“Then why are you here, Jenna? Why did you come back?” She didn’t sound like she was accusing me of anything but I couldn’t help be feel like she was.
“I’m just here for the summer, to clean out the house because my dad wants to sell it. I’m in school full time. I just didn’t want to live with my dad and his wife this summer.”
“I see. I can imagine how awkward that might be.” She turned back to her cooking.
Where was Josh? It seemed as though his mom wasn’t happy to see me here. Here in town or here at her house. I contemplated just leaving, but I didn’t know if that man was still at my house, or if I’d meet him along the way. Besides, I really wanted pancakes.
Josh burst through the door at that moment and I was pulled from my thoughts. His dark denim jeans were covered in mud to the point where I could barely tell they were blue. The mud also covered the bottom of his plain white shirt. Splatters covered his arms, neck, and face as well. There was even mud clinging to his sun bleached blond hair.
I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Josh! Don’t come in here like that?” I glanced quickly out of the corner of my eye at Mrs. Riley. She rushed over to him and pushed him toward a door just to the right of the back door.
“Then what am I supposed to do? I need to change and shower,” Josh said. He sounded annoyed.
“Go to the laundry room.” She ushered him to a door off the side of the kitchen. “Take off your clothes in there and grab a towel and go to the bathroom. What happened?”
“Cows were stubborn.”
Josh pulled off his shirt before he disappeared into the laundry room. His back and shoulder muscles rippled under his tanned skin. I followed the line of his back all the way down to the waistband of his jeans. Mud covered the lower half of his torso.
Mrs. Riley continued with the pancaked making while Josh rustled around in the laundry room. I couldn’t help but let my mind slip into a daydream. Me, Josh, mud. You get the picture.
“Jenna,” Mrs. Riley said sharply, “come help me finish up these pancakes.” I snapped out of my drool-inducing daydream.
I wandered over to her and smiled stupidly when she handed me a spatula. I sucked at flipping pancakes. Not that I had much practice. In the dorms at school, one of my roommates had an electric griddle so we made pancakes sometimes. I never was able to get the cake to turn over without glopping the batter all over. Either that or I’d burn one side so they never were perfect. Josh’s mom on the other hand was perfect. She poured out the batter in perfectly even round circles. She flipped with perfection too. No batter glopping.
“You make perfect pancakes,” I said.
“Well thank you dear.”
We worked in silence. She poured the batter and flipped, I took the cakes off the griddle and stacked them on the platter.
“Jenna. I hope you’ll forgive me for my attitude earlier. I wasn’t trying to be rude.”
“Of course,” I knew what she was talking about.
“It’s just that with your mother’s reputation you can understand why I was concerned.”
“Mrs. Riley,” I said turned to face her, “I really like Josh and I would never intentionally hurt him. He’s the only person who even talks to me in this town. Well besides Lauren but only when she has to at the store. Michelle hasn’t even called, I’m not sure she even knows I’m here. I want to go see her, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Mom.” Josh’s voice barked from behind us, making us both jump.
I turned to look at him. He was dressed in clean blue jeans and a new white t-shirt. His hair was still damp and tiny droplets trickled down the side of his face.
“Josh!” Mrs. Riley exclaimed, “I didn’t even hear you go to the shower. And I didn’t say anything.”
“Jenna, what happened?” Josh said changing the subject.
Mrs. Riley nodded at me and I’m relieved from my spatula duty. I sat at the table with Josh. The water still in his hair reflected the early afternoon sun the streamed through the window. He smelled divine, like a Christmas tree farm or something. Good. Really good.
“Um. A man dressed in a suit came to my house this morning.”
“Okay,” Josh said calmly from across the table.
“He said he was selling vacuums, I didn’t believe him, then he said my mom sent him and he pushed his way into the house and searched it for drugs.
“What?” Josh yelled and stood up. “Did he hurt you?” His eyes searched my face then the rest on my body that he could see.
“He pushed me to the couch, but I pushed him off me and ran here.”
“How did your mom contact him?” Mrs. Riley asked when she set the pancakes on the table. She then opened the refrigerator and pulled out maple syrup and butter.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“How does your mom even know you are here?” Mrs. Riley asked.
“Um. I visited her a couple weeks ago.” I paused. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to tell either of them about the drugs, but I did anyway. “She told me she still had drugs hidden in the house.” Tears welled up in my eyes.
“We have to call the police,” Mrs. Riley said.
“There’s more. I didn’t want them in my house so I threw them in the trash the day I saw her.”
“So the guy was there for the drugs?” Josh asked.
“He came over looking for them. He forced his way into the house, ransacked my mother’s room, and then pushed me around a little before he realized I wasn’t going to tell him where they were. I pushed him off me and ran out of my house. I don’t know if he’s still there or what.” I repeated the information again for him.
“Oh my goodness! You poor child.” Mrs. Riley pulled me into a side hug, wrapping her arms protectively around my head and shoulders.
“I don’t know what to do! I’m not here for trouble. I really just came back to have a quiet summer.” I was crying now. Hot tears streamed down my face as I remembered the man’s hands on me. I decided to leave the part out about him trying to rip off my shirt.
“Oh honey. It’s okay. I still think we should call the police. Maybe they can search your house for anything else. Did he tell you his name?”
“No. But he was tall with short dark hair and eyes. He had on a red tie. There were two bags in my mom’s room. I hadn’t even gone in there until that day. I had no idea.”
“I know. I believe you,” she said quietly.
“You do?” I looked up at her. Her expression was sincere.
“Josh honey, why don’t you drive Jenna back to her house and see if he’s is still there? I’ll call the police and meet you up there.”
“I don’t want to cause trouble.”
“I’ll tell them someone broke in. You were here eating breakfast this morning when it happened.”
Mrs. Riley was lying for me. I smiled at her and followed Josh out to his truck. He’d been silent through the entire exchange. The drive back up to my house was silent too. I wanted to say something but I wasn’t sure what.
My front door was open when we pulled up. The house was a disaster. He’d removed all the cushions from my ugly couch and flipped it. The end table was turned over. All the kitchen cabinets were open as well as the ones in the bathroom. My room was completely taken apart and my clothes had been thrown out of the closet. It looked like he’d taken a second pass at my mother’s room as well. Josh had gone in first to make sure it was all clear and I found him back in the living room, putting the couch back together so we could sit on it.
“Here,” he said, and handing me my necklace. “I found it on the floor.”
I touched my neck. I hadn’t even noticed. I took it from him and tried to reclasp it, but it was broken.
“It’s broken.”
The crunching of the gravel announced the arrival of the police and Mrs. Riley. I let them in and retold the same story I’d told Josh and his mom in their kitchen. We left out the fact that I was home at the ti
me They told me that if I came across any more drugs that I should call them immediately. I agreed and they left after taking some pictures and going over my statement again.
“I don’t want you here alone anymore.” Josh said.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go. I can’t go back to school yet, and my dad and Linda are in Florida with their kids on vacation.”
“And you didn’t go with them?” Mrs. Riley asked.
“Linda doesn’t like me. You can imagine why.”
“You can stay with us.” Josh said.
Mrs. Riley and I looked at each other. Neither of us wanted that. I understand both of their concern, but me living with Josh and his mom was just not an option.
“No. I couldn’t impose on you.”
“Then I’ll stay here. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Oh Josh, honey. That’s not necessary,” his mom said.
“Yes it is. She can’t be here alone!”
“I’ll be fine. You’re here every evening anyway. Seriously. I don’t want you to stay here.”
Josh wasn’t happy. I was kicking myself for declining his offer. I would feel safer and lord knows I wanted Josh in my bed, but I didn’t need more gossip. This “robbery” was already going to be the talk of the town if it got out. I didn’t need Josh caught up in the mix. I wondered if Michelle would call me now.
Josh and his mom stayed for a little while longer to help me clean up and straighten the house. Once again, I ignored my mother’s room. I just closed the door and pretended it wasn’t even there. Once everything was back in order, Mrs. Riley left and Josh stayed to help me pack an overnight bag.
“You won’t be alone in this house anymore. I will stay here if I have to.”
“What about your mom?”
“I don’t care. It’s not safe. What if he comes back?”
“I don’t know. He could have broken in the first time but he knocked.”
“But he attacked you.”
“I know! I know,” I said a little quieter. “I’m scared. I don’t even know how he knew to come. My mom must have called him but I didn’t know prisoners could just call whoever they wanted.”
“Maybe you should call her and ask. You never know who else she might have called or who else could stop by.”
That thought was terrifying. How many people could she contact? Would more crazed men come pounding at my door looking for drugs or worse? This whole situation was becoming more horrible by the second. What was I supposed to do now?
“No, I just want to be done with my mom. I didn’t come back to see her, I did, and now I’m done.”
“Well you’re not done if she’s going to send random men to your house.”
Josh had a point. Why was this happening to me? I wanted to scream that out to the sky. Not that anyone would hear, or be able to answer. Instead, I just sighed heavily, took a step into Josh, and rested my head on his chest. I didn’t even realize I was cold until Josh’s arms wrapped around me, soothing the goose bumps that had just covered my skin.
“It’s cold in here,” I said into his shirt.
“Why do you have the air up so high?”
“Because it was hot in here when I first got here and I never turned it down. And I sleep hot so I like to have it colder.”
“I bet you’re hot when you sleep,” he said laughing.
I half punched him and tried to pull away but he squeezed me tightly and backed me up against the couch until I fell onto it, him following me.
“Josh. What are you doing?” I exclaimed.
“Nothing,” he said nonchalantly. His eyes widened, as did his grin.
He released me from the hug then pinned me down on the couch, and climbed on top of me. His large frame loomed above me. I would have been scared except he was laughing so I laughed too, but it was hard because he was sitting on me. Josh pinned my arms above my head with one hand and his other hand skimmed down the right side of my body sending shivers all over. Then he dug his hand into my side, tickling me. He had me pinned so all I could do was buck my hips wildly.
“Josh,” I screamed in laughter.
“Yes?” he replied slyly.
He moved his hand and tickled my other side causing more bucking and laughing. I tried twisting away from him. I hated being tickled. My mom used to do it when I was younger when she was trying to ‘bond’ with me, but really, it was just another way for her to insult me. She’d say I wasn’t fun, or that I was fat, or that I needed to lighten up. Her form of bonding was finding things that she thought were wrong with me and magnified them.
Josh’s hand dug into my side again and traveled up to my armpit
“Stop!” I yelled again still laughing but really wanting him to stop. “Let me go.”
I bucked and twisted against him, this time I didn’t stop. I thrashed my arms and legs wildly until I felt Josh fall off the couch with a loud thud.
“Dang girl. You’re tougher than I thought.” He huffed and pushed himself to a seated position on the floor.
“I can be when I need to be.” I was out of breath so I just stayed sprawled out on the couch mentally slowing down my breath. I heard Josh move beside me, then the couch dipped next to me as he sat up onto the seat. I pulled my knees to my chest and karate chopped my hands in an effort to protect myself from another round of tickling from Josh.
“I’m not going to tickle you again,” he said. He was smiling, but his eyes looked sad.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You didn’t seem to like it.” Josh looked down at his hands in his lap.
“The tickling?” I straightened out my legs and pushed myself up to sitting.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t like it. I hate being tickled.” His head snapped up and he squinted his eyes at me.
“I’m sorry.” He looked down again.
“Don’t be,” I said and pushed him lightly.
An awkward silence fell between us. Josh was still and sullen from his failed attempt at whatever the tickling was supposed to be, and I felt bad for making him feel bad.
“Maybe I’ll invite Lauren over tonight so I won’t be alone,” I said breaking the silence. “She did tell me to call her if I ever needed anything.”
“You don’t want me to stay? And when did you see Lauren?” He genuinely looked upset.
“She dropped me off at your house earlier. She must have been driving to work or something,” I said. “I do want you to stay, but your mom didn’t seem too keen on that idea.”
“I don’t care.”
“Okay, well I do. I don’t want to make her mad. She helped me today and lied to the police for me.”
Josh sighed again.
“Stop being moody.” I got up off the couch and slipped on one of the two dozen pairs of flip-flops I had lying around the house. I wanted to catch Lauren at the store before her shift was over. I didn’t know when it was over, but I wanted to ask her now before it got too late.
I heard Josh chuckle as he stood up from the couch. “Come on, I’ll drive you down to the store. Lauren usually works until 2:00.”
“Oh, good to know,” I said and I opened the front door for him and followed him out.
“We’ll figure this out,” he said.
“I know.”
CHAPTER NINE
It turned out that Lauren had been dying to stay the night at my house. She squealed with excitement, jumped up and down, and hugged Josh and me. There was a strange, wordless exchange that happened between the two of them. She looked at him with wide eyes, and he shook his head as if in a silent no, then she nodded and regained her regular peppiness. The whole thing happened so fast, I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking.
I felt weird having Lauren over because she and I were not close in high school; she was a typical dumb blond, like Karen from Mean Girls, but somehow managed to be part of the in-crowd that had tormented me until the day I left. I didn’t recall her ever actually saying anything dir
ectly to me, but if it was one it was all. But I had no one else to turn to. Josh needed to be home and at work, Michelle was MIA, so Lauren was the next best thing.
When I answered the door later that evening, Lauren stood there already in her pajamas.
“Hey Lauren,” I said.
I was trying really hard to be excited about this. I guess I liked Lauren, but I needed to be careful about what I shared with her. I didn’t know if she’d try to get information from me, so she could gossip later.
Lauren pushed passed me into the living room. Her arms were full of bags and pillows and a sleeping bag.
“I didn’t know what tonight meant,” she said and dumped all of her stuff on my couch. “I brought everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, is this the part where there’s a music montage and you get a makeover and look super-hot and all the boys love you and all the girls are jealous, or is this when you spill all your deep dark secrets and we cry all night long?” Lauren stared at me expectantly.
Honestly, I didn’t even know what to say to her. I just wanted to laugh.
“We can do whatever you want, Lauren. We could do both I guess although I don’t have many deep dark secrets that this whole town doesn’t already know about.” This was my attempt at humor, but Lauren just laughed uncomfortably.
“I’ve always wanted to come to your house, but we weren’t really friends so it would have been weird, and then there was your mom and my mom didn’t want me over here. I bet we could have been friends if everyone wasn’t so scared of you.” Lauren rambled on as she unpacked her stuff.
“People were afraid of me?” I asked. This surprised me.
“Yeah,” she said, setting out some crazy looking curling irons. Who needed five curling irons? “Everyone at school thought you were like drug lord mafia or something.”
“Drug lord mafia,” I repeated quietly.
“Yeah, but I knew it couldn’t be true because you were so nice and just quiet and you did normal things like play softball and you got good grades and you were best friends with Michelle.” Lauren stopped short in the middle of her rambling at the mention of Michelle.
We Were Us Page 7
