Was I The Only One?

I was very embarrassed at what happened next. He helped me into his large jeep like car then shut my door, I rested my elbow on the car door and my propped my head up and before we had even pulled out of the police station I was asleep. I didn’t want to fall asleep but with how tired I was mixed in with the comfort of Joe’s presence I just went out like a light.

I didn’t even dream of anything, just a peaceful black sleep. I hadn’t had a one of those in a while but I’d never been this tired in my whole life. The tiredness just engulfed me like a crashing wave. I was thankful for it though, I needed a short sleep or else I’d end up sleeping the next day away. I hated sleeping a day away; it was one of my many pet peeves. Just the idea of wasting life on sleep was almost infuriating to me.

My eyes were heavy and were reluctant to open when I felt Joe shaking my arm quite gently but it was enough to wake me. I opened my eyes that felt like they should be stuck together, I brought my sleeve up to my eyes and rubbed them.

“Urm, we’re at my house.” Joe said awkwardly.

I cleared my throat, “Okay.” I replied, stunned by the closeness between us.

I unplugged my seat belt and quickly got out of the car, once I had shut the heavy door I let out a long breath. I had to make it through this. I was going to have to sleep in his house, surrounded with all the powerful memories and sights. It was going to be hard, heart wrenching and comforting all at the same time.

Joe walked one pace ahead of me, I placed my feet where his were once to keep my self sturdy and walking straight. It gave me something to focus on. He held the door open for me then shut it behind me, I pulled my heels from my feet and almost smiled at how free they felt. I folded my arms over my chest awkwardly as we door in the door way. I was waiting for him to say something to me, anything…

But finally he did, “You can go shower if you want, I’ll find some things for you to wear.”

“That would be nice.” I told him, tucking some hair behind my ear. It took me a few seconds to realise I was supposed to move, so eventually when I did he let out a little chuckle at my delay.

While I made my way to the bathroom I looked around the walls, all the pictures with me in were still there unlike the ones of Joe in my home, it tugged at my heart strings how much harder it must be for him to have to be reminded of it all every time he walks around his house. I wanted to take them down my self, just to try and ease his pain. Pain wasn’t easy for anyone but when I knew it was happening to him, I couldn’t help but feel pain my self. I still cared for him greatly.

After I had showered I felt much better. Clean and free.

I stood in front of the shower with a towel around my body. I cringed at how my eyes looked; they were swollen from all of the crying I had done and my pupils looked like piss holes in the snow. I looked in the cupboard and pulled out some moisturiser, it would soon get to work and plus it felt nice on my tired eyes.

It was only then that I realised I actually had no clothes with me in the room. I cursed under my breath and walked on my tip toes to the door, I opened it slightly and peered out to see some of my clothes already in a folded pile on the floor.

With a smile I picked them up and changed into them. He’d managed to find a pair of my old black pyjama bottoms and my Beatles band shirt that I always used to sleep in. I’d obviously left them here. I slipped his hoodie back on, not ready to part with it yet, and made my way downstairs into the kitchen to get a hot drink for my dry throat but once again, he’d beaten me to it.

Joe stood with his back to me as he stirred two cups of tea, the spoon knocking off the inside of the cups giving him away. He heard me walk in and glanced over his shoulder, I pushed myself up onto the counter space next to him.

“There you go.” He said handing me the white cup. I took it from him and wrapped my hands around it, getting warm whilst I waited for it to cool down. “Are you, urm, going to tell me what happened?”

I lifted the cup to my lips and took a long gulp of hot tea, smiling, it was perfect. I gave my self a few moments to think up how to put my story together so that he wouldn’t scream and shout at me like a maniac. I placed my cup on the counter next to my thighs and played with my hands in my lap.

“I left the club with him, got in a car, we got pulled over and he got arrested and I had to be taken in just in case there were any other things found in the car.” I explained quickly.

I didn’t dare look at Joe, instead I stared at the skin on my hands. “You are so stupid, why the hell would you even get in that car?” He yelled, “You met him not even a day ago! He could have raped you, or worse killed you!” He slammed his fist off of the kitchen counter causing a loud bang.

I jumped from fear but didn’t shift my eyes. “You shouldn’t have left me leave then.” I mumbled under my breath.

“What?” He said harshly.

But before I could repeat what I had said the three parents of the home entered the kitchen.

“What in the world is going on here?” Paul asked, wrapped up in a brown dressing gown.

Joe and I looked at them, Joe looked back to me with a smirk. “Well, I just got back from picking her up from jail and now we’re drinking tea.”

“What!” My mother screeched. I cringed and closed my eyes, “What the hell were you in jail for and why the hell didn’t you call me?” She was basically screaming as she launched herself across the room towards me. Joe just held his hands up and shuffled away from me.

“Mom, don’t worry, I didn’t do anything they just needed to hold me while they checked some stuff out with erm, James.” I whined burying my face in my hands.

“James! That stupid boy! What was he doing, hm? Drink driving?” She snapped, grasping a hold of my shoulder.

I cleared my throat, “Yes.”

She let out an audible gasp, “You got in the car with him?” She whispered, I nodded in reply. “Oh dear Lord.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m fine, nothing is going on my criminal record. I’m safe.” I told her in annoyance with a roll of my eyes.

She let out a fake laugh, “Then I guess everything is alright, do you know what could’ve happened?”

I sighed, “Well, it didn’t okay?”

I jumped down from the counter and pulled off Joe’s hoodie, I pushed it against his chest and waited for him to grab it. With a glare I tossed my tea down the sink and headed out of the room.

“Sorry Joe woke you.” I said to Denise and Paul. “I hope you don’t mind me staying.”

Denise smiled. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”

My mom was sharp to interrupt though, “We’ll discuss this in the morning. Don’t forget you have your dress fitting for Kevin and Danielle’s wedding.”

I stuck my hand up and waved with my back to her as I strolled out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Once I was in my own room, which technically was a ‘guest room’ but was only used by me, I sighed heavily. I headed straight over to the comfortable looking double bed and crawled inside. I noticed all the sheets had been washed, I loved the smell of newly washed sheets so I shuffled down into the covers and closed my eyes.

I fell asleep pretty much straight away and had random dreams about places I hadn’t even seen before in my life, it was worried me how I managed to come up with all of this in my mind. But in some ways it was a comfort to know I had the ability to do that.

My sleep was long, longer than I’d slept in a long time. When I was woken up, by Danielle of all people, I knew I had to get out of bed; this was our final fitting before the wedding. I’d showered in the early hours of the morning so I just rolled out of bed and got dressed in some clothes Danielle had given to me. A white v-neck, some light blue denim short dungarees and some sandals, she’d even gotten me a brown satchel to put all the stuff inside. I was under specific orders to keep my hair up as that’s how it would be at the wedding so she wanted to make sure it went well with the dresses which was fine with me as I couldn’t be bothered to spend time on my hair so to shove it all back into a messy bun was a blessing.

Surprisingly I didn’t have much of a hangover but I had a sneaky suspicion that my mom wouldn’t mind giving me a headache. Everyone was gathered in the living room on the sofas. Emma and Brenda were there too, we were the three maid bridesmaids, then there was Danielle’s two sisters who were maids of honour. Her mom was also there chatting to Denise.

It was a relief to see that none of the boys were around so I stepped in boldly with a smile, everyone turned to look at me.

“Oh look, it’s the jail bait!” Emma exclaimed, I glared at her resisting the urge to flip her off in front of everyone.

I rolled my eyes, “Hilarious, where’s my mom?” I asked Denise directly.

“She’s still sleeping.” Denise replied.

“Yes! Right, let’s go people!” I shouted clapping my hands together, they all giggled and Danielle shook her head with an amused smile.

We all piled into a black limo where I sat silently on my Blackberry, I wasn’t really doing anything but I wasn’t in much of a mood to chat with girls. But, I giggled along now and again; I didn’t want to put a downer on Danielle’s day. It wasn’t fair to her. The drive was smooth and we weren’t sat in the limo long.

When we pulled up at the Vera Wang studio, we all piled out and headed inside to see our dresses.