You Saved Me

“Come on Brittany! You can do this! It’s really not that hard.” Joe sighed out, disengaging himself from her for the 20th time.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just never danced with anyone before. Let alone a boy.”

A cute boy who for some odd reason smells delightfully wonderful right now, making my dancing a lot harder to concentrate on.

“How is possible to have never danced before?” Joe shot back at her, smirk on his face to let her know he really wasn’t that upset with her about not getting a spin right during the waltz.

“This is pointless. I should just give up the lead to Rose. There goes my first performance ever. Only because I can’t dance.” she ranted while taking a seat on end of his bed.

“Absolutely not! I won’t allow you to give up the lead. That means that I have to do all of this stuff with Rose, which I don’t think I’d find as enjoyable. And what do you mean first performance? Haven’t you acted before?” he asked, taking a seat next to her and looking at her intently for her answer.

More than you’ll ever know.

“This is the first time I’ve ever been in a play.” she said, getting up from his bed from how close he was to her.

She’d been with him all day at school and then for two hours since school let out, making her wall very weak, almost barely there. If he really wanted to, all he had to do was flick it lightly and it would crumble. No doubt about that.

“Really?! You’re so good. Are you serious? This is the only play you’ve been in? I thought you were in like independent films or something. You’re amazing to watch on stage. Granted I’ve only seen you do about 3 scenes, but still, all of them were amazing on your end.” Joe said back to her, disbelief in his eyes at her saying that she’s never acted before.

She blushed at his long string of compliments, but paced his room, not wanting him to catch a glimpse of it.

“Thanks. I’ve always wanted to be an actress. Well not always, but I’ve thought about it a lot more recently.” she said to him and then jumped from hearing a scream come from somewhere downstairs.

She looked over at Joe with a panic written all over her face. The scream sounded like a scared, ‘I’m about to die and hopefully someone will hear and save me’ scream.

“Aren’t you gonna go see if their ok?” she asked scared, the last time she heard that scream came from her mother 9 years ago before it was silenced by a knife.

“No. It’s just a movie. My brothers are watching Scream.” Joe said nonchalantly and then laid down on his bed..

“It’s really not as scary as it sounds.” he said in his nonchalant voice again, still laying on his back.

“It sounded pretty scary to me.” she said back while trying her hardest to not have the shiver run do her back when another scream was emitted from the TV downstairs.

“I’ve seen scarier…” he said, closing his eyes on his bed and then yawned.

“I bet I’ve seen scariest.” she mumbled under her breath and looked out his door again.

“What?” he asked sitting up and looking at her with curious eyes.

“Nothing.” she said quickly, too quickly because now he was looking at her with accusing eyes.

“What’s the scariest thing you’ve seen?” he asked, now standing up and making his way towards her.

“You.” she shot back and then laughed nervously, knowing that he wouldn’t buy her crappy joke for a second.

“Seriously. How about you tell me a scary story and I’ll tell you a scary story. It’ll be like camp only without the fire and smores and tents. Although that does sound kinda dull. But we‘ll still make it fun!” he said excitedly and started jumping up and down.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” she said, trying to get out of the situation that her some part of her kinda wanted to be in.

She wanted to tell Joe everything. Have him know the truth about her. 9 years was too long with her lying to everyone about what happened to her.

“Nick! Kevin! Get up here!” he yelled, ignoring her rejection to the idea.

Within about 3 minutes his two brothers, which didn’t look too much like him, were standing in his room.

“What’s up Joe?” the oldest one, Kevin asked.

She’d been introduced to them hastily upon their arrival before being pulled up into his room to work on their dancing.

“We’re gonna tell scary stories. Wanna join?” he asked while pulling his comforter off of his bed and propping his computer chair near his bed, fixing the comforter over it to make a makeshift tent in his bedroom.

“I thought you were supposed to be dancing for the play?” Nick, the second youngest, asked but still crawled inside the tent.

“We’re taking a break.” Joe said quickly before exiting his room for a few seconds before re-appearing with a flashlight in his hands and flipping off his bedroom light while he flicked the flashlight on.

It wasn’t too dark in his room because of the sun shining in through his blinds, but Joe quickly fixed that by turning his blinds to shut out all of the sunlight.

He then crawled into his makeshift tent with the flashlight.

“Well come on you two. Or are you going to be party poopers?!” she heard Joe ask and then chuckle afterwards.

Kevin sighed and then crawled under the blanket while Brittany followed in after him.

She wanted to stay. She felt good being around Joe, besides the fact she had to constantly remind herself not to talk too much otherwise something would definitely slip.

“Ok. I’ll go first!” Joe said and held the flashlight under his chin and went into a story about werewolves and goblins and witches. Something that you would hear an 8 year old say was scary, only making all of them crack up with laughter at his lame attempt of acting through his already lame story.

Joe scoffed and stopped halfway through his story saying that they’ll never find out what happened to the dwarf princess when Nick grabbed the flashlight from him and went into his own story about a ghost of a psycho killer who haunted the house he killed his victim’s in and would kill anyone who ever tried to move in.

His story actually left goosebumps on Brittany’s arms. He changed his voice and acted out some of the ways the killer killed his victims. Making his story ten times scarier than what it would have been if he just sat there and said it.

“So, Kevin or Trisha? Which one of you are next?” Nick asked after finishing his story and holding the flashlight out between the two.

“It’s Brittany, Nick. We changed it yesterday!” Joe said excited while smiling brightly at her.

She smiled too, happy to hear his voice say her name.

“I don’t know any stories. You can go.” Kevin said while pushing Nick’s arm towards her.

“I don’t know any either.” she said quickly but Joe scowled at her and said, “Come on! You said you’ve seen the scariest thing. Tell us. Even if it is a movie you can act it out yourself. She’s amazing guys!” Joe said while turning towards his brothers and nodding his head.

“Yeah. And we all saw how well your impromptu story turned out.” Kevin muttered while Nick gave him a high five.

“It’s really scary. It’s based off of true events. I don’t think I could do that do you guys.” she said and looked down at his blue carpet and started to pick at it, hoping that Joe would drop the conversation.

“Oh yeah right. Too scary for us. Come on! Plus the ones that are based off of true events are the best!” Joe said while taking the flashlight out of Nick’s hand and shoving it into hers, forcing her fingers to wrap themselves around it.

She sighed, really wondering if this was appropriate. It really went against everything that she had learned within the last 9 years of being in the W.P.P. and could cause her to get kicked out. But then again, if they just think it was a scary story, that’s all they would think about it. As long as she didn’t slip up and say here name, how would they know the difference? Plus she so badly wanted to share her secret with someone. And why not here when it was practically handed to her.

“Fine.” she sighed out after looking at Joe’s pleading face and saw it glow with a giant smile as he leaned forward a little bit, hugging the pillow that he needed for Nick’s story.

“It happened 9 years ago in the St. Paul, Minnesota. A little girl just celebrated her 8th birthday…..” and she went into how her parents let her watch a movie in their room since it was her birthday, having a family ‘snuggle night’ when her father got up at around 11 to get a glass of water. How her and her mother heard the glass shatter and her mother made her go into the closet. How she watched as the man that murdered her father in the kitchen with a steak knife, using the same knife, kill her mother on the bed. And then the cops showed up right after the man finished off her mother. The man fled, but before he did he whispered quietly towards the closet, knowing the little girl was in there, that he would come back for her. How the little girl got thrown into the Witness Protection Program and has been moving around for the last 9 years to escape him.

“Holy crap! You are amazing!” Kevin said astonished while rubbing his arms from where he'd gotten the goosebumps from her story.

“She even cried and everything like the little girl would have done in the closet!” Nick said while looking at his two brothers, astonished as well and also rubbing his arms.

“That’s so creepy! Is the little girl still alive? Did the guy ever find her?” Joe asked, panic in his voice while he hugged a pillow tightly to his chest.

No you idiot. I’m sitting here, aren’t I?

“No, he hasn’t found her yet. But he’s still looking.” she said, wiping her tears off of her face that had drenched the collar of her shirt.

Just saying it out loud to someone made it seem more vivid in her mind. Like it was just yesterday that it happened.

“Boys? What are you doing?” a female voice asked, some slight laughter in her voice once all four of them screamed from the sudden sound of someone else’s voice.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” the soft women’s voice said again while flicking on the light.

After they all got their heartbeats back to normal, Kevin exited the tent followed by Nick and then Joe while Joe helped Brittany up from the floor.

“Mom, this is Brittany. We were practicing for the play but decided to take a break and tell scary stories.” Joe answered while throwing an arm around Brittany’s shoulders.

She would’ve shrugged it off quickly, but not wanting to be rude in front of his mother, she smiled at her, and took in how much she looked like all three of them even though Joe didn’t look like his two brothers that were standing next to him.

“Hi. We’ve heard a lot about you. You are, if not more, as pretty a-” she started but Joe cut her off by yelling, “MOM!” while taking a step towards her.

“Oops. Guess I’ve said to much. Anyways, will you be staying for dinner sweetheart?” she asked, her cheeks turning slightly pink from Joe yelling at her.

Brittany stifled her laugh at Joe’s reaction towards his mothers comment.

Obviously he has something to hide. Just like me.

“Thank you for the offer, but I think I should get home to my Uncle. I’m sure he’d want me home.” she said, smiling sympathetic to the women.

“Oh come on! You’re Uncle will understand. Please have dinner with us. Plus, we still didn’t get that spin down yet!” Joe countered her excuse and then gave her puppy dog eyes.

“Joseph Adam! Don’t get the poor girl in trouble with her Uncle!” his mother scolded him and turned to leave the room, but in the doorway turned her head back and said, “But if you decide to change your mind, they’ll be a plate set for you.” and then disappeared from the room along with Nick and Kevin. Probably to go help with dinner.

Brittany couldn’t help but smile at how nice Joe’s mother was.

Opening up her house to a random girl she barely knew.

“Joseph Adam huh? I didn’t think that would’ve been your middle name.” Brittany said with a smirk on her face as she turned around and took a seat on the edge of his bed.

“Well you always learn something new everyday. Today’s subject was me.” he said back to her, smile visible on his face while he cleaned up his room.

“I’d say I learned more than one thing about you today…” she said while he threw his comforter on his bed and took a seat next to her, asking her what else she learned.

She hesitated before getting up from his bed. She wanted to sit next to him, to feel his body heat and smell him, but this was all too fast and scary for her. She’d just shared her biggest, darkest secret with him and she felt more vulnerable than ever. She wasn’t going to put herself into another situation that might make her reveal something else about her like, how Bobby really wasn’t her uncle or telling him that she was the girl from the story.

“Just that you suck at making up stories on the spot and that you think I’m pretty.” she said, putting a smug smile on her face to cover up her crumbling wall that was rapidly become bricks strewn about on the ground.

“I’ll take the not making up good stories comment…” he said while getting up from his bed and started straightening his comforter out while saying, “But I have no idea what you’re talking about with the pretty comment.”

“Ok. So then your mom just lied to me?” she asked back, placing her hands on her hips with a smug smile still playing on her lips.

Joe snapped up and turned around, looked at her and said, “No. She didn’t lie. Frankie said that you were pretty. Not me.” and then turned again to situate his computer chair back to his desk.

Normally it wouldn’t bother her if someone said that she wasn’t pretty because no one ever said that she wasn’t. At least not to her face anyways. But this time, it kinda stung hearing him say that. She was so sure that he might have been attracted to her, with the whole ‘come over to my house’ conversation and putting up a fight with her decline for dinner at his house, but maybe it was just because of the play that he wanted her to stick around.

I guess this will be easier then. Not having to worry about what he thinks of me. It’s obviously just a professional/co-worker or whatever I am to him for the play. Nothing more.

As he turned around, Joe must’ve seen her fallen face that she wasn’t aware that she was showing and quickly said, “But I never disagreed with him.” with a quick smile.

It was then Brittany’s turn to look away as she felt a small blush creep across her face from his comment.

So maybe he does like me….but that’s bad! Oh crap!

“Will you please stay for dinner? Maybe you’re Uncle has a date or something. Please?” he asked, taking hold of one of her hands and squeezing it lightly while looking hopeful at her.

She stood there frozen to the spot with his hand around hers.

When he grabbed her hand, it sent a shockwave through her body. Something she’d never experienced before.

“Please?” he asked softly while taking another step towards her and grabbing her other hand, sending another shockwave through her body and making the butterflies in her stomach wake up from having the hour or so break from the dancing they had practiced.

“I don’t know Joe. My Uncle is-” she started but stopped when his thumb rubbed against the top of her hand.

She drew in a deep breath and looked down, away from his face, but saw how he was holding her hands.

Now her wall was completely gone. If he wanted to know anything, all he had to do was ask and she’d spill it to him. There was no doubt that she would hide information from him anymore. At least, anymore today.

“I guess I can call him and ask if it’s ok.” she said, shutting her eyes, allowing her breath to leave her lungs, as if getting rid of her last brick that was cemented down, leaving her completely vulnerable for the first time in 9 years.

“Thank you.” he said quickly and then released his hands from her.

She took another deep breath with her eyes closed and when she looked up, Joe was holding out her purse for her to get her phone from it.

She threw a fake smile his way while she grabbed her purse and dug through her purse for her phone.

Pretend that you left your phone at school. No! Cuz then he’ll just make you use his house phone or his cell. Maybe I can fall down the stairs and break my foot…although I don’t think the pain would be worth it. Pray that Bobby says no! Yeah! Just pray! Pray, Pray, Pray![i/]

She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed the house phone and when there wasn’t any answer, she dialed Bobby’s cell phone.

She waited impatiently, praying that he wouldn’t answer while Joe stood impatiently in front of her, a hopeful look on his face.

He picked up on the third ring, sounding slightly scared.

“Hey Trisha. How ya doing? Everything alright? What’s wrong? Are you in trouble? Need me to come and pic-” he fired off quickly but stopped when Brittany cut him off.

“I’m fine. I just wanted to know if you wanted me home for dinner. Joe’s family is making it and invited me over.”

Please say no, please say no!

“Oh.” he sighed out, like a huge burden was lifted off of him from her answer. “Yeah. I guess that’s ok. I have to work late anyways. Just call me when you get home. I might be home a little later than usual.”

She tried hard not to scrunch up her face in disapproval of his answer in front of Joe’s hopeful one.

“Ok. Thanks. See you later then.” she said quickly, trying to hide her disappointment.

For once, she wished that he was the over protective parent that never lets their kids do anything.

“Ok. Bye.” he said quickly and then hung up.

“So…?” he asked, not faltering at all with his hopeful face.

“I can stay.” she said as cheerful as she could, masking how she really felt about the situation.

“That’s great! Now you can meet Frankie and my dad. Their gonna love you!” he said excitedly while he jumped up slightly and then pulled her into a tight hug quickly, but stopped when he realized that she was standing rigid.

“Sorry. I forgot you’re not a big contact person.” he said quickly, his eyes looking upset with himself.

“It’s ok. No harm done.”

Yet.

“Cool. We’ll practice after dinner. Let’s go downstairs. I’ll introduce you to everyone and let mom know that you’re staying!” he practically yelled while grabbing her hand and dragging her out of his room and down the stairs.

* * * * *

“Thanks for dinner Mrs. Jonas. It was amazing.” Brittany said while waving back to the curly haired women from the walkway.

“No problem dear. Come over anytime. It’s always nice to meet one of the boys friends.” she said back, waving and smiling at the girl.

“And Frankie I promise I’ll come over and we can play Ninja Turtles.” she called to the little boy, a smile gracing his face once she said that while he jumped up and down on the stop.

“Drive careful and we’ll probably see you soon!” Mr. Jonas called out to her once she reached the end of the walkway.

Brittany waved back and said a quick bye while Mrs. Jonas shut the door once Nick picked Frankie up and threw him over his shoulder.

“Thanks for staying tonight. It meant a lot to my family.” Joe said while walking around to the drivers side of her truck with her.

“No problem. It was fun.” she said back, unlocking her door and opening it and looking off through the window into the house to see Nick and Frankie wrestling around in front of the living room window while Kevin, and Mr. and Mrs. Jonas laughing at the two boys.

And that was her mistake. Looking in through the window and seeing the family like that.

“What’s wrong? I thought you said you had fun.” Joe asked quickly, noticing how Brittany’s eyes were glossing over.

She snapped her head towards him and quickly wiped her eyes, incase any tears had fallen.

“Nothing’s wrong. I did have fun.” she said quickly while looking down at the cement, already feeling sad and depressed.

It was fine throughout dinner. The whole family sitting there, making her feel like part of their family, but looking in on it…defiantly made her feel depressed that she didn’t get to have that.

A family.

“Don’t lie to me.” he stated firmly in a harsh tone. One that he never used with her before and it actually kinda scared her a little bit.

“I’m not. I really did have fun. You’re family is amazing. You’re so lucky that you have parents and brothers that love you so much. Don‘t ever take that for granted.” she said, making it through her sentences until her last one, which was when her voice cracked, indicating that she was on the brink of tears.

“Oh my gosh…” she heard Joe say softly, making her head snap up and look at his wide eyes, her eyes going wide as well, thinking he figured it all out.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea that this would happen. I’m so so sorry.” he said, wrapping her up in his arms and rocking her side to side.

“What are you talking about?” she asked through her tears that slowly were starting to fade from the way he smelled and his body heat wrapped around her.

“With the dinner and everything. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize that it would make you feel bad because of….your….situation. With your parent’s gone and all. I’m so sorry. I won’t make you eat here again.” he said softly, trying to make his words hurt less even though they were so…final.

Her parents were gone. There really wasn’t any other way to say it where it wasn’t like a stab to the heart.

She pushed herself out of his arms, leaving them an arms length apart and looked up at him and said, “No. I really did have fun. It’s just…I’m not used to seeing a family so happy. It just makes me sad that I’m never going to be able to have that with my parents. Trust me, you did nothing wrong. It was really nice having dinner with you and your family. It actually made me feel happy for once, about my situation.”

“Really?” he asked, looking stunned at her choice of words.

“Really. For once I actually felt like a part of something. I haven’t felt that good since before my parents died.” she said with a small smile.

“Not even with your Uncle Bobby? Or any of your other relatives?” Joe asked, confused at to why his family made her feel more welcome than her own.

She felt her heart race against her chest at his words. He just assumed that since she moved so much and was living with her ‘Uncle” that she lived with her other relatives over the years. She didn’t want to lie to him. It sucked that he already was thinking things that were based off of the little bit of real information that he knew about her.

“Ummm…yeah. Out of all the other places I’ve had dinner, I never felt as welcomed and comfortable than with you. I mean, you and your family.” she quickly corrected herself.

There, it wasn’t a lie at all. She really felt comfortable with him and his family. More so than anyone else that she ever had dinner with. It felt good not lying to him. I just have to think harder on how to word it.

“But it’s getting late and it is a school night. So I better get going.” she said, getting out of his grip that he still had on her and hopped into her truck.

He smiled at her as he shut her door for her.

“So….I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” he asked with a little bit of hope in his voice.

“Yep. I can’t wait for gym to kick your butt in tennis.” she said through her window, laughing while saying it.

“Oh! It is so on. You’re going down tomorrow!” he shot back at her, smile on his face as he took a few steps away from her truck when she started it up.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Joe.” she laughed out as she put her truck into drive.

“K. Oh! And text me when you home. Just so I know you got home ok.”

She smiled at him and nodded her head. “Ok. Good night Joe.”

“‘Night Britt.” he said, waving quickly before he made his way behind the truck and onto his walkway.

She gave him one more smile and then pulled away from his house.

As hard as it was to see him and be at his house, getting to know him for the 5 hours she was there, she felt so alive. It felt exhilarating, being with someone who could crack you with just the right question.

She was defiantly changing. And she liked it. Joe defiantly was different from anyone she’d ever met. So was Stephanie and Jessica and Katie. She had friends. For the first time in 9 years, she had friends. Good friends. Friends that she hated lying to.

I’m not going to lie anymore to them. I’m going to just be….cryptic. Give them answers to their questions, without really giving them answers. It’ll be hard, but it’ll be worth it.