Chapter Thirty-One - "It Kind Of Happens A Lot"
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It was raining when I woke up in what I thought was the morning, but I couldn't really tell because it was still dark outside. And it was strange, because I could hear birds chirping outside, even though it was storming.
So I sighed and shifted from my side onto my stomach. I buried my face into the pillow under my head, and then I realize that it didn't smell like my normal pillows. They smelled like men's shampoo.
It kicked in then that I slept at Eric's house.
I leaned up slowly and rubbed my eyes as I looked around myself. It was dark in his room, with a blue glow seeping in through the windows from the morning light. My phone was dead and somewhere on the floor, so I had no idea what time it was. Not that I really cared.
Eric snored softly beside me, and I giggled. I turned my head to look at him and he was sleeping so peacefully, with his arms above his head and his lips parted in the slightest bit.
It honestly made me want to kiss him. But I didn't. It was too soon.
A yawn came from me as I laid back down and shut my eyes, hoping I'd fall back asleep; I never did. Because moments later, Eric stirred and woke up as well.
He groaned loudly and rubbed his eyes, then turned his head to look at me.
"Hi," he whispered. His eyes are barely even open as a sleepy smile made its way onto his face.
"Morning," I bit my lip as I smiled too.
"I almost forgot you were here," he said, his voice raspy and tired. "But then you kicked me a couple times, so I remembered."
"Oh my God, did I really?" I held back my laughter.
"No. Only once," he grinned.
"Sorry," I sheepishly smiled.
"It's alright," he shrugged it off, still smirking. "As long as you're okay now."
"I feel a lot better than I did last night," I nodded.
"Good," he nodded too. "Do you know what time it is?"
"No I don't," I shook my head, sighing a little.
"Well, something tells me it's still early," he chuckled.
Then a loud, obnoxious knocking on his door had us both jumping.
"Eric!" What sounded like a little boy's voice came from the hall. But I remembered that he only has a sister that was a few years older than him, so I had no idea who the boy could be.
"Shit," Eric muttered, shaking his head. He leaned up and ruffled his hair, shouting back to the mysterious boy. "What is it?"
"Can I come in?"
Eric groaned in return. "What do you want?"
The door burst open and in came a little boy with a big, mischievous grin on his face. Then he stopped in his tracks and stared at me in confusion.
"Who's she?" He pointed at me, raising his eyebrows and crinkling his forehead.
"Wyatt, this is my friend Lindsay," Eric gestured to me. "And Lindsay, this is my ten-year-old cousin, Wyatt. He's annoying and always in my business, but he's like my little brother."
"Hey, don't say that about me," Wyatt huffed. "Hi," he then waved to me.
"Hi," I waved back with a smile. Wyatt came over and hopped onto the bed with us, sitting on the edge of it.
"So what do you want?" Eric asked again. I noticed Wyatt was still in his pajamas and had bedhead hair, so he probably just woke up.
"I woke up and was bored," Wyatt shrugged.
"What time is it?" Eric asked.
"Seven-thirty," Wyatt answered. Eric and I both groaned in return, finally realizing how early it is.
"Well, can you go back to bed or something? Or occupy yourself for a little while? I need more sleep," Eric yawned, trying to get Wyatt to leave.
Wyatt just groaned and fell back onto the mattress. "Ugh, fine. But expect me back in a little bit."
"You better not," Eric chuckled, gently pushing Wyatt off his bed. But Wyatt just crawled back closer to Eric and leaned over, whispering into his ear. I could still hear him.
"I hope you don't talk to her like this. You're gonna mess everything up. She's pretty," was what he whispered to Eric. And I felt my face go up in flames as I smiled to myself and tried to hide my blushing cheeks.
"Alright, that's enough from you," Eric chuckled embarrassingly, pushing Wyatt away and forcing him to leave. Wyatt smirked at the both of us and then left Eric's room, shutting the door behind him. "He's uh, he's interesting."
"Sure is," I giggled.
"Him and his mom – my aunt Barb – have been staying here for the past week. I kinda forgot that when I asked you to stay the night," he scratched the back of his head. "They live in Washington and something happened with Wyatt's dad, so they've been staying here in the meantime while they figure things out. He's kind of an asshole, and Wyatt's mom is my mom's younger sister, so they're really close."
"Oh, that sucks," I frowned.
"It's whatever. I'm used to it. It kind of happens a lot," Eric shrugged it off. "Whatever. Let's go back to sleep?"
"Sure," I nodded with a smile. We both laid back down and the room got quiet again as we laid in silence. Then I felt the bed move a little and all of a sudden, Eric's arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer to him. I smiled, feeling my back pressed up against his chest as he nuzzled his face into my neck. "You're a really cuddly person."
"Is that a good thing?" He asked, and I heard the smirk in his voice.
"It's a really good thing," I smirked too.
So we cuddled and drifted off to sleep for a little while longer and I couldn't have felt more at home in his arms.
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Hours later, I found myself sitting at Eric's kitchen table with Eric, his parents, Wyatt, and Wyatt's mother. We were eating the pancakes that both the mothers had made for us, and we kept a pretty steady conversation about random things.
It took a bit of convincing for me to stay for breakfast, but Eric got to me and I couldn't resist the offer. I still felt a little awkward – I'd met his parents before, except they were unaware that I stayed over. They didn't mind though, because Eric explained to them a fake story about how I came over after the party and we both fell asleep. Which kind of happened, except we didn't fall asleep by accident.
"So the party was fun last night?" Mrs. Russell asked.
I pressed my lips together tightly and kept my eyes on my empty plate as I remembered how awful last night was. Thankfully, Eric spoke up for me.
"Uh, yeah. It was alright," he shrugged, shoving his last forkful of pancake into his mouth.
"Did you talk to Colton at all?" She wondered, raising her eyebrows.
"Sort of," Eric shrugged again. "He was kind of busy keeping his house in one piece. But he's doing good."
"That's nice. No trouble?" She smirked jokingly.
"No Mom," Eric smirked back. Mrs. Russell just shook her head and adjusted her glasses sitting on her nose. I glanced back and forth between her and Mr. Russell, then at Eric, and noticed how similar looking Eric and his mom were.
Mrs. Russell and Eric both had glimmering, gold hair, except Eric's was messily perfect all the time and Mrs. Russell's fell in soft curls to her shoulders. They had these eyes in the prettiest shade of green I'd ever seen, and they changed colors when they wore certain things. At least Eric's did, I'd noticed. And their skin seemed to be glowing, like they were sun kissed year-round.
An attractive family, to say the least.
And as we sat there and finished up our breakfast, talked about life and listened to stories, I couldn't help but feel comfortable. I felt like I was at home. His family made me feel so welcome, and I hadn't felt that in a long time.
Sure, Dylan's family was nice and all, but it was just different. It was a different sort of feeling with Eric, and that was when I knew that Dylan and I were never really in "love". We were in lust.
Our romance was amazing and that's what sucked. That was the only thing great about us. I didn't feel the connection with him that I felt with Chase, although I hated admitting that to myself. I knew that I was in love with Chase and I knew what love felt like; and I didn't feel that with Dylan. I was just totally blinded by the lustful feeling that took over me whenever I was with him. And now I saw what a huge mistake I made by getting so involved with him.
Despite all of that, it was a good way for me to get over Chase.
It was about 1 o'clock when I realized that I should be heading home to take a shower and tell my mom that I was alright. I texted her last night and told her I'd be staying over Ashley's, but since my phone died, she hadn't heard from me since. She was probably worried, but then again probably not. She never really was in the first place.
"I really don't want to go, but I think I have to," I pouted to Eric.
We were standing by his front door, getting ready to leave so he could take me home. My clothes were in a bundle in my arms and I was still wearing his t-shirt and sweatpants; but I didn't care and neither did he.
"Well, you're welcome here anytime," he smiled. "Whenever you're feeling lonely or whatever, call me up. I'll always be here."
"Thank you, Eric. Really, you are the best," I smiled too.
"It comes naturally, I guess," he smirked. Then he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me tightly, bringing me into his chest. I smiled, closing my eyes and put my arms around him as well. I felt his hand go to my scalp as he gently stroked my hair, and rested his chin on the top of my head.
I wanted to stay like that forever, until he pulled away and put his hands on my cheeks. The side of his mouth curled up into a smile as he kept looking at me, like he was searching for something and finally found it. I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there, smiling back at him like a confused idiot.
Then he breathed a chuckle and led the way to the door, letting me out first. I shook my head and let out a sigh as we walked to his car.
I guess I'd never really know what was going through his mind.
He drove to my house and when we finally arrived, I realized how much I really didn't want to go inside. We were back to where we started last night – sitting outside my house in his car.
"Thanks for letting me stay the night," I smiled, looking over towards him.
"No problem," he nodded with a grin.
The rain had stopped by now and everything was pretty much dry again, like it always was. I stared at the grass on my lawn as it soaked up the sunshine. It was so quiet between us. I knew it was my time to get out of the car, but I didn't want to.
I wanted to lean over and kiss him, but I didn't know if that'd be right. I mean, we were just friends after all, right? I had just broken up with Dylan hours ago, that'd probably be a little weird if I made a move on him so quickly.
It felt so right though. Why is this so complicated?
"Okay, um, see you at school tomorrow," I finally broke the silence and nodded my head.
"Yeah," he agreed, seeming a bit uneasy about something. Then I reached out and pulled on the handle to let myself out of his car. "Lindsay wait."
I spun my head around so quickly I thought I saw stars for a moment. Eric's eyes weren't on me, but his lips parted as he searched for the right words. "Just be careful, okay?" He finally said, his eyes slowly making their way up to mine.
A smile stretched across my face and I nodded. "Okay," I said in a small voice and gently bit my lip.
So I hopped out of the car and waved goodbye to Eric, then I turned around and walked up to my front door. He honked once he realized I was able to get inside and I waved once again. I watched his car drive away down the street, then went into my house that I felt like I hadn't seen in days.
Melissa was sitting right in the living room on one of the couches, hunched over and absorbed in homework with the TV on a low volume, and an empty bowl next to her. Her mousy brown hair was pulled up into a top knot, her glasses were resting on her nose and she was sporting pajamas – a typical Sunday afternoon.
"Hey," she greeted me without looking up.
"Hi," I breathed.
She paused whatever she was writing and looked up at me, knitting her eyebrows together. "You okay?"
I sighed, staring down at the floor. "I think so."
Then she patted the spot next to her on the couch. I chuckled and walked over, plopping down next to her and sighed again.
"What's up? Mom told me last minute that you were staying over Ashley's house," she asked, a little confused on my disappearing act.
"Well... to sum up last night, Todd told all of my friends about... you know," I raised my eyebrows.
"No he didn't," her eyes widened in disbelief, and I nodded. "Why would he do that?"
"He was trying to help," I shrugged.
"Help?" She repeated in disbelief, exactly what I had done last night when Todd first told me that.
"Yeah. He did it because he didn't want to see me get hurt by Dylan. And once Todd told everyone, I saw right through Dylan and realized that Todd was right – he isn't a good guy. Once he realized I wasn't perfect like he thought, suddenly I wasn't good enough anymore. Our relationship was just... a waste of time. We were never in love. The only good thing that came out of it is the fact that I'm finally over Chase," I explained with another sigh.
"So you guys are broken up then?" She raised an eyebrow. I nodded, and she pursed her lips with suspicion still in her eyes. "And what happened with everyone else?"
"My friends are all mad at me," I bit the inside of my cheek. "I need to explain myself to them, but I had such a horrible time last night that all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there."
"So... then where did you stay?" She asked another burning question.
I bit my lip and tried to hide the smile on my face. She raised an eyebrow with a smirk, already knowing well what was about to come out of my mouth. "Well, Eric drove me here and I told him what happened. I didn't want to be alone or come home, so he invited me to stay the night. So I did."
"He's like your knight in shining sweatpants," she chuckled, tugging on his sweatpants I'm wearing.
I laughed and shook my head, falling back onto the cushions behind me. "I think I like him," I breathed. She raised her eyebrows at that statement.
"You literally just broke up with Dylan," she chortled.
"I know, I know," I sighed and rolled my eyes. "But he's... I don't know. He's so perfect. I feel like I've always liked him. It's just that he thinks of us as friends."
"Oh, that sucks," she grimaced.
"Yeah, tell me about it," I huffed.
"Just give it some time. Don't be hopping from guy to guy – chill for a little while," she said, but then she quickly shook her head and took that back. "Or don't. Actually, do whatever you want because it's your choice."
"At least I can always count on you for advice," I grinned at her.
So now the only thing left for me to do was fix things with my friends. And I had no idea where to even begin with that, but I guess I had to start somewhere. The beginning seemed like a good place.
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A/N - We're getting so close to the end and I don't like it one bit, y'all. I'm so sad. ANYWAY, thoughts on this chapter and Eric? Any predictions you might have for what's to come? Lindsay still has to patch things up with her friends who rudely ditched her at the party, and that'll be in the next chapter! She'll get to fully explain her story to them and sort everything out.
I totally forgot it was Friday today wow I am
so off my schedule when I don't have school! I was at the beach all day and now I'm fried and need a nap. That's all I got to say! Thanks so much for all the support and I love ya lots!
Song: Sunday Morning by Ke$ha
Photo: Eric and Lindsay bein' cute
xoxo, sabbbycat