Healing Takes Time

Chapter 9

"Jean, what are you doing?"

"Trying to break it up."

I could imagine him raising an eyebrow. "You might want to wait for it to get soft first."

"Who the hell has time for that?"

He laughed. It sounded like he was closer for some reason. I shook my head and decided that it must be because of the way the room was shaped or something. "Literally everybody else," he said.

I nodded my head. "True, but I'm not everybody else."

Arms wrapped around my waist, nearly scaring me half to death. His head rested on my shoulder, just like earlier. "I know, and I wouldn't want you to be."

His words chipped at a proverbial wall that I didn't know I had built until now. My head said that I should shake him off and tell him to leave, but my heart told me otherwise.

In the end, my heart won out. I set the fork down and put my hands over his. I realized that they were shaking--mine, not his. He seemed to relax into me more--I guess he was expecting me to push him away. He moved his wrists, so his hands were overlapping mine and laced his fingers with my own.

We just stood there for the longest time. Neither one of us said anything. Neither one of us did anything until one or both of us started rocking slowly from side to side. I noticed that the Ramen looked close to being done, but I really didn't want to break away from him.

"Jean," Marco mumbled, his lips so close to my neck that I could feel his warm breath.

"Hm?"

"You might want to keep the noodles from boiling over." He released my right hand but held on to my torso after he let go. Obviously he didn't want to completely let go either.

I picked up the fork and pulled out a noodle, letting it cool off before I tried it. They were done, so I flicked the stove off. Again, neither one of us moved. I would have to rummage around for the bowls, and if we were like this, that would make things awkward. He seemed to realize that and reluctantly let go. My back was strangely cold without him there.

I found the bowls in the cabinet right above my head. I pulled out two and wondered if they were deep enough to hold all of the noodles. Surprisingly, it fit very nicely.

I stabbed a fork in each bowl and picked them up. When I turned around, I found Marco leaning against the counter. For some reason, I thought that he had gone to sit back on the couch. He immediately moved to grab his own. Our fingers and eyes met at the same time, sending a shot of... something down my spine. I bit my lip on instinct and almost dropped both of the bowls.

We sat down across from each other at the table. Somehow our toes found each other underneath the table. I found myself blushing, and when I looked up, Marco was blushing too. We made eye contact and immediately started laughing.

"We're kind of pathetic, aren't we?" I said.

"Kind of, yeah," he returned with his sweet smile.

I took a deep breath and looked him right in the eye, figuring that I'd held off long enough. "So what do we do now?"

He seemed to know exactly what I was talking about. He stirred his noodles. "I don't know."

"I've never really dated anybody at school before, so not only am I confused on what to do in any type of romantic relationship, but I also don't know how my parents would react to me dating anybody at all."

His eyebrows pulled together. "Are we dating?"

I looked back down to my noodles. "I don't know. If we were, then what would we even do? I mean, we don't have to worry about a long-distance relationship because you're moving to the same town that I live in."

"True."

I started chewing on the inside of my lip.

"Maybe we could try it while we're here. If it works, then we'll still be able to keep it going. If it doesn't work, then it will probably be awkward, but we can stay friends, I hope." He seemed to shrink in on himself, but his eyes darted in my direction, looking through his lashes. "If that's okay with you."

On a whim, I reached across the table and snagged his free hand. "That would be perfect."

* * *

Out of all the things that happened this chapter, there is only one thing on my mind: I found a way to work Freckled Jesus into it. Sorry, I just got really excited because I like the nickname a lot.

I'd like to give a quick thanks to Wubby again--the one that made the cover--for being my Marco stand-in during the cussing conversation. I personally swear like a sailor, and I needed help from a professional not-cusser.

I know that I haven't tied the prologue into the actual story very much, and at times I kind of regret having the murder in it at all, but I have an ending to this planned out perfectly. It just might end up being a cliffhanger. *Hint, hint.*

I'll try to update again within a couple of days. Marching band is going to be starting up soon. Yeah, we're starting early because school is beginning a week or so later than normal this year, and we have the rodeo parade the second weekend of school and our first field show competition the next weekend. I'm also one of the clarinet section leaders. Pfft. Talk about stress, man.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day, week, weekend, whatever!

--Shelby