Lost In Your Footsteps

Thorn

"I'm sorry for scaring you." He whispered, his hand was still resting on my shoulder as we pulled away from each other, our knees touching at the bend of the bed. I took in the small details of his face, noting the small beauty mark next to his right eye and the way his plump lips seemed a little dried out and brittle most likely from the cold outside. Nothing infringed his smooth olive skin, no indents or scars or signs of acne. Just the little spot next to his eye and light stubble.

"Mhm." His face scrunched at my short response but he choose to stay quiet, giving me the freedom to add on to my acknowledgment of his apology. I wasn't really sure what to say since I didn't really understand what I was feeling but only one question continued to pop into my head since my encounter with Sam and Keaton from earlier at school.

"What were you guys laughing about and why did he seem so," I searched the room for a word to describe what I felt I had seen in the room behind the confines of the curtain inside that school auditorium.

"Friendly?" Keaton asked trying to fill in my blank.

"Yeah that," I glanced down to see my fingers twisting and turning in my lap trying not to become suffocated in the awkward silence I was creating between us. "Why were you with him instead of walking to class with me and J?" I peered up realizing his teasing gaze as his face seemed to be contorted into a grin.

"What the hell is so funny now?" My irritation spiked.

"Oh, nothing."

"No, no tell me I'm curious."

"Are you jealous?" He asked, chuckling.

"What?" My voice deadpanned at his stupid question.

"Well, now that I think about your reaction I would say you were jealous. I noticed you were ripping at your bottom lip when Sam put his hand on my shoulder." He laughed loudly this time, letting himself loosen the tension in the room.

"Piss off Keaton. I don't get jealous." I turned to lay back down on the bed facing the wall to ignore Keaton's meaningless teasing.

"You're cute," He chuckled out, reigning in his hysteria. My cheeks flamed but I didn't push them away this time since Keaton couldn't see my face anyway.

"But seriously we're friends, he's a good guy I met when I was going to actual therapy before they let me go despite my mom wanting me to continue the sessions. He's been to therapy for a couple of his own sessions but we just met in the lobby one day." I tilted my head to look at Keaton as he shrugged. 

"He helped me at one point but recently disappeared, said he was called in from the town over to do someone a favor or something. He's a little weird but he's a good person." I eyed Keaton at his description of irrelevancy that only made the itch in the back of my head throb again. Never in my encounter with Sam did I get a feeling that he was a good person. He made me feel weak and pitied even though he knew nothing about me.

"Whatever. I don't like him, no amount of you giving me the "he's a good person" bullshit is gonna change my mind."

"I wasn't gonna force you, Tiger. What's up with you why do you seem so," My head snapped to Keaton's face as he struggled to find a nice way of trying to word what he wanted to say.

"Irritated?" Keaton pulled his hand off my shoulder, reaching back to grab the nape of his neck.

"Mhm." He nodded, eyes softening. I looked behind him to see the bedroom door creak open softly as the a/c kicked on, blowing from out in the hall into the room. Keaton's eyes continued searching the room, waiting for me to fix the ever uncomfortable silence.

I eyed him a moment longer before fixing my posture to sit in front of him again with a sigh, "I know Jamie didn't mean it negatively but he snapped his fingers in my face and it just pissed me off. Not to mention then I couldn't fucking find you since the speech to walk with me and J to class." I shrugged, fingers massaging my temples before rubbing my eyes, exhausted.