The Only Exception

“Oh, Roy, my sweet, sweet, jelly bean!”

My eyebrow twitches with annoyance at the sound of her voice. Turning my head, I narrow my eyes dangerously on the girl but she continues to beam from ear to ear. Giggling like mad, she jumps in front of me and throws her arms around me. “You know…you’re being sad again. If you don’t tell me what’s up I’ll be forced to use desperate measures.”

“Uh huh.” I roll my eyes and rest my arms on her shoulders to push her away. Susan pouts immediately but follows me on my walk from school to the Dairy Mart. Luckily, the winter day is a little warmer than usual so I’m not freezing my ass off.

I don’t care about that though. All I care about is Harper and how I haven’t seen him since that incident Thursday night. He hasn’t been home, which isn’t unusual for the weekends but he didn’t return Sunday night like he usually does and he wasn‘t home yesterday. It is now Tuesday and I haven‘t seen him at all. That makes me wonder if he’s all right or maybe he’s even avoiding me…?

“Roy, you can talk to me.”

Not about this, I think to myself with an aggravated sigh. I run my fingers through my hair and tug at it angrily. Susan continues to walk beside me until I finally say, “Um…it’s just that new neighbor of mine.”

“The walking orgasm?”

“Yeah, him.”

Susan squeals and wraps her arm around my bicep. “What about him, sweetheart?”

“Well…we hang out a lot and he always picks me up from work and I guess you could say we’re friends now but last week we…kind of made out,” I grumble out the last four words because I didn’t want to Susan to hear but she did and it causes her to scream happily. Of course her happiness is destroyed when I tell her the results of that kiss. “But his phone rang and we stopped and he left but the entire time afterwards he wouldn’t even look at me and he hasn’t been home since, which is odd because he normally gets home Sunday evening. I’m just worried that he’s avoiding me.”

“Maybe he isn’t. Maybe he really had something important to do,” Susan replies with a smile that I bet she wants to be reassuring but it definitely is not. I grunt and the two of us enter the Dairy Mart. We both wave happily towards Rachel and Susan continues to follow me.

“That doesn’t explain why he didn’t look at me afterwards.”

“I’m sure he has damn good reason to. Roy, look at me.” I shake my head but her hands place themselves on my cheeks and force me to. I look down into her bright green eyes and bite my lip because I don’t want her to see how worried I really am. “He kissed you, that’s reason enough to believe that he at least feels the same way you do for him-”

“Who said I felt that way?” She ignores me.

“And I am sure that he has his reasons for acting the way that he is. When you see him, just ask, that’s all you have to do and it may be easier said than done but I know you can do it.” She smiles and places a friendly kiss to my cheek. “Now go get to work and try to forget about it for a little while.”

I sigh, “Yeah…thanks, Susan.”

“No problemo!” She squeaks, walking away with a slight hop in her step. I’ll never understand how she can stay so chipper all the time.

Sighing, I go to change and after putting on my name tag, I step out into the slightly chilly air of the store. Rachel is already at her line and she smiles at the sight of me. I force one back her way and she notices this. Biting her lip, she watches me warily and when I think that she’s going to ask me what’s wrong, she asks something else, “Does someone need a cookie?”

I can’t help myself but chuckle softly and look her way. Leaning towards her, I reply, “I’d like that.”

Her grin is contagious and soon I’m smiling too. She reaches under her counter and pulls out a pack of chocolate chip cookies. After handing me one, she takes one for herself and giggles, “I had a feeling I’d need these today. Chocolate makes every day better.”

I nod in agreement. “No argument there.”

Rachel and I talk in between customers like we always do and by the end of the day I’m feeling a lot better…until I walk outside and realize that Harper isn’t here to get me. It’s like a replay of last week. I stare at the nearly empty parking lot for his car but it isn’t there.

My fear of him avoiding me only intensifies and the entire walk home my head is down. Luckily, the night isn’t as freezing as the others and I thank whatever being is watching over me. I still just wish that Simon would have came to pick me up even if he didn’t look at me or speak to me, as long as he came to pick me up at least I’d know that he isn’t completely pissed at me.

I don’t even get why he would be angry with me. He was the one who kissed me first! Did he not expect me to kiss him back or something? Was it some type of test? I don’t know. I don’t get it at all. If he didn’t want what happened then why did it last so long? Why did he kiss me more than once that night?

Why? Why? Why? Once again, my head is full of questions about Harper and his strange ways. How long will it take this time before we start talking again? I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to drag this out. I want to talk to him, to find out why he did what he did, and if he regrets it because I don’t. I’m happy that what happened, happened, I just wish that Harper would friggin’ talk to me about it!

The moment I turn the street corner, I look for Simon’s car. Frowning, I notice that he’s still not home and it makes me wonder where he is. Is he visiting his father? Is he working? What does he do on the weekends whenever he leaves? Questions, questions, questions, aren’t we curious, Roy!

Shaking my head to throw out those thoughts, I walk up the steps to the house. I open the door to see that my father is chugging down one beer after the other. When his eyes catch mine I know what I’m in for so I don’t bother moving and simply stand there while listening to his howling screams.

His breath reeks of alcohol and I wrinkle my nose up in disgust. The smell is so strong that I can feel my stomach twisting uncomfortably and for a second I think I’m going to throw up so I brush past him to the bathroom where I hang my head over the toilet and wait for it but it never comes.

Groaning, I shout at the man that’s pounding on the door, “Shut up! I fucking heard you, go drink your damn beer.”

His words are slurred and distorted so I have no idea what he had said to me before walking away but I know it had something to do with how much he hates me. Rolling my eyes, I step out of the restroom and walk across the hall to my room.

After throwing off my jacket and clothes until I’m only in boxers, I check Harper’s drive way one last time. His car still isn’t there.

Where did he go?