Cat Got Your Tongue?

Tom and I sat at the park for what seemed like hours, just talking. Well, he was talking and I was just listening, nodding or shaking my head. Occasionally I would pull out the notepad and write something but that wasn’t often.

Our ice cream was long gone, and the temperature felt like it had dropped about twenty degrees. Tom gave me his jacket a while back and insisted that he wasn’t cold. I tried to give it back, but he just kept denying it every time.

Do you want to go sit in the car? I feel bad having your jacket while you don’t have anything but your long sleeves. I wrote as he continued talking about some band Oli wanted to start. I almost laughed when I heard him say that none of Oli’s friends wanted to be in a band with him because they didn’t think they could handle being around him that much.

Tom took the notepad when I handed it to him. He read it and smiled. “Yeah, it is startin’ to get a bit nippy out ‘ere.” I rolled my eyes.

We walked slowly back to the car. Tom continued to talk about Oli’s wanna be band. He told me about how Oli was in a semi-band where they lived before. He was their vocalist. I’d say singer, but that’s a little…not right. He screamed. Tom had a few recordings on his phone from when they practiced. They didn’t sound bad, but I didn’t like them. That’s just not my cup of tea when it comes to music.

I got into the car on the passenger side and Tom on the driver’s. We sat in the silence for a minute and when I went to reach for my bag to get the notepad out Tom realized what we were missing.

“The keys are in my jacket!” he said sounding as if he’d been thinking really hand on where they were then it clicked.

Before I could even begin to unzip the jacket he reached over to my seat. His right hand was holding him up right by my left leg and his left was reaching into the right pocket of the jacket, searching for the keys. “Ah ha,” he whispered under his breath, he’d found the keys.

The heat warmed me up almost instantly as Tom started the car. I saw him reach for the radio as I turned my head to look out the window. An unfamiliar song flooded the car, but it wasn’t from the radio. Tom’s cell was ringing.

He hit the little green button and put the phone up to his ear. “’ello?”

I didn’t pay attention after that. The call didn’t last very long anyway. A couple seconds later I heard Tom’s phone click shut and I looked over to him.

“Tori,” he paused. “Your aunt was in a car accident,” he paused again. Which could have been the worst possible thing he could do. My eyes widened, then welled up with tears. He caught on then quickly continued. “She’s ‘right. Only a couple broken bones. Your uncle called my mum and she insists that yeh stay with us tonight. You don’t ‘ave to. We’d all like it though.”

Tears were sliding down my cheeks like mad and I didn’t feel like getting my paper out to tell Tom that I did want to stay at his house. I just pulled up the armrest and practically threw myself at him. He didn’t mind, he cared. And even though I didn’t expect it, I felt his arms pull me toward him even more.

We began on our way home after my sobbing subsided. Tom stayed quiet and didn’t try to strike up a conversation. When the car stopped in the Sykes’ driveway I got out and went to head to my house to get a few things. Tom followed me up to my room and wait quietly on my bed as I got out a clean pair of clothes for the next day and some pj's for that night.

“Ready?” he questioned. I nodded. “Let’s go.”

Tom pulled me close and kept his arm around my waist as I kept sniffling. “It’s going to be okay. She’s fine, she’ll be out of the hospital in a couple days. I promise,” Tom whispered into my ear. His breath tickling.

Oli was sitting in the living room when we got to their house. And surprisingly he didn’t say anything about Tom having his arm around me, or anything at all for that matter.