Crave You -N.H-

Chapter Four: Stay [EDITED]

Chapter Four:

I sit on the steps of my house staring out at the starry night sky, I watch as the breeze blows lightly through the trees that line the left side of the house. Brad pulls up and parks quietly before taking a seat next to me.

“Sorry you were late for work,” I say, he claps his hands together but doesn’t say anything to me. The night air was beautifully chilly and clean, it felt amazing to breathe it in.

“It’s alright, she’s been distracted lately,” he makes an excuse for her but I look at him and shake my head before letting out a deep sigh.

“She’s always distracted Brad,” I admit, “She isn’t coming tomorrow to the tryouts, the only way I’ll make her happy is if I bring home the registration package this year.”

“Don’t do it for her,” he says nudging my shoulder. I loop my arm into his and rest my head on his broad shoulder. “I’ll be there tomorrow, booked off work.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I say, insisting almost that he didn’t come. I knew though that nothing I would say would ever change his mind about showing up.

“I made that promise to your dad, I’ll be there.”

“You don’t have to keep promises you made with a dead man.”

The second it felt my mouth i regretted what I had said but I couldn’t take it back. He shook his head softly, but turned to me with a look in his eyes that I had seen before. One that reminded me that my father was my rock, everything I ever had and that no matter what he was with me.

“Sarah, it’s okay to be angry. But remember that your dad was the only thing holding you together. You’ve been falling apart ever since bug.”

“Don’t call me that,” I say to him. When we were eight, we were giving the chance to have our first sleepover. Which was strange in itself. I was never scared of bugs, ever. Snakes were a different story.

We had collected bugs of all types that day, ants, spiders even lady bugs. We had containers of them and finally we got bored of collecting. Bradley looked at me with the most serious face he could before daring to fill my father’s bed with them.

I was never one to turn down a bed, even in young age. So that afternoon I dropped all the bugs we had found into their sheets. I got grounded for two weeks and Brad has called me bug ever since.

“Maybe leaving this place will be good for me. Bad memories and constant struggles are the only things left here,” I say to him. He rubs his hand along his jaw and sighs but doesn’t say anything to me.

I kicked the dirt with my feet upset with my previous statement. I was just angry and could fathom the idea of my father really being gone for good. Jean being along scared the shit out of me, it was the only thing that made me question the decision to leave. I would see her between classes and breaks but even those would leave us apart for two weeks at a time.

“She’ll be okay,” Brad says almost like he’s reading my mind. “I’m still going to be around, she’ll never be alone, not ever Sarah.”

“I--I don’t want her to hate me Brad.”

He lets a small laugh go which makes me remember that I’m being ridiculous and that she would never hate me.

“She couldn’t hate you, she loves you way too much. Sure she’ll miss you, we all will but me and dad will bring her up to London to watch games.” He puts his hand on my face to steady his own shaking palm. “We can make it work, all you have to do is show up for those tryouts tomorrow.”