Protecting Her

Lyndsey

The next morning I woke up feeling extremely warm. It made me almost not want to get up. I tried to keep my eyes closed, but my mind was too awake. A yawn escaped my lips as I opened my eyes. I sat up in the bed and remembered where I was. It's so weird when I'm sleeping, I feel like everything is normal. I still work at the Diner and my Mom is still alive, but I guess not everyone's life can stay the same. My life was just bound to change sometime, I just wish it wasn't this soon. I pushed my hair out of my face and noticed I had Brian's leather jacket on. I slowly began to remember last night. The rat and him thinking I was crazy. For some reason a goofy smile formed on my lips.

I got off of the bed slowly and examined the floor. When I didn't see a furry rodent, I headed out of the room. I walked slowly down the stairs to make sure I didn't come in contact with another one. I made it to the bottom without seeing one and I sighed in relief.

I walked down the hallway to see there was a fire still going in the fire place, but Brian wasn't in there. I went into the kitchen to find him writing stuff down on a piece of paper. He noticed me and gave me a friendly smile, "Mornin'," He grabbed the paper and walked over to me. I said a quiet 'Good Morning' back to him and he gave me the paper.

"I want you to write down anything and everything you like to eat. I'm going to go into town and buy a whole bunch of stuff. I'm also going to buy you some hoodies, since you don't seem to have any." He said while chuckling.

I sat down at the table in front of us and looked at what he already had written down.

Bread
Milk
Beer
Eggs
Bacon
Chicken/any other kind of meat
Green vegetables
Coffee Grounds
Sugar
Spaghetti noodles/sauce

He pretty much had the basic stuff, but I decided to add all of the snacks and foods I liked.

Hot fudge sundae Pop-Tarts
Coca-Cola
Coca-puffs cereal
Lunch meat/Ham/Salami/Turkey etc.
Frozen pizzas
Mint chocolate chip ice cream*

I couldn't think of anything else, so I handed it back to him. He examined what I had put and cocked an eyebrow up at me, "Ice cream? Really? It's the middle of winter.."

"So? I love eating ice cream." I said, trying to defend myself.

Brian sighed, "Alright, but why is there a star by it?"

A smile plastered onto my face, "That means that's a must get."

He smirked, "So you're saying if it was down to actually getting food, you would rather have ice cream?"

I nodded without giving a second thought, "Yep." I popped the 'p' and Brian just shook his head in disbelief at me. That made me roll my eyes and he tucked the paper in his back pocket.

"Alright, I'm going to give you a phone that only has one number programmed into it, which is mine. I want you to call me if something happens. It's for emergencies only, got it?" He asked while grabbed a tiny cell phone off of the counter.

As he placed it into my hand, I nodded, "Yes." Answering his question. Brian grabbed his cell phone off of the table and grabbed the car keys. "I'll be back in a hour."

Realizing I still had his leather jacket on, I stopped him, "Wait, here's your jacket-" He shook his head while giving me a small smile, "No, you can wear it."

My eyes widened at this, "It's like below 50 degrees out there!"

"I'll be fine, just keep it warm for me." He winked at me and my cheeks heated up as he walked out of the Kitchen. I heard the front door close and a sigh escaped my lips.

What was I suppose to do for an hour?

Looking around, I noticed everything looked really dusty. I decided that I should try and make this as homey as I could get it. I walked over to the sink and opened the cabinet underneath it. Thankfully, there were all the cleaning products that I was going to need. I started to clean the dust off of the cabinets and went to mopping the floor. Once I finished that, I cleaned the Kitchen table and the counters. Before I knew it, an hour had passed and Brian still wasn't back yet. I had a whole bunch of rags that needed to be disposed of, but I couldn't find a garbage can.

I walked over to the back of the kitchen and opened a door to find a washer and dryer behind it. I spotted a garbage can and dumped the rags into it. I noticed there was a whole bottle full of laundry detergent, so I tested the washer out to see if it worked. When I heard the water start to run, a smile formed on my lips.

Now I can wash all of my dirty clothes.

I headed up the stairs and went into my room to get all of my dirty clothes. I emptied out my bag and just tossed all of the dirty ones in the bag. I realized I didn't have a big enough load, so I decided to see if Brian had any dirty clothes. I grabbed the bag and walked out of my room. I walked into Brian's room to find that his room was practically identical to mine. I spotted a couple shirts on the ground and I threw them in the bag. I saw his bag on the window still and I decided to see if there were any in there. I un-zipped the zipper and found the usual stuff. Clothes, toiletries, and then I found a picture. I knew this was invading his privacy, but I couldn't help but pick up the picture. On the back of the picture it said:



A frown formed on my lips as I turned the picture over. There was Brian wearing his leather jacket and dark jeans. His hair was covered by a beanie and there was a blonde girl attached him with her lips pressed up against his cheek. He also had a goofy smile plastered on his face. I was beginning to think this was his Girlfriend, but he told me he was a solo kind of a guy. I decided to put the picture back before Brian got home. I ended up finding a pair of dirty jeans in his bag and I put them in the bag of dirty clothes. I took them downstairs and dumped it all in the washer, I added a cap full of laundry detergent, started the washer up, and shut the lid.

I tried to clean the rest of the cabin to keep me busy, but there was one thing on my mind that I couldn't seem to stop thinking about and that was:

Why would Brian lie to me about that?