She was clearly pleased and flushed in her face as she hung up her phone after telling him she loved him. Lauren smiled sadly as her friend fussed with her purse and got ready to leave. Wren was really in love.

    "You should talk to Joan, and sort out whatever is going on," Wren said as she stood up. "She needs friends like you. She has a few people she hangs out with sometimes, and they seem nice, but it isn't like her friendship with you. You mean a lot to her."

  "Everything is fine," Lauren lied. "I'll see you later though, okay?"

   "Okay," Wren said with a shrug as she started down the steps. "Do you want me to tell Joan you say hi?"

  "No," Lauren said after a moment of thought.  

  Wren didn't say anything else as she continued her walk down the sidewalk and back towards the purple Victorian.