Tonight's Like a Right Hook

Zach’s truck could hardly be considered dirty. Only a hockey bag occupied the back seat, and in the front everything seemed to be neatly stowed away. Felix settled herself in, fastening the seatbelt over her chest, and waited as Zach started the car. Felix was never one to be impatient, but the boy next to her seemed to purposefully try to move as slow as possible. Felix chewed her lip in silence. As she took in the organized vehicle and Zach’s careful and precise driving skill, she decided he wasn’t as young as she thought, though he couldn’t be older than she. He looked young.

“So Felix,” he placed a heavy emphasis on the nickname, “How old are you?” Felix wondered if it was curiosity, or to know if he could hit on her.

“Twenty four, and yourself?” she finally answered, her light Irish accent filling the car, catching Zach’s attention.

“Twenty seven,” he admitted. He was getting older, every year he wished he could be twenty one again.

Felix was slightly shocked at the elder boy’s answer. He looked no more than twenty four, but here he was at twenty seven, still looking as if he could pull off seventeen. The car ride was silent from then on, although it was not the comfortable type of silence, it was the awkward silence between two people who barely knew each other and lacked anything to talk about. Felix watched as the city section of Newark disappeared into the condos on the outskirts, before finally changing into townhouses. Two minutes later, Zach flipped on his turn signal and pulled into his driveway. The townhouse in front of them really was nice. Next to the tiny driveway, a small footpath led up to the large front door. Felix looked around.

“I’ll put your things in your room, you can go look around,” Zach grumbled, looking downright angry.

Felix wasn’t sure why Zach’s mood seemed so foul, though she wasn’t going to stick around to ask. Making her way into the house, she paused and looked around. Inside, a staircase greeted her immediately, and to the right, the living room. It wasn’t large, but it comfortably fit a couch and television. Past the living room was a kitchen, looking quite new. The island stood in the middle, surrounded by spotless counters. Every inch of the house so far was absolutely perfectly clean. Next Felix made her way towards the staircase, careful not to knock any of the pictures hanging on the wall. The second floor landing contained three rooms, as well as another upwards staircase. She looked around. There was a bathroom, a bedroom; which she assumed to be hers, and a den. It looked like any normal house, aside from Zach’s hockey jerseys framed on the walls, medals accompanying some. Downstairs, she could hear Zach bringing in her things.

Making the last flight of stairs, she looked at the white door. His name was painted on, and several random stickers were stuck around it. It looked as if Zach had helped a younger child with the artwork, rather than done it himself. After making sure Zach was still downstairs, she opened the door and looked inside. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was not spotless. It was quite the opposite. His bed, unmade and messy, looked almost like a cloud from the amount of pillows stacked on top of it. Downstairs, she could hear Zach bringing her things into her room. She hid at the top of the stairs until he disappeared back downstairs.

Sneaking down to what she thought would be her room, she found her bags sitting on the bed. Seeing as there wasn’t anything else in the house to explore, she set to unpacking her things into the drawers. As she placed a few shirts on hangers in the closet, she noticed a white dress, perhaps for a toddler girl, hanging in the left end. Curiously, she picked it out of the closet and looked at it, wondering why it would be in the seemingly single hockey player’s closet. She put it back, not being one to pry. Of everything that had been left in drawers, several hockey shirts, as well as a bottle of face lotion, there was nothing as interesting as the dress that hung in the closet. Felix couldn’t quite seem to figure out why it was there, or who it would have belonged to. She knew Zach wouldn’t have any siblings that young. After she finished her unpacking, her curiosity died down, and she collapsed onto her bed in exhaustion. It took her nearly three hours to unpack, and by nine o’clock she was fast asleep in bed.

At around ten, Zach poked his head through the doorway, only to find the small girl curled up in a ball under her covers, dead asleep. He couldn’t keep a small smile off his lips. The pretty girl looked so peaceful white she slept. She looked almost exactly like the last girl to sleep in his bed.

Making his way up to his bed, Zach pulled the covers around him, nestling in to the large masses of pillows that filled the small space. It had never been his idea to fill their double bed with as many pillows as they could possibly find, but when she got that childish grin on her face, he could never say no. She was just too perfect to disappoint. It had been their bed, their bed with the pillows and messy covers.

Every night he fell asleep with her on his mind, she was a staple in his routine. He spent the last ten minutes before he fell asleep thinking about the girl that he had lost. The girl that had run away.

Downstairs, Felix was fast asleep, nestled in to the bed that they had picked out together. She reminded him of her in so many ways, from the politeness, to the light airy tone of voice. The only thing different was the Irish accent, her cherry colored hair and smell of vanilla that filled the air every time Felix was around. Maybe that was just enough for Zach to move on.

For now, he wasn’t ready, for now, talking to Felix was going to be too much. Why had he ever agreed to this in the first place?