Silently Falling

Chapter Sixteen (Edited 10/1/2020)

We ride most of the way in silence, listening to the Green Day CD as he sings to himself. He pulls onto my street as the song reaches its end and, just as another starts up, West pulls into my driveway. I try to open my door, shoving it a little harder when it refuses to budge, and then finally step out as we head up my sidewalk and to the front door as I fish around in my backpack for my keys. 

When I don't find my keys, my eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. I always have them in this exact pocket... I search a little longer, pulling random objects out and setting them on the chair on my front porch.

"Uh, why are you pulling out a bunch of tampons?" West asks awkwardly, staring down at the pile of things I've dumped out.

My body freezes in my searching and I glance at the chair.

Sure enough the pile consists of at least five tampons, three pads, and other useless junk. My face flushes bright red and I hurry to get everything back into my backpack. 

"No need to be embarrassed, Sunshine," West says, noting my blush. "I'm not five, and they taught us about the women anatomy in Juvie."

I just fight to control my blush and zip my backpack up."I can't find my keys. I thought they were in this front pocket, but they aren't." 

West blinks a few times and scrunches up his face slightly. "We need to step up these lessons. I only got half of that."

I sigh deeply, my breath shown in the chilly November air, and grab my phone from my pocket. I quickly type down the sentence and pass my phone to him, my hands slightly stiff from the cold. As he reads over it, I walk towards my door and try to open it in false hope of it somehow being unlocked.

I let out a groan when the doorknob refuses to turn and let me in. I rest my forehead on the door and bang it against it a few times before turning back to West. He passes my phone back to me.

"Leave it to you to lock yourself out of your own house." He chuckles, throwing his hands in his pockets yet again.

"This isn't funny, I'm locked out of my house." I sign, glaring at him.

West hops down my steps and walks towards his jeep. "Alright, then let's head to my place."

My head shoots up to face him as he waits in front of his car.

"Your place?" I echo, squinting in confusion.

He raises an amused brow. "Yeah. I do have a house; I don't live on the streets, Sunshine."

I look down at the ground in embarrassment, of course I knew he had a house. I guess I've never really thought of it before. Every time I've pictured West out of school, the mental image consists of him hanging around the juvie.

"Do you have a P I A N O?" 

West purses his lips, "No, but you played the song for me already. I know the notes, we can still come up with some lyrics."

He's right, and I don't really have much of a choice. I walk down my front porch steps, over the tiles that make up my sidewalk, and get back into the Jeep. 

"Where do you live?" 

West adjusts his mirror before backing out. "In a house."

He places his arm around the back of my seat, craning his neck to watch out the back window as he backs out of my driveway and back onto the side street. The scent of his cologne is suddenly washing over me, and I force myself to tear my eyes away from his sharp jawline and ignore the flutter in my chest.