My Record Store Romance

Sleep In My Arms, I Can Take the Pain Away

Chapter 18; Sleep In My Arms, I Can Take the Pain Away

DOUBLE UPDATE YOU GUYS!

and HOLY FREAKING CRAP over 70,000 reads and humor #17 / romance #22? Excuse me while I cry.

This chapter is dedicated to dramajordan, for making me smile. The song on the side is A Drop in The Ocean by Ron Pope, a favorite song of mine for two years now. Check it out and let me know what you think!

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Ten minutes had passed when there was a banging on the door, almost entirely drowned out by the rain that pounded outside against the pavement.

Filled with nerves and hardly able to concentrate, I barreled down the stairs and flung open the door, wincing once I remembered Ally was sound asleep upstairs in her bedroom; tucked tightly underneath the covers.

Odie didn't waste anytime getting to the point after I let him inside, and we walked into the living room. But I was too anxious to sit across from him and paced around the room instead, wringing my hands together uncontrollably.

"Tell me everything." He said smoothly, and I knew he was trying to calm me down, because that's what he always sounds like when I get this way.

But normally, it was because of a dream that put me over the edge or a doctor's visit with Ally, not about a girl I was falling in love with.

Falling in love with.

Had I really just said that?

"She came over today Odie- to give me back my bracelet." I rushed out, my breathing heavy, which made it hard to speak. I reached down to twist my bracelet between my fingers as my head filled with recollections of this morning. The hot sun, talking to her on the porch, the way her eyes reflected with the light outside. "I had accidentally dropped it at her house when I took her home the other night."

Odie nodded, watching me walk around nervously as I circled the room. Normally, I would've been embarrassed with being so open in front of someone; not calm, not problem-less, but I had known him for so long. Odie had seen me at my very worst, and up until Hailey, he had been the only one I could be real around for as long as I could remember. Not even mentioning the fact that he had helped me, time and time again, through countless situations.

I owed him a lot more than I would ever be able to give.

"She came inside. Ally and I spent hours with her just playing games and messing around and doing nothing. We went downstairs to watch a movie, and when it was over it was time for her to go." I cringed, hating to think about how easily I just let her leave. I should've insisted that she got a ride home, I should've told her that it was too dangerous to walk alone this late at night. I should've done more than I did.

But now, it was too late. And here I was, full of wonder and regret and fear because I hadn't received a call, and I didn't know whether or not she was safe.

I would never be able to forgive myself if she wasn't okay. Never.

I walked over the couch, holding onto the back of it so tightly my knuckles began to change color. It seemed almost as if I were to let go, that I would just go billowing away, carrying my thoughts along with me.

My heart picked up as I said the last part; the part I hated saying aloud most, because it was the only thing I had thought about in the past two hours. Because I knew if anything happened, this was the part that would haunt me forever. Because, it was the part that was all my fault.

"It had already became so dark out, and she told me that she was going to walk home. And I was skeptical- because it's a long walk back." I looked over at Odie, who held a relaxed composure, showing no signs of uneasiness or complexity. I only wish that I could be like that. "So I gave her my number and I told her to call me when she got there."