His Safety Net

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

       It took a long time for Jerome to wake up after he crashed. In fact, despite it still being early in the evening when Brandon brought him here, he ended up sleeping all night and was still sleeping by the time my alarm went off to get ready for school.

       I debated whether or not I should wake Jerome up or just leave a note telling him that I left for school. In the end, I didn't have to make the decision because Jerome started stirring around as I was getting changed.

       After I put on my shirt, I walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it as Jerome opened his eyes. He groaned, sitting up as he rubbed his forehead. I remembered the glass of water and pills Dad gave me the day before for Jerome, so I grabbed them and handed them to Jerome.

       "Thanks," Jerome muttered before taking the pills with the water. Afterwards, he set the water back down on the nightstand. He rubbed his forehead again. "I don't even remember coming here."

       "You must have been really out of it, then," I said. "I-I mean, I could tell you were but you don't remember coming here so you were probably more out of it than I thought..."

       Jerome sighed and laid down, covering his face with his hands. "How did I even end up here?"

       "Brandon dropped you off," I said. "He said you refused to do anything until you saw me. Kind of sweet." 

       "Sorry if I said or done anything stupid," Jerome muttered.

       I didn't reply. I wanted to ask Jerome about his drinking, but I didn't know how to bring it up without him getting mad at me. He didn't like it when I questioned him about his bruises and didn't believe his 'I got into a fight' excuse. He probably wouldn't like it if I asked him about his drinking, and I really didn't want him to get mad at me.

       Since I was silent for a while, especially right after Jerome said something, Jerome lifted his hands away from his face too look at me. "What's wrong?"

       "N-nothing's wrong," I said. "Nothing at all. Just... tired because... s-school."

       Jerome sat up, obviously not believing my lame excuse. Cure my stuttering and hesitating nature.

       "Nolan, seriously, what's wrong?" he asked.

       I looked down, not wanting to make eye contact as I ask him the very serious question. It made it a lot easier so I didn't have to see his expression turn to anger, if he didn't like what I was about to ask him.

       Maybe I shouldn't even ask him but... I just wanted to make sure he was okay. He had done so much for me lately, even more so when he found out exactly what I was going through. How could I do the same for him if I couldn't even ask him what was going on?

       Then again, he probably wasn't ready to talk about it. I didn't want to pressure him into asking what was wrong. He never pressured me...

       Since I still was taking too longer to answer, Jerome moved closer to me. "Nolan, you're kind of scaring me. What's wrong?"

       "N-nothing's wrong," I said, still looking down. "I-I just... I'm... I'm worried about you."

       "You're worried about me?" Jerome asked. "Why?"

       "I-it's just... This... It's not the first time you were drunk..." I said. "So... Um... I-is there a r-reason? N-not that there has to be b-but... Brandon thinks there is... We weren't t-talking bad about you or anything. I just... I asked him because last time you got arrested, it was because you were drunk..."