The Double-Tap Accident

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Daily Water Intake.

"Yes."

"Oh damn," Her eyes flickered with more interest as she glanced down at the shirt in my hand. "Sex?"

"No sex," I told her, ready to tell her that he left me a present when something else entered my mind. It was now or never. "Wait, um, speaking of sex, can I tell you something?"

"What?"

"It involves the B-word."

"Bitch?" A laugh spilled from my lips, but I was glad that he wasn't the first thing to come to her mind instantly. She was healing. Little by little and I was fully seeing the process since she was standing here in the bathroom for the first time on Wednesday, not on the verge of tears.

Tears would come eventually again but she'd be okay. I knew it. Larine was strong, I noticed, much stronger than I realized. She had given Benny her all, traded him in for friends and a love she thought was mutual. She deserved better. And she would get better for sure.

"The other B-word," I clarified.

Her face dawned with realization. But no tears welled in her eyes this morning. Instead, she nodded for me to continue, "What about him?"

"Did you know that the headboard of your bed faces the wall of my room?" I asked her. Slowly.

"Yeah, but what does that..." Larine's hands went to her mouth, a gasp leaving her throat that mangled in disbelief and slight horror, "No."

I winced. "Yes."

"No."

"Unfortunately, yes," At this point, I was cringing with her, for her, for both of us. I struggled to not bury my face in my hands at the fact that I was saying this but fought against it. And I fought hard. "It got to the point where I knew when he was about to be done."

"Oh my God," Larine mumbled in shock, running her hands through her blonde hair. She genuinely looked so embarrassed, her cheeks flushed beat red. Instantly, I regretted speaking, feeling horrible that I had to put it up in the air like this. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Now I had one hand covering my face. If this was months ago, I was certain I would have taken the shirt and thrown it over my face to stop this conversation. "I've been trying to say something for months, I just couldn't."

"Jaime."

"I'm just..." I let out a whole-body shiver at countless memories of that sound since early September. I moved my hand to look at her wide-eyed expression. "Let's pretend that didn't happen at all, okay?"

There was a pause, her hands lifting to her mouth as she thought deeply before she asked, "Did everyone know you could hear that?"

I didn't think it was possible to feel even worse. Was it so hard to simply just talk to her about it like many people had told me to do so? "Yes."

"Jaime."

"I'm sorry!"

"You're sorry? I'm sorry!" She exclaimed. The two of us looked at each other and then burst out laughing, holding onto each other's arms as we burst into shrieks of giggles.

Once we calmed down, she rinsed her mouth and put her toothbrush away. "I wanna move things in my room today. Specifically where my bed is, so are we up to do some interior designing?"

"I'm down." I said, "But first, breakfast? We can make pancakes." As far as I knew it she was the only person in this household that ate breakfast like me. Yasmeen and Mari always skipped it.