Wherever You Are

Chapter 27

"Hey Jonah," her perky voice sang through the phone. All the stress Jonah had been holding onto suddenly floated away when he heard her voice.

"Hey Felicia, how's it going?" Jonah collapsed onto his bed holding his phone up to his ear, not wanting to miss a single sound.

The two of them had been talking on the phone for about a month now and things were going really well. They were getting back to their old selves. Of course, there were still things both of them had to deal with and every time they spoke, Jonah could hear Felicia's apprehension in her voice.

"It's going alright. You know, the summers coming to an end so it's getting a little hectic for me. I'm starting to get nervous about going off to college," she said. Felicia was able to confide in Jonah again and it was really relieving for her. She had spent so long not feeling like she could talk to anyone. She had Spencer and Isabella now and even Emma was there for her, but none of them were Jonah. There was a sense of ease Jonah brought to her that no one else could. She had missed this.

Jonah smirked as he folded his hand under his head. "You'll be fine. College is actually pretty fun, minus the whole school part."

"Are you excited to go back?"

"Sorta." Jonah stared up at the ceiling contemplating if he should tell Felicia or not. A lot had happened since Carl proposed to his mom, a lot he had wanted to talk to her about but wasn't sure how to say it.

"Jonah," Felicia pestered. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. What do you mean?"

"I can hear it in your voice. What are you hiding?" she said with a smile. Jonah could tell. He heard it in her voice.

He sighed and rolled onto his side. "I'm excited about school, don't get me wrong, it's just a lot has happened here. You remember how Carl proposed to my mom?"

"Yeah, what you aren't happy about it anymore?"

"No, not that. My mom has to file for divorce with my dad now. I talked to Carl about it the other day and he and I tried to talk to my mom about it after. She's so scared to do anything. After getting pregnant from him and losing the baby and finally being away from him, she just wants to leave things how they are and not push her luck. I think we pushed her too hard when we were asking her the other night. She started to get upset and anxious, but she agreed to do it. I know she knows it's important that she sets herself free of him, but she's just so scared. That's why I'm not completely excited about going back to school. I'll have to leave her."

Felicia sighed. "I know it's scary but she has Carl now and he seems really great. He'll take good care of her and you don't go to school too far away so it'll be ok. You'll be able to come back home and check on things and if she needs you, you won't be too far."

Felicia always came in with reason. "You're right," Jonah said laying back on his back. "I know you're right. I've wanted her to take legal action against my father for everything he did to her but I can tell that's a long ways off."

"For right now, don't push it too much. Just one step at a time."

It was quiet between the two of them for a little while. Not an awkward silence more of a comforting silence. They could both feel each others presence as if they were right beside each other. They just sat there a moment feeling the comfort one another brought.

"On a lighter note, I've started working at a restaurant bussing tables and when school starts up I'm going to talk to some of the baseball guys about joining the team."

"What?" Felicia screeched. "That's awesome Jonah. I didn't realize you wanted to play in college."

"I didn't really want to. I hadn't really thought about it until Carl brought us to that baseball game. It brought back a lot of good memories that I forgot I had."

"That's awesome Jonah. I'm proud of you. So do you know some of the guys already?"

"No," Jonah said. "I met a guy on the football team at the beginning of last year. We were friends for a little while but life got kinda crazy so I stopped hanging out with him. His name is Jefferson. He's a really cool dude and he knows a lot of the guys on the baseball team too so I talked to him the other day and he said he'd let them know I was interested."

"That sounds like a good plan." Jonah smiled at Felicia's praise. "I'm really happy to see you're getting things back on track but even more happy that you're finally living for yourself."

"What do you mean?" Jonah asked.

"You're finally doing things that make you happy. It didn't seem like you ever did anything for yourself. Now you are. I'm proud of you for that."

Hearing that recognition from Felicia made his heart thump in his chest. He was really trying hard. He had been for the past month now. There were some days when he felt crappy and when things got hard. He wanted to turn back to cigarettes and drinking and his old ways of just not caring, but he fought it every time because he knew being with Felicia again was more important. He was on a path of redemption and nothing was going to stand in his way. 

"Thanks Felicia. It means a lot to hear that."

"Hey, I gotta go. Seth and Sandra are calling me downstairs for a movie. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Alright, have fun."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Jonah clicked the small red circle on his phone and dropped his arms at his sides. He sighed heavily and looked back up at the ceiling again. He couldn't fight the smile that crept onto his lips as he thought about her. His one and only.