C A T C H 22 |BWWM|

Ch. 24 • He's In My House!

Meridian, MS. December 1943
Saturday 12:03 pm

Deen

And we're here again. Except we're in the confines of my semi-warm and way more comfortable car. The windshield slowly getting decorated with freezing pellets of rain as we gaze past it into the grassy field. Paislee, beside me, is looking behind her every two minutes in fear that someone will just happen to come here. She's already voiced that she doesn't want the fate of the man that we saw last time.

I turn to her and watch her delicately sip from the thermos. Her eyes are trained on something random and she just appears so effortlessly, gorgeous. I took the quote 'Find beauty in everything' seriously now. Hearing a short sigh, I refocus my eyes to see her's on me.

"What, Deen?" She asked me.

"Nothin'."

The curl of our southern accents intertwined together perfectly. Paislee sighed again before sipping on her hot chocolate. She hated when people were short with her—something I found out recently and planned to use against her.

"Oh, you're an annoying cat." I couldn't control the laugh that escaped my lips as she pouted. "This hot cocoa is really nice though. . ."

She mumbled the latter part and placed the warm container between her thighs carefully. We weren't talking much and the only thing that really occupied our time was the swinging, tall grasses outside of us.

"Have you ever gone steady with anyone?" She paused and turned her head to look me up and down. Raising my eyebrows as a gesture, she simply shrugged. "C'mon, I won't judge."

"It's embarrassing," she mumbled. "You know the deal."

"I don't know. Enlighten me why don't you."

I chuckled and let her snatch her hand away from mine so she could shove my shoulder. I reached over and grabbed her hand again and held on tightly to its warmth. She fidgeted for a second before relaxing comfortably. Everything was still fresh out the box so I had to be careful with the affection.

"What about you, pretty boy?"

"Oh, I don't know .  . ."

"Don't chicken out now," she teased.

Sighing, I opened my mouth to speak. "Well, I had one girlfriend about two years ago. It was alright I guess–"

"You don't have to butter it up, tell the truth. She wasn't just alright."

"I mean I had feelings for her but life happened y'know. Things weren't meant to work out, we were at such a tender age and what did we know about heart-aching, tear-wrenching love?"

"What was she like?"

"I rather talk about the girl beside me than the girl behind me in my past."

I could easily tell she was trying to hide the smile of her's. I screwed on the tops to our now cold hot chocolate and sat them in the back seat of my car. Outside it was still sleeting and I predicted that maybe we would get an early snow.

"I wish it wasn't cold so we could go outside in the field," Paislee said.

"I know, baby doll, but nature is a dud." Putting the keys in the car, I heard the engine roar to life. "You ready to get outta' these boondocks?"

"Not really," Paislee murmured. "My parents and the twins are still at that town hall event."

"What is the meeting even for again?"