Fine Line

chapter six

Stays Between Us

"You've got to be kidding me," I let out when I heard a familiar knocking at my window; three taps and then it sliding upwards so that he could climb inside, not even waiting for me to come to him this time.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered harshly when Jaden straightened himself and closed the window behind him. It baffled me how somehow, especially when drunk, he managed to climb his way up the tree in our garden and crawl through my window whenever he liked. Even I had never climbed that tree, never mind to my window.

"Would you shut up," he demanded. "I need your help."

"Of course you do."

He was filthy, genuinely and utterly filthy; blood at the seams of his cuts, again, and covered his clothes and in his hair. Another fight, by the look of him.

"Give up the attitude. And I told you to lock your fucking window, Valerie."

"Is that what this is? A test to see if I'd do what you say. Well, big surprise, I didn't. Now, if you want my help, and you sure as hell look like you do, then you're gonna want to stop snapping at me all the goddamn time."

The boy glared at me for a minute. A minute straight. And then a smirk made its way onto his lips and he drew his eyes away as he carefully took his shoes off and placed them under my window.

"You need a shower," I told him.

"What?"

He needed to clean the mud from him and I needed to clean his wounds again before they got infected - they looked a lot deeper than the last ones he arrived with.

He'd want to stay here tonight, again, I could tell that much. But his clothes were a mess, and he didn't bring any with him, so what he was going to sleep in was yet to be decided. And where. If he was staying in those clothes, there is no way I am letting him sleep in the bed again.

"You need a shower," I repeated. "You look disgusting and you're all bloody again. If you want to stay, you're getting in the shower. No arguments about it."

Jaden grunted in disgust, but didn't necessarily argue. "What about your parents?"

"My mother won't be home for another week, so you don't need to worry about her. And my father has already showered so he's downstairs working. Maybe even asleep. He'll just think its me going in."

"You're sure about this, fuckface?"

"It's either this or you find somewhere else to stay." Jaden genuinely seemed to consider the option, but came to the conclusion that here was the best bet he was going to get. Why, I didn't know, but I was hoping to find out. "Good choice. Now I can either get you some of my dad's clothes, or I have some men's clothes you could wear. Take your pick."

"Why do you have men's clothes?"

"They're bigger and comfier than women's clothes. Got a problem?"

Jaden looked at me with scrunched eyebrows, as though asking the question of whether or not I was actually serious about the men's clothes. When I didn't say anything else, he spoke again, "I'll take whatever you've got, I guess."

After deciding it best to not disturb my father's belongings, I took one of the grey tops from my drawer of men's clothes, and a pair of black joggers that I had stolen from my older cousin for Jaden to put on when he got out of the shower.

I pushed Jaden out of my bedroom, one hand on his back so that I was leading him to the room he had once been to before, although he was drunk so I wasn't quite sure he remembered it.