Scream with Me

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Maryanne sat in his bathroom wishing she would’ve just gone straight home; it sure would’ve saved her from that conversation with Jensen. It had gotten too intense too fast and she couldn’t get the image of him crying out of her head. She had never seen someone’s pain so visible before. She understood why he tried to get though to her but it truly was a lost cause.

It was easier to focus more on his hurtful words rather then how her heart raced when he stood close to her. That was something she certainly didn’t expect. All night he kept catching her off guard.

At school he kept to himself and had a chip on his shoulder, around his family he was funny, charming even. She shook her head and grinned at how stupid this was. There was no way she was developing a crush on Jensen Reznor of all people.

He stepped back into the bathroom wearing a frown. “We have a problem.”

Her heart dropped. “What?”

“You probably didn’t notice earlier because you were out of it but we live up on the fifth floor so we can’t escape though the window and right now my mom is in the living room along with the front door.”

Her mouth dropped. “I’m stuck here.”

“Pretty much. Do you want to call your parents and make up some excuse?”

She stared at him like he was crazy. “No I have to get home, they are expecting me by ten.” She looked down at her watch and saw it was about twenty minutes until then.

“It’s either stick around here or we go tell my mom what the hell we were doing here. Nothing I come up will make this look good.” He shrugged and ran out of options to give.

She wasn’t coming up with a better ideas either. “I’ll call them and tell them I’m staying at Kim’s.”  He nodded and walked away to give her some privacy. She sat there a moment trying to come up with the words that wouldn’t disappoint them too much. Her father would yell about how she should’ve called earlier.  She dialed and the conversation went just as she suspected it would. She couldn’t remember a time her parents didn’t sound disappointed in some way.

She shoved the phone in her bag and got up to ask Jensen what exactly was she supposed to do now and when the hell she could go home.

She stepped out from the bathroom angry ready to give him a piece of her mind only to freeze at the doorway.  Jensen was standing with his back facing her as he dug through the top drawer of his dresser. He removed his t-shirt and stood there in his jeans that hung low and loose around his waist. She could see the tattoos he mentioned earlier to Jasmine through the strands of his long hair. It was going across the top of his back and leaving the rest empty with smooth skin.

He turned around and she really wished he hadn’t. The front looked even better than the back.  She faintly remembered him telling Nate that he was stronger, he sure did look it. He was thin but defined and the ink along his back and arms added to his appeal. She quickly dropped her eyes before he realized she was looking. The whole situation made her very uncomfortable. “Now what?”

“Mom usually comes home dead tired and goes right to bed but because of the dinner she didn’t work late and she’s pretty awake watching TV in the living room. You can crash on the bed and I’ll lounge on the floor until she goes to bed then I can sneak you out.”

“But I can’t go home, my parents think I’m staying with Kim and won’t be back until the morning.”  She quietly pointed out as they stood on each side of the room.

“Hmm.” He leaned back against the dresser to think.

Maryanne silently cursed and wished he’d put his shirt back on or change into whatever he was looking for. The years of drug use had to be affecting her common sense, that was the only excuse she had for letting her eyes drop south along the defined muscles of his chest. Every time he inhaled they became evern more pronounced, her eyes were glued to the simple act of breathing.

Jensen started talking again. “Then we’ll follow the same plan just longer.” He turned back around and pulled a different shirt from the dresser then put it on.

Maryanne let out a sigh of relief. “We don’t really have a choice.”

“Yeah, I don’t want my mom thinking I’m banging my cousin’s girl.” that was the reason he didn’t want to just tell his mother she was in his room.

She choked back on a gasp. “Don’t say things like that. No one would think that.” Of course he had to go and make an awkward situation even worse.

“Because Miss appearing to be goody two shoes wouldn’t go for a screw up like me?”

Why the hell was he pushing this? And how far he was from the truth, except she couldn’t tell him that. “You’re hell bent on putting yourself down. I didn’t say that.” She walked over to the bed and sat since he had already offered it to her. “Can we stop talking now?”

“Sure.”

She laid back stiffly on the bed as he turned off the lights and laid on a quilt he opened on the floor.

The seconds ticked by painfully, loud echoes through her skull from the clock hanging on his wall. She laid there clutching her bag and with her shoes still on, it wasn’t comfortable at all. The clock kept ticking.

Some time a little later she sat and reached for the short dress shoes she had worn for the dinner. Slowly she lowered them to the floor not to wake Jensen if he was sleeping.

“I was wondering if you were going to take those off.” He said quietly, they had to be careful if his mother was still awake too. “This floor feels like it was created for special torture.” The carpet was thin enough to give rug burns just walking on it barefooted. He stood, his outline barely visible in the darkness. “We have to share.”

Maryanne started to panic to the point the fear started to blur her vision. “I’ll take the floor.” She sat up and moved to the very end of the edge of the bed.

“The bed is big enough, I won’t touch you.” he explained. “Trust me you don’t want to lay down there. I’ll stay all the way over here and you stay all the way over there. You’ve shared a bed with a guy before, right?”

Her panic worsened. “No.”

“No? You and Nate haven’t…..?”

She closed her eyes tight and groaned. “No we haven’t if you must know.”

“Sorry. Are you going to lie back down?”

Her heart raced widely against her ribs and she didn’t want him to realize something was wrong and question why something that should be simple would hurt her like this. She said nothing, not trusting her voice, and laid back against the two pillows behind her.