Saving Stephenie

Saving Stephenie - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

                I couldn’t help but smile as I looked over at Derek’s sleeping form. I never realized how when you sleep and let everything go it’s visible on the outside. Sure, I’ve felt the escape that it gives you – I’ve even craved those precious hours when nothing could touch me and I could get away from the pain. As I looked at Derek, I could see all the harshness gone from his face and imagined that this must have been what he looked like as a kid before the world corrupted him.

                It was around ten at night when we finally entered my hometown and I started to recognize everything. Between both of us deciding to go way over the speed limit and the fact that we drove through the night without stopping allowed us to get here so quickly and I was thankful.

                “Where am I?” Derek said, his voice groggy.

                “How can you sleep through the whole day? Okay, you woke twice for an hour or two but really, how do you do that?” I asked as he came to and recognized his surroundings.

                “Are we there yet?” he whined like a little kid.

                “You know, you shouldn’t have come with me. You didn’t have to, in fact I recall telling you to get out of my car, but you know you and your stubbornness,” I stated peeking over at him as he ruffled his hair. I noticed how disheveled and groggy he was and I couldn’t help but think how cute he looked. I needed to shake off those thoughts so I pulled into one of my favorite restaurants.

                It was a homey sort of place – the kind where tourists stopped on their way through and where the locals just hung out when there was nothing better to do. It was raining outside, so I knew there might be some people hanging out around there but my stomach was growling and I hadn’t eaten since the muffin in the morning.

                “What is this place?” Derek asked as we got out of the car and ran up to the front door to get out of the rain.

                “This is Stacey’s,” I said before opening the door to the loud cacophony of sounds from the inside. As long as I could remember this was always the loudest hang out. It was a good sized restaurant with a karaoke system in the far left corner and booths and tables haphazardly placed about the floor. There was a small bar, but it didn’t serve alcohol. They hadn’t gotten around to getting the alcohol license, but it was mainly a place for teens so it wasn’t like we could get any anyway.

                “Hey, welcome to Stacey’s – oh my god! Stephenie Grey, are you kidding me?” The hostess said looking past Derek and at me. “I thought you moved!”

                I recognized the girl, Sarah. She was a friend of Teresa’s but also the school gossip. She loved to know everybody’s business, and since she stuck her nose everywhere she loved to act like she was close with everyone because of that fact. For example, I had never talked to the girl, but when my brother died, she tried acting like she was my best friend and knew him well.

                “I did,” I said flatly. She looked at me as if I were going to continue but I didn’t feel she deserved an explanation – let alone one she would turn into some crazy story.

                “Two please,” Derek chimed in breaking the awkward tension.

                There was a roar from next to the karaoke machine that caught our attention for a second before Sarah turned back to us and smiled – a little to widely at Derek. I don’t know why but something in my stomach dropped at that and I didn’t like it.