One Minute Too Late

Anger, Fear and Jealousy

It took her quite a while to calm down after that. Independently tending to her injured foot (-and nearly passing out three times doing so, almost throwing up), she gathered the remaining shards, locked all the doors, and went to bed knocking herself out with painkillers.

Normally, she would have fallen asleep right away, as she was very susceptible to the sleep-inducing component in painkillers, but the peaceful sleep wouldn't come. Instead, she fell into an unpleasant half-sleep where every time she closed her eyes, she saw Billy.

One half of his face was lifted in a suggestive grin, and he looked at her lecherously. The other half was contorted in pain, with a tear rolling down his cheek. He looked like a creepy theater clown. While she was screaming and crying, he was staring at her, frozen in place, anguish palpable in his face. As uncreepw as it might seemed to others, she was terrified to the bone. She tried to tell him, she couldn't help him. She didn't know how. But when she tried, her own muscles froze and she was unable to move herself paralyzed to see him suffer. Jamie woke up covered in a sheen layer of sweat multiple times, her throbbing foot reminding her of the evenings events.

When the early morning hours finally arrived, she could have cried with relief. She was completely exhausted, but at least she could stay awake now and didn't have to deal with her thoughts or Billy anymore.

Or so she thought.

As soon as she came down to the kitchen for breakfast, her mom looked curiously at her over the rim of her coffee cup. Then she gestured towards a neatly folded shirt.

"Got any visitors?" she asked innocently. Jamie's ears turned red as she quickly snatched the shirt from the kitchen table.

"No."

Now her mother actually grinned. "Oh, then little elves must have sewn the shirt during the night, hmm? Or were they the mice from Cinderella? I could use a new dress too, do you think they'll sew me something?"

Jamie rolled her eyes. Once her mother had picked up on something, she was like a dog with a bone. "It's not what you think!" she tried again, and then waddled past her mother's curious gaze at the kitchen table to the coffee maker to pour herself a cup. She definitely wasn't fit enough for this conversation yet.

"Billy-"

Her mother's eyes widened.

"The Hargrove boy?!"

Damn small town. Everyone knew everyone. Once again, she missed Seattle.

"Yeah, the Hargrove boy," she quickly confirmed and tried to continue, but her mother interrupted her again.

"Is he about to descend the stairs as well?"

Jamie sputtered. "What? No! Mom!"

She raised her hands in defense. "Just asking! You're 18 now, a grown up. Technically you are allowed to–"

"Yeah, I'm interrupting you right there, before this gets uncomfortable of both of us."

She just snorted, mumbling "Always shooting me down." into her cup but let it go for now, After another hefty gulp of coffee she added "However, be careful Jamie, alright? I... heart of him. And his antics.  He doesn't seem to be one of the good ones."

Jamie couldn't really argue with her mother on that. Still, it irked her, that her mother prejudged him so quickly, only by his reputation. She heard herself defending him: "You don't even know him."

Her mother raised her eyebrows in surprise at Jamie's retort, and Jamie shook her head and waved her hands to indicate to hurry along. 

"Billy stumbled onto our front door confused. He was standing with a nasty head injury on our doorstep and didn't remember who he was or how he had ended up here.  When I let him in, he was completely soaked and collapsed on our kitchen floor. I almost slipped in the puddle his clothes had left behind and cracked my skull..." Her mother's eyes grew wider and wider with ever word Jamie said. Maybe she should have just said she had invited someone into the house at night who then left his shirt here. Her throat constricted. "... but Billy caught me in time. His clothes were still completely soaked, and so he wouldn't catch a cold, I got him a towel and ... well, that's how the shirt ended up here in the kitchen." And more would have landed in the dryer if he hadn't pulled a Houdini on her...