Love Me Patiently, Love Me Honestly

I backed away. “Umm…”

“Strictly PG, of course. Get your mind out of the gutter!” He laughed.

I smiled. “Do you have some clothes I could change into?”

He smiled and got up. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to his room. I sat down on his bed as he rummaged through a drawer.

“Boxers?” he asked.

“Is that all you have?”

“That’s all I sleep in.” He smirked.

“All right. That’ll do.” He threw me a pair of blue boxers. As he made his way to his closet his cell phone rang from the front room.

“I’ll go get that, you go ahead and find yourself a shirt and change.” he smiled and walked out.

I slipped on the boxers and looked through his closet. As soon as John walked back in I found a shirt.

“Oh my gosh. You still have this!?” I asked, showing the shirt he had made for me when I was in 7th grade. I was in a big soccer tournament, and he and Carly made shirts to cheer me on. They used glitter paints to write things like Go Maddie! and I love #11!

“Oh wow.” He blushed.

“Do you still wear it?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I still wear everything I wore in 8th grade.” He said, sarcastically.

I glared at him, and then I smiled. “I’m glad you kept it.”

“Of course.”

“I don’t think this will fit me. You were such a small 8th grader!” I said, putting it back in the closet.

“Shut uppp.” He laughed.

I grabbed an old plain black shirt and turned back to look at John. He smiled at me.

“Could I…have some privacy?” I laughed.

“Oh, right.” He said and walked out of the room.

I changed into the shirt, and then I looked at the wall across from John’s bed. He had tons of pictures, ranging form when he was young, to now. All of them were with friends. I recognized almost everyone in them. Right in the center of the collage of pictures, was what looked like the most recent picture of he and Carly. He had her wrapped tight in a hug, and she was laughing.

I heard a light knock, and John poked his head in. I looked at him and smiled. He stood at my side, and looked at the pictures.

I pointed at the center photograph.

“When did you take that?” I asked.

“Hmm, it had to be just 2 days before…” He trailed off.

“Oh.” I replied, still looking at it.

“She sure was beautiful.” he said.

“Definitely.” I said.

“It runs in the family, you know.” He swung his arm over my shoulder and pulled me against him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and hugged him tight.

“Thanks for being the greatest, John.” I said.

“Right back at you.” He kissed the top of my head. We separated and he bent down to the point we were the same height and looked me in the eyes.

“Do you want to go watch The Godfather?” he asked.

I laughed. “Oh, how fun and light hearted.”

“You know me, always the romantic.” He smiled and we made our way back to the living room.

We watched the 3 hour long movie on separate ends of the couch. I didn’t want to be obvious, so I didn’t move closer. But I wanted to be near him. I looked at the clock when the movie was over. It was 3:04 I set the alarm on my phone to wake me up in just a couple of hours. I had already texted my dad and told him I’d be staying at John’s, and that I’d be home early to get ready for school.

“I think I should go to sleep now, John. I’ve got to get up at 5:30.” I said getting off the couch.

“Okie dokie.” he got up too. We pulled the cushions off the couch and pulled out the built-in bed.

I laid down on the right side, and he laid on the left, like always. The only light in his apartment was coming from the street lamp outside. I turned to face him.

“Hey John?”

“Yes, Maddie?” He replied.

“You kissed me tonight,” I whispered.

“Excuse me, you kissed back,” He said, playfully.

“It was nice,” I told him.

“I thought so too.” He flashed a smile I could barely see.

I turned around so I wasn’t facing him. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him.

“I like you, Maddie.” He whispered in my ear.

“I…like you too, John.” I said, without thinking. I closed my eyes. As I drifted off to sleep, I realized the truth of the words I had just spoken aloud, and the mess they would cause. I pictured Kennedy, and how he would feel. I spent a lot of time thinking about Kennedy, but the last face I pictured before I finally fell asleep, was that of the boy sleeping next to me.

****

I awoke the next day to a knock on the door. I opened my eyes. John and I were facing each other, I had my leg sprawled out over his, and he was holding my hand.

The knocking continued.

“John, John…wake up.” I lightly rubbed his hand,

He slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head. He looked at our hands, then at our legs.

“Geez, what did you do to me last night?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.

I moved my leg. “Sorry.” I blushed. “There’s someone at your door.”

“Who would be over this early?” he said, getting up and rubbing the back of his neck. I turned over and looked at my cell phone clock. I opened my phone to find 4 missed calls, and 5 text messages. I looked at the clock, 1:34 p.m.

“Oh my god. Oh, no, no, no, no!”

“What, what Maddie?” John came to my side.

“I slept through the whole day. My alarm didn’t go off. Oh no.” I rested my head in my hands.

“It’s okay, it’s only one day.” He tried to comfort.

“No, I had a Calculus test today, Kennedy will kill me.” I lay back on the bed.

Another round of knocking at the door. John got up and looked through the peep hole.

“Oh god.” John looked at me.

“Is it Kennedy?” I asked.

He shook his head yes, and turned back to the door. He took a deep breath and opened the door just enough to look outside, so Kennedy couldn’t look inside.

“Have you seen Maddie?” Kennedy asked.

“Um, well…” John said.

“I know she’s here John, I can see her car. I drove by her house this morning, but her car wasn’t there, I figured she was already at school, but she never showed up.” He sounded mad.

“Hold on.” John shut the door and looked at me. “I had a Courtney emergency.” He said, winking his left eye.

By that time, I had already changed into my pants. I walked to the door and walked outside, shutting it behind me.

“Where were you today?” Kennedy asked.

“John called me early this morning and he had a major Courtney emergency. He’s heartbroken, Kennedy. He needed me.” I said.

He looked me in the eyes. He had his hands in his pockets and looked a little bit antsy. He looked down at my arms, and I followed his gaze. I realized that I was slowly caressing my left forearm with my right hand.

“You’re lying.” He said, quietly.

“What? Why would you think that?” I asked, putting my arms behind my back.

He looked down. “You’re itching your arm…you always do that when you’ve just woken up.” He looked back at me.

I looked down, and leaned against the door.

“You spent the night here last night, didn’t you?” He asked.

“Kennedy…it’s not what you think.” I took a step towards him and touched his arm.

He backed away. “What is it then?”

“I came over last night, and I was over here late, and we decided I should just stay, and I would wake up early for school, but my alarm just didn’t go off. Nothing happened, I promise.” I lied.

“You didn’t have-”

I cut his question off. “No.”

“Okay, well, whatever else did happen, it’s not my business.” He said. “I’ll talk to you later, Maddie.”

“Kennedy.” I tried to follow him down the stairs but he turned around and put his hands up, showing me that he was done. I saw the sadness in his eyes overcome the front he was trying to put on. He turned around and walked down the stairs.