hello, goodbye, hello.

Chapter 15: A Window of Opportunity

EJ dashed to the window and looked down. He was relieved to have not found a mangled Ricky Bowen on the ground. There was no sign of blood or anything else to indicate that Ricky had hurt himself in his escape. What EJ did see though was one Gina Porter making her way up the driveway.

Fuck.

EJ quickly changed into clothes he could be seen in and ran downstairs to the laundry room where he had left his phone and keys last night. It occurred to him just now that he was so concerned with Ricky that he hadn't even plugged his own phone in last night. He opened it to find it on 10% and with several texts and calls from his girlfriend, who was now approaching the front door. EJ opened up the dryer to find Ricky's clothes still inside. He prayed that Ricky had left with pants on at least and grabbed the clothes, making his way back up the stairs. EJ dashed into his closet and threw Ricky's clothes into the corner. He was just turning the corner out of his closet when he was startled by someone behind him.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" EJ screamed and fell backwards.

"Good morning EJ." Reilly stated. "If you are quite done in the closet, Ms. Porter is requesting your presence at the door."

"Uh-th-thank you Reilly. I'll be right down." EJ said, sliding past him and towards the stairs.

"And EJ, might I say," Reilly said, stopping EJ at the top of the stairs. "I'm not certain what you had going on here last night, but I do hope that boy that left through the your window is alright and that he uses the appropriate exits from now on."

"Reilly, I swear it wasn't what it-"

"No need to explain anything to me. But I think you aught to have some explanation ready for the young lady at the door, hmmm?" Reilly said, lifting one bushy eyebrow. It was a look that Reilly would give EJ when he was little and was caught sneaking sweets before dinner or after breaking one of his new toys. The raised eyebrow roughly translated to 'I'm not going to tell your parents and you're not in trouble, but you better fix the problem.' It was remarkably effective, even to this day.

"Th-thanks Reilly" EJ said again and headed down the stairs.

🌼🌼🌼

"So, what's going on EJ?"

Gina and EJ were sat in the living room now, Gina in an armchair with her arms crossed. EJ was on the couch opposite of her, his legs tucked up underneath him and his upper body leaning on one arm of the couch. Gina guessed this was his attempt at looking relaxed, but he just sort of resembled a frazzled seal.

"I-I don't know what you mean?" EJ replied unconvincingly.

Gina furrowed her brow.

"Come on. We both agreed when we started to take things seriously that we were done lying, especially to each other. Now I want to know: What is going on with you? I mean, last night, you had that massive panic attack and then just left me without a word? I was so worried about you. I get that in the moment things were...crazy and I don't really blame you for going home, but you should've called, or texted at least. And then, this morning, I call you to make sure everything is okay and you don't answer?"

"I didn't...I forgot my phone downstairs last night...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" EJ began, but Gina cut him off.

"And you know, I wasn't upset that you weren't ready to take things to the next level. I should've talked to you about it first instead of surprising you like that. At least that's what I thought before I came by this morning as saw...some...strange...person sneaking out of your bedroom window!"