The Minutes We Have

chapter eleven

Bailey's jeep stopped in my driveway. 

He had turned off the headlights, as I had requested, and only the engine purred through the silence that had inhabited the cab since we left the lake party. Bailey was staring out the windshield at nothing in particular, and I turned my face toward him. 

Had he seen it?

"Bailey--" I started and then paused, my words seemingly caught in my throat. He hummed and looked over at me. Had I really seen blood? Was it even real?  "...thank you for tonight." 

He gave me a small smile. "I wish the cops hadn't crashed it," He sighed, "But I'm glad you had fun." 

I glanced at the dash of his jeep. The digital green letters told of how late the night had grown. 3:54 am. Soon, it would be dawn. "Don't you have school in the morning?" I rose an eyebrow at him. 

"Well yeah," He chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm used to getting like three hours of sleep," He gave my shoulder a light shove, "Now get out so I can go home." 

I laughed, rolling my eyes, but reached for the door handle. "Alright, I'm going," I popped open the door and stepped out into the comfortable night breeze, "Text me when you get home?" 

"Gotcha," He said, already shifting the jeep into reverse, "See you!" 

"Bye," I replied and closed the door. 

He reversed out of my driveway and I could clearly see the white outline of his jeep as he drove away, and then his headlights blinked to life once he was down the road a bit. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind of what I had witnessed tonight, and headed into the house. 

I knew the front door was locked and I had purposefully left one of the windows into the living room open an inch. I climbed over the bush resting beneath the sill, slipped my fingers underneath the window, and heaved it up. I stealthily snuck back into the house. 

Well, I thought I had. 

After I closed the window, flicked the lock, and turned around, I realized I was wrong. I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye, in the direction of the couch, and my eyes flew to the figure sitting there. I was frozen like a deer caught in headlights. 

For a second, neither of us said anything, and then, "Where were you?" 

My chest deflated at Roman's voice. He had been hot on my case lately about who I was going out with, I should have guessed he would be suspicious. Although I thought I had kept everything under the wraps about the party tonight, and I had thought none of my brothers knew. "Why are you up?" I deflected his question.

"Who'd you go with?" 

"Does it matter?" 

"Yes, actually," He leaned forward. My eyes had adjusted to the dark and I could see him more clearly now. He rested his arms on his knees. "You do realize that it's four in the morning and you just snuck in through a window?" 

"Duh," I rolled my eyes, "How long have you been up? "

He stared at me blankly. "Since I heard you jump out of your window. We have a front door, you know, you should use it sometime." 

"You heard that?" I blurted and then wanted to smack myself. He was trying to get a rise out of me, "Nevermind, what do you want?" 

"For what?" 

"You know what." 

"Oh," He pretended to remember, "So I don't tattle on you?" 

"Technically, I'm an adult," I frowned at him, "I can do what I want, when I want, and I don't have to tell you."