The F-boy Project

Chapter 20: Trust Me

Trust me

"Cole, stay with Allochka while we're gone. After her detention this past week, I don't want her home alone."

I rolled my eyes, annoyed, at my mom's order to my cousin, wanting to tell her it wasn't my fault. I mean, I thought it wasn't, but the more it swirled in my mind, the more I realized it might've been.

I was the one to flirt with Connor to get back at Tyler, I was the one to get so distracted to let Oliver try and kiss me and I was the one to fuck things up with Tyler. Truth be told, I was extremely lucky to be even staying home this weekend, as my parents were going out of town for a small trip.

"Alright Aunt Anastasia," Cole sighed, and we watched them walk out the door, leaving the house minutes later.

My cousin turned to me once their car was out of sight and shook his head. "Mercedes, there is no way I'm staying here with your sorry ass for the whole weekend."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I glared at him, hugging my knees against my chest as I sat on the couch.

"Trav, you remember him yeah? My friend from high school, asked me if I wanted to hang out for the weekend. I said yeah, so be lucky I still trust you to be alone," he replied, grabbing his car keys from the shelf near the front door.

"Wait you're leaving me, like right now?"

"Yup. Don't burn the house down and don't do anything stupid. But I heard there's a real bad storm coming tonight, so if you need anything, like if the power goes out, call me. I'll stay on the phone with you."

I gave him a soft smile. Even though he would snap at me on purpose, deep down I knew how much he cared. He would drop everything to help in a heartbeat, no matter what he was doing. "Thanks Cole."

He gave me a short nod in return, then waved goodbye. "See ya, squirty. I'll be back Sunday, an hour before they get here."

I watched Cole walk out and shut the door behind him. He got into his car, and drove off, leaving me to a house with ticking clocks. I have tonight, all day tomorrow and half of Sunday, I grinned to myself. What can I do?

Later that night, I was in the middle of watching old Mickey cartoons in my pajamas when the first flash of lightning caught my attention. I frowned, hugging my blanket before focusing back on the TV. It was fine for a while, until a clap of thunder caused me to jump and the rain began pelting down. I snuggled deeper into the couch, cautiously keeping an eye on the lights when a loud knocking interrupted me. I jumped again, my heart beating painfully in my chest and hesitantly creeped to the door. I peeked into the peephole, seeing a familiar figure drenched to the bone in water.

I opened the door, smelling the spray of rain and stared in shock as Tyler looked at me with panic in his eyes.

"I need your help," he choked out, his hair plastered to his forehead. "I lost Dellie. My parents aren't home, and my brother just got back but he's asleep."

"Where have you looked," I asked, slipping on my shoes and setting my phone on the shelf. No matter if we were talking or not, I would always help Tyler in a heartbeat, I realized with a jolt. I cared about him too much to just cut off ties like I had done before in the past.

"I was gonna go up the street next. Don't bother bringing an umbrella if you don't want it to get holes. Mine's already jacked."

I sighed, grabbing my jacket and slipping it on with the hood up. I walked out, pulling it tighter as I closed the door, and we were off. We sloshed through the rain, keeping our heads down against the pellets pounding us.