Attracting Trouble

Chapter 13: Until it's Not

As soon as the soap and water are able to soak every inch of us as well as the truck, I finally get the windows to roll up.

The only sound is the car wash doing its job on the outside while Will and I sit staring at it.

Then we look at each other and as if we planned it, we burst into guffaws.

He has suds on the whole right side of his face and I can't help but move them to make them looks like a beard. He lets me do it, laughing the entire time.

"I cannot believe that just happened," Will laughs as he wipes the suds away. I do the same and look in the rear view mirror to see just how awful I look.

"I've been meaning to tell you it was dirty in here," I joke and he just looks around. How is he not freaking out? "I'm sorry."

He jerks his head towards me as soon as the words leave my mouth. "It's not your fault, Jess. It's actually really freakin' funny."

We both sit back and let our laughs drown out in the noise of the car wash.

And for a minute or two, I feel like I can stop worrying so much.

I feel like everything will be okay.

Until it's not.

*

Before we can reach Will's house, I end up pulling over so that we can switch seats.

Something about my driving is scary?? I wouldn't know.

We drive to his house where it's empty of his parents. Norah, Will's sister, is still away and that leaves Will to be by himself most of the time.

"So, this is the house you guys moved into?" I ask as he opens the front door. 

"Yeah, Mom checked to see if our old house was available, but it wasn't," he explains. "But hey, we're closer to you now."

I roll my eyes at the smirk on his face.

"Do you miss your old house?"

It takes him a minute. I follow him back the hallway to his room and admire the family pictures hanging on the wall that I had already seen so many times before.

"Not really, I guess," he says.

His room is messy which is not surprising.

He quickly hands me a sweatshirt and he runs into Norah's room to grab a pair of shorts. Coincidentally, he gives me a pair of Norah's shorts that I had worn before.

"Thanks," I tell him before he points me to the bathroom. I pass Norah's room on my way and notice how there is an empty bed with all her things packed into boxes. She must not come home from college often.

I have to strip everything off except a tank top my underwear when I put on the other clothes because of how soaked I had gotten.

Will is just pulling his shirt off when I walk back to his room. I stop short, not wanting to walk in on him changing.

After a got another shirt on, I walk in and sit on the edge of his bed. On his dresser are a few pictures that I'm sure his mom has put there. They're of him and a few guys he must have met at military school.