Nobody's Listening

E I G H T E E N

I woke up the next morning to my cell phone buzzing angrily on my bedside table. I picked it up and found a new text from Cyd.

God, are you as fucking sore as I am?

I laughed and then groaned. Even laughing hurt. After leaving in the hospital, we had all gone walking around downtown, shopping and goofing around for hours on end. Walking that much had made all of us really sore. Oh God, yeah. Who's idea was that anyway?

Luke's. Bet he's not sore, huh? Fuckin' jock. Fuckin' better than us. >:(

I snorted. But of course. I can't pick then any better, huh? <3

I saw you two yesterday. What did he buy you, like 19834567918345 tees yesterday? When's he gonna ask you out, eh?

I sighed. It was two shirts, and I told him I'd pay him back, even though he refused like a billion times. No worries, I'm sure he'll ask today.

Ah, as soon as James is out of the picture, huh? How's that going, anyway?

I tossed the phone away. I didn't care to answer her question, because even though I had given up on him yesterday, a small burst of sadness still flared in my stomach when she mentioned him. I looked at the clock to find that it was almost eleven in the morning. We'd have to leave in thirty minutes if we all wanted to see James off. I pushed my nauseous feelings and sore muscles out of my mind and took a quick shower.

When I got out, I pulled on a black tank top, my new army green shirt that had holes, and an old pair of dark jeans. I smiled when I remembered what Luke had said when he held the shirt up to me. “This green is really pretty on you.” I smiled in the mirror; it was true, it set off my red hair, brown eyes, and pale skin perfectly. I decided to ditch my Vans for once and wear some old army green Old Navy flip flops that I found in the back of my closet. I threw my hair up in a bun, straightened my bangs, and put my glasses on.

The doorbell rang and I hurried downstairs. I opened the door to find Luke. “Hey, I’m here for date with the most gorgeous girl I know. Oh, you must be her!” He leaned forward and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “I figured maybe today, we could meet up with the gang, but then maybe hang out on our own."

I smiled. "Well, how can I say no to a face like yours?"

He smiled crookedly. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, let me just grab your jacket." I grabbed it from the coat stand. I sniffed it and frowned before thrusting at Luke. "It doesn't smell like you anymore," I whined.

Luke laughed. "Why don't you just wash it with Gain, then? That's the detergent my mom uses, I think." He slipped it on to my shoulders and I put it on. "Plus, it looks hot on you." He gave me another kiss, this one longer and heavier than the first.

I reluctantly pulled away and checked my cell phone for the time. "We really have to go if we're going to say goodbye to James." Luke shrugged and I followed him to his little red Mazda. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Well…" Luke said, trailing off as he focused on getting on the road. "I actually really have to study today, but I didn't want to not hang out, so maybe we can go to my house and study?"

Butterflies bounced in my stomach. Luke and I… in his house? I giggled softly. "Okay, sounds fine."

We rode is silence until Luke cleared his throat. "Hey, would you mind finding a CD in the dash and put it in?"

I opened the dashboard and found a pack of CDs. Yellowcard, Secondhand Serenade, 3OH!3, the Ting Tings, Basshunter, the Lonely Island, the Pretty Reckless. It was the oddest combination I'd ever seen, and I knew every one of the bands. "These are all mainstream." I laughed.

Luke laughed too. "I don't think I have anything that's underground. But keep searching, I might be wrong."

I flipped through the CD case and found Linkin Park's "Reanimation". "Oh my God, you like Linkin Park?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "They're fantastic. They're like number one on my list of bands I must see."

"Did you like 'A Thousand Suns'?"

He shrugged. "It was okay. It was a lot different than their old stuff, but it was still pretty good, considering what other stuff some artists have out."

"Agreed." I put the CD in the player and 'Opening' poured out of the speakers. "I was surprised when I found out I loved this CD."

"It's pretty good," he replied absent-mindedly as he pulled into the hospital's parking lot. "Okay, we better hurry, I think that's them at the entrance." We jumped out of the car and ran over to the entrance, where a nice car was surrounded by several people, including the normal gang, Craig, and Wren.

Cyd saw me first and ran up to hug me. "Why didn't you text me back?" She then waved her hand in dismissal. "Whatever, doesn't matter. James has to get going in three minutes, so hurry up." She took my hand and dragged me up to James, who was hobbling from a wheelchair to the car waiting to take him away to Maine.

As soon as James got to a good balanced position near the car, he looked down at me. Despite the awkward past days, he smiled and held his arms open.

I swallowed noisily and hugged him back wordlessly, begging the tears not to fall.

He pressed his lips to my ear. “I’m sorry about the past couple of days… things are just hard, you know? I’ll miss you guys… so much. And please, be careful with Luke, okay?” He looked up for a moment to glare at Luke. “I’ll be back by the New Year, I promise.”

I close my eyes and let the tears out. I never wanted to let James go. I took a deep, cleansing breath and backed away to stand in front of Luke. “When you get home, I demand you play the piano for me.”

A grin tugged at James’ lips. “Of course.” He held his hand out to Luke and they shook hands, both of them looking like they were trying to crush the other’s hand.

“Mr. Morgan, we must go now,” the driver said, smiling at us out the window.

“Yessir,” James muttered, dropping Luke’s hand. He shook his own hand out and swung his legs into the car. “I’ll see you all soon, okay? The time will fly.” His smile broadened as I reached over to close the door for him. He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Don’t cry, my love.” With that, he dropped my hand and closed the door quickly.

The driver took off and we waved as they rode off to Maine, up to the north. I wiped away the tears on my cheeks and turned to Luke. “Let’s go,” I murmured, grabbing his hand and intertwining my fingers with his.

I didn’t hold Luke’s hand with the hand that held James’.