Christine Rides Again

Chapter 3; Paranoia

“Nothing really. I guess it's silly, but my parents are out of town and I hate being on my own… I was thinking of stopping by, if you're not busy and you don't mind that is.”

“Uh…” He considered. “No, I don't mind but it's getting dark out, so wait there and I'll come and get you.”

“You don't have to do that.”

“It's fine, I don't want you out alone in the dark.”

“Well, okay. Thanks.”

“Alright. Give me five minutes.” He concluded and put the phone down.

Throwing on his shoes, he was already halfway through the door when he realized that he was forgetting his jacket, and quickly reached back in to grab it from the hook before bounding down the porch steps and towards his car. He was surprised that she had called at all, and couldn't help but be a little curious. She had gone months without calling and making an effort to talk to him, it had become apparent that she wanted nothing to do with him, at least he had thought so. Maybe he was wrong. He couldn't tell anymore.

Barely ten minutes had passed before he reached the Cabot household, and not being bothered to get out of the car, he gave the horn a honk. As he waited for her to join him, he glanced around the area, noticing for the first time how empty and quiet the neighbourhood was. Before he could take much of it in, Leigh appeared on the porch and bounded down the steps and into the passenger side.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting.”

“I'm not in a rush.” He shrugged, twisting the key in the ignition and pulling out of the driveway.

Leigh gave a haphazard smile and then averted her eyes on the road ahead of them. Dennis snuck glances every couple of seconds out of the corner of his eye, debating whether or not to ask the one question on his mind. After the answer to his last question, he feared it might end up in the pile of things he regretted knowing.

“You seem surprisingly energetic for someone who ended up in the nurse's office.” She prompted.

“Oh… yeah, I cut out early and crashed out when I got home, and I don't know… I guess the fever decided to do one.”

“Good.” She said with a frown. “That wasn't your finest moment.”

“Jee, thanks.” He rolled his eyes. “You know I- I went to see Arnie before I went home.”

Leigh's eyes widened and the smile dropped from her face at the mention of his name, and he worried, for a second, that mentioning it may have been a mistake.

“Why?”

“Get some stuff off my chest… Look, Leigh, I know that you think what we're doing- what we were doing was disrespectful to Arnie, but I don't. Not anymore.”

“Not this again, Dennis.”

“After that night, I- I blamed myself for not being able to save him and I began to question whether I'd done the right thing for the right reasons but today I realized something… we can't keep blaming ourselves for what happened. We tried and he didn't listen, and we didn't mean for him to die.”

“Yeah, but what we did was wrong…”

“Was it?” He challenged. “So, by that logic it's wrong to move on when you end things with someone because of the way they handled it, and it's wrong to move on after someone dies and live life the way you want because you should be feeling guilty that you're still breathing while they dug their own grave?”

“No, of course not but-”

“When I pull this car up, look me in the eye and tell me that what we feel is wrong, tell me that Arnie will always be between us… if you can do that then I'll stop trying, okay? I won't try to change your mind and I'll leave you alone.”