Jovie & Bash

Sixteen || Rain

|CHAPTER SIXTEEN|

I dreamed about rain. I dreamed about a cold, heavy, downpour and crashing thunder and lightning so bright it blinded me. My mind was blank but my senses on overdrive. I felt too much and all I could do was scream, but I was alone and nobody could hear me. And when I woke, my throat was hoarse and my body was numb as though I truly had exhausted every inch of me. Beside me the sheets were drawn back and absent of Bash. Finally, I could think again, but memories of the day before suffocated everything else so that I was forced to sink into the mattress with the weight of them.

Quickly, I untangled myself from the sheets and found myself too close to the ground, and my legs burned when I stood while my head spun with the sudden rush of blood. Silvery winter sunlight illuminated the room, and outside Bash's bedroom door the warm glow of the living room lamps and quiet hum of the television drew me from my nightmare.

Greg shuffled past me in a rush, barely taking time to shove his feet in his boots and throw his coat over his shoulders before disappearing into the snow laden streets of Ashwood Creek. I glanced over to where Bash was sitting on the living room couch spooning oatmeal into his mouth while reading a worn-out hardcover book, paying less than half a mind to the newscaster on the television. From the odd stillness and white light forcing itself past every half-covered window I knew it was late morning and that I had overslept. The feeling made me sick, and the embarrassment from yesterday's events were quickly catching up with me.

Bash looked over his shoulder and smiled tiredly. "Good morning, Jovial. You just happened to get incredibly lucky. We got ten whole inches of snow last night unexpectedly, and the entire town decided to shut down and clear it up. School's cancelled."

I sighed. "I wouldn't say that's lucky."

He shrugged and creased the corner of the page he was reading as a bookmark. "Your mom called. She wants you home immediately."

My stomach lurched and I squeezed my eyes shut as a shiver went down my spine. Like yesterday, I felt the incredible urge to run away, to cut off all ties with her and disappear into the world and recreate everything I knew, but I knew I couldn't. Bash wouldn't let me.

"I'll get you something to eat. You get dressed. You know you have to go back," he said carefully.

"I can't think of anything I'd like to do less than face my mother right now." I opened my eyes as he stood. "I don't know what I was thinking. It's all a mess, now. She must think badly of me...disrespectful, spoiled, unappreciative..." I raked my hands through my hair, overwhelmed with my heart racing and dizzy with guilt.

Bash climbed over the couch and took a few short strides before encompassing me in his embrace. What felt frazzled a second ago, what felt disorganized and chaotic shrunk under the catch of his arms. It was as if he'd caught the shrapnel of an exploded bomb and carefully fitted the pieces together again.

"Disappointment" was the last muttered word to escape my mouth before he smothered me with his clean amber smell and reassuring grip.

"You're embellishing the situation, and in an outlandish way that's only intensifying your own stress," he told me in his silly pompous language that seemed out of place only until you listened to the richness of his voice. "No scenario is ever as terrible as the ones our minds fabricate when our thoughts are saturated with paranoia and anxiety. In other words, nothing is ever as bad as it seems. Your mom sounded worried, not angry. So, take a deep breath. You're Jovie Underwood." He chuckled. "You're sort of like a spinning wheel-and I thought you wouldn't allow yourself to teeter and fall over."

I breathed a light laugh into his shoulder and pressed my forehead into the crook of his neck. He was much too comforting for someone I couldn't keep.