You Saved Me

Brittany had managed to not get out of doing the play.

She so badly wanted to be in it, but at the same time not.

She knew that she could get kicked out of the W.P. P. being the lead in a play, but she didn’t seem to care as much as she used to before about their rules.

She’d already broken so many of them in a matter of three weeks, almost four, what was really holding her back anymore? Plus, she felt like she had an actual life this way, having fun and letting loose.

She knew she was going to die, might as well enjoy life as much as possible beforehand right?

As she walked down the hallway, she passed many familiar faces that were smiling at her cheerfully.

“Happy Early 17th Birthday Trisha!” Katie yelled down the hallway and then running through everyone to get to her side.

Brittany grimaced and tried her hardest to pin a fake smile on her face as Katie got closer and pulled her into a hug.

“Thanks.” she said softly, wishing that Bobby would’ve let her stay home from school today. She knew that something like this would happen today at school.

Today was going to be torture for her, having everyone saying, “Happy Birthday Trisha.” when technically it wasn’t Trisha’s Birthday. It’s was Brittany’s. And Brittany’s birthday wasn’t a pleasant one.

Today, was Friday, the 19th but tomorrow would be the hardest day of the year.

September 20th.

September 20th marked her birthday and also the 9th year that her parents were brutally murdered.

She hated her birthday. There wasn’t anything happy about it at all. People should being saying, “Have a wonderful Hell-day!” but she knew that no one would understand her pessimistic mood on her birthday. Birthday’s were a day to be joyous and jumping around in pure happiness.

“You have to check out your locker! Me, Jess and Steph decorated it for you!” Katie said enthusiastically.

“Cool!” Brittany said back, after finishing hers and Katie’s hug and then the two girls walked down the hall, arms looped around the others while people smiled and said, “Happy Birthday.”

She nodded and said thank you politely to them all, secretly wanting to yell and scream and cry.

She’d need to go home today. She wouldn’t be able to handle it.

They turned the corner and Katie’s smile got even brighter, Brittany’s fake smile slowly faded off of her face to see the streamers and balloons taped to her locker with a giant piece of white poster board that said, “Happy Birthday! Sign Me!”

She took in a deep breath and plastered a fake smile on her face and yelled, “Oh My Gosh! You girls are amazing. Thank you so much!” while running towards her locker, wanting to rip it into tiny little pieces but refrained, not wanting to hurt any of her friends feelings. How were they supposed to know what her birthday really meant to her?!

“Well, I’ll see you at lunch. Hope you have an amazing birthday tomorrow!” Katie said excitedly while running off.

She looked at her locker disgusted, trying with all her might not to throw up.

“A pretty flower for a pretty lady.” a boy’s voice said from behind her.

She spun around quickly, her face void of emotion and came face to face with Mike.

She looked at the red rose that he held in his hands that were outstretched to her.

“Thanks.” she said, not even trying to cover up her sarcasm while grabbing the rose from him and then turning around again.

She quickly spun her combination into her lock and heard it click. Opening the locker she shoved the rose inside and grabbed her books that she would need before lunch. If she lasted that long.

“Happy Early Birthday Cinderella.” she heard his smooth voice say to her, making her quickly turn around.

He smiled at her, making her heart flutter somewhat despite the way she was feeling moments earlier.

“I got you a gift.” he said and then turned to the side, bringing his backpack to rest on his hip and started digging through it hastily.

“Joe you really didn’t need to get me anything. It’s not that big a deal. Plus, you barely know me.” she said, trying to get him to stop his search for her present, but when she saw his smile form on his face, she knew it was pointless for her to continue.

“Here.” he said, whipping out an orange object from his backpack and holding it towards her with a giant grin on his face.

She looked at his gift and chuckled softly while taking it from him.

Orange Gatorade.

“Thanks Joe. This is exactly what I wanted.” she said after examining it and looking up at him, giving him half a smile.

“What’s wrong? It’s your almost birthday…” he said instantly at her lame smile. If you could even call it that.

“My birthday just….reminds me….of things I wish I didn’t have to remember, that’s all.” she said looking down and choking on her words, already feeling the tears starting to well up in her eyes.

“I just want to go home.” she said softly, wiping at her eyes ferociously to make sure that none of her tears would fall from her eyes.

“I’m sorry. Here.” he said and she saw one of his shoes come into her focus that was still on the ground.

He slowly took everything out of her hands, the Gatorade, her books and placed them on the floor and then slowly took another step closer to her and pulled her into a hug.

She stood there, pressed up against him, willing herself not to cry in his arms.

She vowed to herself to never look weak in public, but that seemed to be going out the window right about now.

“It’s ok Trisha. It’ll be ok. How about….it’s just Happy Friday? It’s technically not your birthday at all then right?” he asked, one arm wrapped gently around her waist while the other one was lightly pushing her head into his chest and stroking her hair.

It felt nice to have someone hold her. And for some odd reason with him holding her, knowing nothing of her past and yet still comforting her, made her more comfortable.

She couldn’t help it anymore. She didn’t care if people in the hallway saw her. Her throat was starting to hurt from trying not to cry and her eyes were swelling shut, wishing that they could let go of the massive about of tears that were being stored there.

She cried. Convulsively shaking into his chest, tears running down her face. Her sad cry, her self loathing and pitying cry soon turned to an angry cry.

Angry that her parents had to be taken away from her at such a young age. Angry that she was lying to everyone that she actually had some feelings for. Romantic or not, she still felt bad for all the lies that she was spreading about herself while only a very tiny portion of it remained the truth.

“Let’s leave. I’ll take you home.” he said, stopping his rubbing of her back, but when he tried to move away from her, she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him back into her.

She didn’t want him to leave. She, for once, felt safe in the arms of a stranger and she didn’t want to let that go yet.

He made shush-ing noises and hummed lullaby’s in her ear until she finally calmed her breathing down.

She didn’t even realize that they were the only ones out in the hallway now. Her tears silenced the loud bell that rang, signifying the beginning of classes for the day.

“Thank you Joe. Really. You have no idea how much that meant to me.” she said, finally able to push off of him and began rubbing her eyes to get rid of the tears, composing herself as quickly as possible.

“No problem. Anytime you need a hug, I’ll be waiting with open arms.” he said and gave her a side smile, looking at her questioningly, non verbally asking if she was alright.

“I’m fine. Really. I just…I need to go home and get some sleep. I didn’t sleep well last night.” she said picking up her things that he had set on the floor.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine alone? I could skip the rest of the day with you. Just if you need another hug or something. It’s no big deal.” he offered, hoping that she would just agree with him and let him come with her.

Not that there was any justification of why she would say yes. They barely knew each other. Their friendship, if you could even call it that, was formed off of him making snide remarks and her glares or smiles. He never knew if he was going to walk away with a look of adoration from her or a look of disgust. Most of the time it was adoration, but she still caught him off guard every once in a while with the disgust look.

“No. I’m fine. I promise. Tell you what…you have a cell phone right?” she asked, situating her stuff back into her locker but keeping the Gatorade on the floor still.

“Yeah…?” he asked back, not really understanding what she was getting at.

“How about I’ll text you or something when I get home. Just so you can stop panicking.” she said turning around and giving him one of her playful smiles, indicating that she was fine…for now.

He looked at her skeptically but then sighed, letting a small smile form across his lips before saying, “Fine.” and rattled off his number while she typed it into her phone.

She looked up at him and gave him a smile after she hit the saved button and then bent down to pick up the Gatorade.

“You probably gave me the two best presents I got in a really long time. Thank you.” she said, throwing him another smile and then walking past him toward the attendance office to call Bobby and ask for permission to leave.

"Two presants?" she heard Joe call back to her.

She smiled as she turned around and walked backwards while saying, "Yeah. The Gatorade and the hug. Thanks."

She spun back around and continued on her way towards the attendance office.

She needed to curl up into a little ball and sleep without a nightmare. So far within the almost four weeks she’s been in Cali, she’s only had 9 nightmares.

Well, not 9 different ones, they were all the same, but still 9 in 20 days that she was there, that was amazing. It would normally be about 12 or 13.

Something about this place was changing her. Maybe it was the fact that she had an actual ‘father’ figure who knew when to talk to her and when to walk away. Or maybe that she had friends. Or maybe a certain boy who gives her a hug in the middle of the hallway despite the fact he knows nothing about her.

Whatever it was, she was very thankful for it.

><

“Alright….since Sharon was out sick today, Rose you’re going to have to fill in for her. You’re Anastasia. Remember, you have to be mean!” Mrs. Creole said the following Monday.

It’s only been a full week since she casted the play and she announced last week Friday, Stephanie had called and told her, that they would all be rehearsing various scenes throughout this week.

“Not like she really has to act mean. She’s already the Devil’s advocate.” Steph mumbled under her breath, making the few people around her, such as Brittany, a boy named Jacob who would be playing the King, Beth who would be playing the fairy godmother and Joe, the prince, all stifle their laughter as best as possible.

Last week Friday, what happened between her and Joe was actually surprisingly easy to act as if it never happened. He looked at her more often, studying her face to see if she was going to crack, but other than that, they still acted the way they used to.

They were getting a little bit closer though, just because of the play, and his lack of understanding Econ, but not too much closer. He would make her turn around in her seat and they actually could hold a 5 minute conversation now before it got all tense and awkward between them.

It was defiantly hard for Brittany to act like she wasn’t happy to see him everyday he showed up to play practice despite how little he actually had to be there.

Mrs. Creole told him he wouldn’t need to come until the following week, but he insisted that he stayed and watched and ‘bond’ with everyone. Although he spent a lot more time with Brittany and Steph than he did with anyone else. And when Rose would call him out on it in her little groveling for attention way like, “But you always are with them. Come hang out me.” he would just shrug his shoulders and go off and hang out with Jacob, the king and a black haired boy named Mark who was going to be the king’s assistant.

“Where’s my Cinderella and Step mother?!” Mrs. Creole called out, looking frantically around the room.

Brittany and Steph sighed and made their way to the frantic woman and asked, “What would you like us to do?” as politely as possible.

“Let’s see how well the scolding scene is coming along. I know you were having some trouble remembering your lines before.” Mrs. Creole said while looking at Steph and giving her a sympathetic smile.

“I know you’ll get it. Let’s go.” Brittany said quickly when she saw Steph’s head drop in disappointment.

They took their places on the stage. The stage crew bringing out a stuffed animal to be Lucifer and a bench for Steph to use as her bed.

She cleared her throat and looked down, concentrating on getting into character while Brittany stood patiently across the stage, waiting for Steph’s first line.

“Come here.” she ordered in her authoritive voice, but calm voice.

Brittany hastily made her way over to the bench, stopping just a few centimeters away from the end of it.

Steph looked back at her, no emotion at all in her face, dead in the eyes and started petting the ‘cat’.

They looked at each other for a few seconds, Brittany looking scared somewhat and then said, “Oh please you really don’t think that I-” but Steph cut her off and yelled, “Hold your tongue.

She reached over, as if picking something up like a tea cup or something and said, “Now…it seems we have time on our hands.” while going back to petting Lucifer with one hand and holding an imaginary tea cup in the other.

Brittany then went hastily into her next line, “But I was only tryi-” but Steph cut her off, her eyes widening and yelling, “Silence.”

“Time for vicious practical jokes. Perhaps we can put it to better use. Now let me see.” she said in a calm voice and during her pause, an evil smile came across her face but you could only see half of it since she was looking down and petting the stuffed animal.

“There’s a large carpet in the main hall.” she continued in her calm voice but then snapped her head up and said with a stern ordering voice, “Clean it!”

Brittany sighed and looked down as Steph went back to her calm voice again.

“And the windows, upstairs and down.” then again she turned her voice to a ordered one and said, “Wash them!”

And then her voice went back to her calm voice with a smug smile coming across her face while she said, “Oh yes. And the tapestries and the draperies” but Brittany cut her off while saying, “But I just finished-”

“Do them again!” Steph’s stern voice erupted throughout the auditorium and as Brittany let out a sigh and looked down again at the ground, Steph continued in her calm but stern voice now, to try and get it across that she should not be interrupted again.

“And don’t forget the garden. Scrub the halls and then stairs, clean the fireplaces, no chimney’s. And…ugh!” and then her voice broke as she looked up at Brittany with pain on her face.

“I’m never gonna get this line right!” she yelled, frustration emitting itself through her voice.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get it. You just need to re-read them over and over again. Trust me. You’ll get it.” Mrs. Creole said sadly and then looked down at the ground and Steph got up from the bench and left the stage yelling, “I’m gonna go study them again.”

Brittany looked at Mrs. Creole, waiting to see which scene she wanted her to do next since Steph clearly gave up on that one.

“Well, since everyone else is either out sick today or having a hard time with their lines, why don’t we see what the dance looks like between Cinderella and the Prince.

Brittany’s eyes widened and she nearly jumped off of the stage to avoid this part. She wanted to avoid any scenes that were just between her and Joe. It would be too hard for her to be that close to him and not want to tell him something about her past or just give in and tell him that she likes him.

“Are you sure? We haven’t practiced that at all. It’s not going to be good.” Brittany asked, trying not to sound too whiny and scared at the same time, but Joe popped up out of nowhere and was next to her on stage while Mrs. Creole said, “Well we have to start it sometime. Might as well start it now. Besides, practice makes perfect.”

Brittany nodded her head in understanding and then sighed, turned to her left to see Joe with his arms already in the appropriate positions, one up higher to hold her hand while the other was parallel to her waist, just waiting for her to take a step forward.

She sighed loudly and looked down and then took a step forward, having her left hand go up into his right hand where he intertwined their fingers together.

She gulped, hoping that it wasn’t as loud as it sounded to her, and then her stomach started to get butterflies when his other hand lightly rested on her waist, like he was going to break her if he put any more pressure. She sucked in a deeper breath as she looked up into his face, his smile visibly gone from his face but his eyes seemed to have a certain gleam to them. She picked up her invisible dress, like they did way back in the day and he soon was leading them around in a small circle, moving very slowly to the side of the stage every time they completed a small circle.

They both looked at each other, his chocolate brown eyes burning into her piercing blue.

She started to feel light headed and that’s when she realized she wasn’t breathing, too fascinated by his eyes, and she closed hers abruptly taking in another deep breath.

What the hell is wrong with me? What happened to the hard and strong Brittany Shay. I’m turning into a love stricken teenage girl for a guy that’s all wrong for me. He’s famous. I’m in the W.P.P. He’s perfect in every way. I’m perfectly not perfect in every way. It would never work. We would never work. Maybe if it were back in the day like Cinderella because he’s defiantly royalty and I’m…I’m a maid.

She opened her eyes again to see his eyes crinkled somewhat and that’s when she noticed that a small smile was playing on his lips now. Not one that if too far away you would notice it, but from where she was you could tell.

“And that’s when the music will start and the school’s choir will sing the song. But you’ll have to hum the opening part so it leads into the music.” Mrs. Creole said ecstatically while clapping joyfully, making Brittany and Joe slowly disengage from each other.

“You two were magnificent. Although, you’ll have to work on your footwork a little bit more. Trisha, you seemed to be very…stiff when dancing. I suggest you and Mr. Jonas work on this outside of play practice.” she finished after her clapping and then turned towards everyone else in the audience and announced, “I have to go see how the music and choir is coming along with this. So as of right now, you all are done with play practice. Take tomorrow off too. I’m sure the band and choir will need more help. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be rehearsing on your own time. On Wednesday we’ll come back and I expect to see a little bit better performances for all of you.” and then she disappeared through the auditorium doors.

Brittany did a quick side glance at Joe and saw that he was looking at her so she skipped off the stage.

She wanted to run, but that would have looked to noticeable and slightly awkward that she would look at him and then take off running.

She wasn’t going to be the one to make the situation more awkward.

After she collected all of her schoolbooks and stuff from the auditorium with Stephanie, the two made their way to their lockers to put away and grab the appropriate things they would need for tonight’s homework.

Steph was too wrapped up in her fury of not being able to get her lines right, that she didn’t realize how quiet and awkward Brittany was being, more-so than usual.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Steph practically yelled out, still upset with herself that she couldn’t get the lines right. Brittany nodded as she watched her friend trudge to her car and get in, slamming the door loudly behind her.

Brittany chuckled slightly at seeing how her friends reaction was to not being able to say the lines right and made her way towards the other side of the parking lot to her car. As she made her way past the front doors of the school, she recognized a familiar mop of black hair sitting down on the curb, looking quite frustrated as he brought his phone away from his ear.

She tried to be discretely as possible, walking past him, but she couldn’t help but overhear him say, “Stupid brother.” under his breath and then shove his phone into his pocket.

“What’s up Joe?” she asked curiously, not even having the time to think through of what that simple question could led to.

“Nothing. Just my stupid brother’s not answering his phone to come pick me up early.” he heaved out, reminding Brittany of Stephanie for a few seconds of how upset he looked.

“Why don’t you just drive yourself home? You’re 18 aren’t you?” she asked, realizing how close she was to him and then took a step back.

“Well, yeah. But…I don’t have my license. Price of being famous I guess.” he said back, shrugging his shoulders, his anger slowly starting to diminish as he stood up.

“Oh. Well…” she trailed off, knowing that it was the right thing to do…as a person but wrong thing to do, for herself. “Do you need a ride home?”

She hoped that he wouldn’t accept her ride. She only said it to look like a generous person and be nice and out of courtesy, not really expecting him to accept it.

“Really?” he asked, shocked at what just came out of her mouth and watched her nod her head yes slowly. “Thanks. That would be great.” he said back to her, smile wide on his face, making her heart race.

She put on a fake smile and said, “Great.” trying her hardest to cover up her sarcasm.

The two walked in silence through the cars of the parking lot, but he stopped when she approached the big black truck that was hers.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, kinda confused as to his abrupt halt.

“Nothing.” he said quickly, as if snapping out of a trance and started making his way towards her truck again before speaking.

“I just pictured you in a red convertible or something along those lines.”

“Well, Mr. Jonas, there’s more to me than meets the eye.” she said, smirk on her face, but it quickly fell when she realized how stupid it was of her to say that and quickly opened up her door and jumped into her seat.

Joe seemed to have seen her smirk quickly fall from her face, sensing she didn’t mean to say that, and decided to just give her directions and then sat quietly next to her.

She nodded her head after listening to his directions and took a deep breath as she started up the truck, thankful that he either knew not to ask he questions like, “Really…then tell me something about yourself that no one knows” or was too wrapped up in his thoughts to not have heard her.

It was silent as they drove down the streets of L.A., tension quickly filling the cab of the truck.

She looked over at him, passing it off for checking her blind spot to do a lane change and saw that he was staring intently at her, eyebrows knit together as in a state of confusion.

“What?” she laughed out nervously after seeing how he was looking at her.

“It’s just…” he said slowly, but then snapped his head away from her gaze and looked out the windshield and said, “Never mind.” quickly.

“Come on. I hate it when people do that. What is it?” she asked, letting one of her hands leave the steering wheel to slap him gently in the arm before returning it back.

He looked over at her again, confusion still in his eyes as he slowly said, “You just…you just don’t look like a Trisha to me.”

“What?” she laughed out, trying to cover up that fact that he almost gave her a heart attack from his comment.

“I don’t know. Like you should have a different name….Trisha just doesn’t suit you. I don’t know why…but it doesn’t.” he said and then shrugged his shoulders while looking out the windshield again.

She sat there, trying to think up someway to get this conversation done with as quickly as possible. But another part of her wanted him to just guess her name, that way they could maybe make it into a joke or something afterwards at how ridiculous he really was.

“What do you mean? A different name? Like Tracy or something?” she asked, looking at the road in front of her, willing traffic to move a little bit faster than it was.

“Yeah. Like you’re name should be Danielle or Katie or…I don’t know. Something….” he trailed off, looking at her again.

“Like Brittany?” she mumbled under her breath, her anger sneaking up on her.

Somewhere deep down inside she wanted to hear him say her real name. It would be like her own little secret to herself. Having him call her by her real name and yet him never knowing that it really was her true name.

“Brittany? Yeah…you’re clearly a Brittany. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.” he said, smile wide on his face while looking at her and nodding his head, as if verifying in his head that she should be named Brittany instead of Trisha.

“Well then why don’t you call me Brittany from now on instead of Trisha?” she asked, laughing slightly while saying it.

“Fine. I will. Brittany….Brittany….Brittany!” he said her name each time differently, as if trying to find the best way to say it.

She couldn’t help but smile bigger and bigger every time he said her name. It felt good for someone to say her name…but a little twinge of sadness was still there. He would only be calling her that because he thought that it suited her better. Not really knowing it was her actual name. Despite that, she was gonna take it.

She could feel herself glowing, having someone calling her Brittany and acknowledging her and her name together.

“So…Brittany….” he trailed off, his smile slowly vanishing from his face to be replaced with a scared face momentarily but then appeared calm right afterwards.

“Yeah…?” she asked, finding the street of his to turn onto and doing so.

“Well….I hope this doesn’t upset you or anything….but….could we possibly talk about what happened on Friday?” he asked and she could hear the insecurity in his voice.

As the car rolled to a stop, she put into park, turned in her seat and shoved the seat belt behind her shoulder to get it out of the way.

She watched his profile. Head down, playing with his hands. He obviously was curious about her but was worried about upsetting her.

She could feel the middle of her big cement wall starting to shake from the way his wrecking ball was banging against it. Wanting her to open up to him a little bit more.

“Like I said, my birthday brings back memories that I wish I didn’t have to remember.” she said quietly, looking down at her hands when his head popped up, probably shocked that she didn’t yell at him and say no.

“Like…what?” he asked, his voice small and careful, still not wanting to over step his boundaries even though he so badly wanted to know.

“My parents died. On my birthday. That’s all you need to know.” she said, trying not to break down having a flash of that horrible image of the man killing her mother reveal itself from behind her eyelids.

“I’m so sorry.” he said softly.

"Don’t be. I hate having sympathy towards me because of what happened to them. It’s actually more annoying instead of helpful to hear those words.” she said back, still not looking up at him, afraid that if she did…..she wasn’t exactly sure. She just had a feeling that it wouldn’t be good for her.

She was more vulnerable than she ever was within the last 9 years. And it always seemed to be that way around him. Maybe that was what drew herself to him, the fact that she felt like, if it wasn’t against the rules, she would open up to him completely. It was scary and yet exhilarating how a boy that she barely talked to for a little less than a month was the first one outside of the W. P. P. and her foster parents knew that her parents were dead. She told everyone else that they were away on a work and that she’s living with her Uncle Bobby.

It was silent in the cab of the truck, neither of them knowing what to say after her comment when his cell phone started going off.

They both jumped from the way the silence was broken and he quickly answered his phone.

She turned back to a normal sitting position, ready to get the hell outta here once he got out of the vehicle and also not wanting to intrude on his conversation.

Once he was off the phone he was chuckling a little bit, causing her to slowly turn her head to look at him.

“My little brother….thinks that we were making out or something.” he said through his chuckle and then pointed over his shoulder to his house, to reveal a little boy in the middle of curtains staring intently at them.

She couldn’t help but smile a little at the way the boy was standing there, eyes glued to the window to see what was going on.

“Well, I better go before he calls me again.” Joe said, not moving the slightest inch from his seat.

“Ok.” was all Brittany could muster to say right now. She needed him to leave so she could go home and cement her wall up a couple of more times to keep it from crumbling. She was going to need all the extra cement she could get in order to be around this kid for the next couple of months.

He grabbed his backpack from where it sat in between them and opened up his door and was about to get out when he turned back and said, “Ya know. You should come over tomorrow.”

She looked up at him, shocked at his invitation. I mean, what? She just starts talking to him for more than 3 minutes on a piece of paper, they do one scene together and then he invites her over to his house?! What was that?

He must have sensed what she was thinking and quickly said, “Ya know. To practice on your dance moves. For the play.”

She nodded her head, understanding what he was talking about and sighed out, “That would be a good idea. I do want to have a really good first performance.”

“Ok. So did you want to just meet at my house after school or we can come together. I’m sure my brother would love another day off.” he said with a smile.

“Yeah. We can come together. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.” she responded quickly and watched as he threw her one more smile before exiting the truck and walking up to his house to be greeted by the little boy in the open doorway now.

She smiled, watching him bend down and pick the boy up and throwing him over his shoulder before entering the house while the little boy looked up as best as he could and waved at her.

She waved back swiftly and once the door was shut, she put the truck into drive and started driving home.

She couldn’t help but smile. He was defiantly growing on her. And now she was going to be going to his house tomorrow to dance with him for who knew how long.

He’s probably one of the cutest boys I’ve ever liked. And he’s really nice. Maybe I’ll meet his whole family tomorrow. Wait a minute…meet his family? At his house? What the hell did I just promise him?

Her eyes widened in shock, realizing what she just said that she would do tomorrow with him.

She was slipping. She would never normally make a snap decision like that without thinking about it first. What was going on with her?

How did he somehow get this unwritten power over her without either of them realizing it?

Shit.