Together We Fall

Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty One

We get to Traces truck and Laila tries sitting up front. She tries sitting in the seat that I've been riding in for the entire weekend.

"There's a backseat," I tell her simply and pick her hand off of the door handle, placing mine there instead.

Trace looks at me and chuckles a little bit but I ignore it as I slide my seat forward so she can crawl through. When she's situated I put the chair back and climb in. Trace starts the engine and the radio begins playing on the same station we left it on.

"Which way?" he asks me and I tell him the directions.

His house is still fresh in my memory as we pull up. It's been a few months since I've been here but I can still recall every detail about the house that my daddy lives in. The house I once lived in with him.

Trace gets out first, letting Laila out and I follow. We walk up the porch and she unlocks the door before heading upstairs, leaving us in the doorway.

"She's just delightful," Trace says with a sarcastic smile and I laugh.

I flip the light on and notice the messiness of the house. My eyes widen as I look around the room to see a messy pizza box on the coffee table, movies scattered on the floor, clothes hanging off of furniture and my least favorite is the sink piled high with dishes.

The house is a disaster.

I don't remember it ever looking like this when I lived with him. The two of us carried our own weight and if one didn't do something the other would do it. We worked as a team that way.

Just from looking around the room I can tell Laila has been living here while dad stays at the hospital and I want to scream from her selfishness.

I walk to the living room and kneel down to the scattered movies. Trace follows me and stands close by, "What are you doing?"

My hands begin grabbing the movies, stacking them back on the shelf where they go, "Nobody deserves to come home from the hospital and see their house has been slobbed up."

He chuckles and I know it's because of the word, 'slobbed'.

After all of the movies are placed on the shelf I begin folding the clothes laying randomly across the light brown couch.

Trace turns on the stereo and I look over in surprise to see his smiling face. He turns it up and walks over to the couch, grabbing a pair of jeans and folding it neatly before picking up a t-shirt.

"You don't have to help me," I tell him but the smile from my face never fades. This boy in front of me is truly incredible.

"I know." He replies back simply and starts folding another piece of clothing.

Of all the things he could be doing right now and he decided to help me do my families laundry. Someone could tell you about Trace's kindness all day long but you may still have your doubts until moments like these.

Moments when he saves a girl from a stranger in the parking lot. Moments when he puts his life on hold in order to help the upset girl get to her father. Moments when he chooses to clean the house of a man he's never even met just so the girl won't have to go at it alone.

He's more than anything I could've ever asked for.

"I like this song!" He shouts over the music and starts singing loudly. He shuts his eyes and throws his head back as he shouts the lyrics into the air.

I laugh and stuff throw a shirt at his face. He takes the it off and wads it up in a ball before throwing it back and laughing.

Laila walks downstairs and sees us doing the laundry. Her face breaks out into an evil smirk.