Heartbreak Girl

Chapter Fourteen: Welcome Back

 Jeriah's mom dropped him off at the house with their things before she went to work. He could see a head of golden hair through the kitchen window and grinned. Quietly grabbing the doorknob, he slammed the door open with a grin. "Bibi, I'm home!"

Tabitha spun and gave him a wide grin. "I can see that."

Jeriah jokingly sighed and dropped his mom's suitcase and his duffle onto the floor. "A precious pop-culture quotes wasted on the likes of you." Quickly slipping off his winter boots while Tabitha wrapped her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held tight, wishing he could take the pain Coen had inflicted. That was one thing he thought about while on the mountain. That and his slip-up.

Pushing that thought aside, they pulled apart. "How are you doing?"

She gave him a tired smile. "I'm doing alright. Shaye took care of me."

His earlier thoughts coming to light again, he felt his heart flicker to a lukewarm feeling in his chest. "She did, did she?"

Tabitha nodded, "she did." Clenching his hand that was encased with her long and lean hand. "Don't give up on her yet."

Puzzlement washed over him like a wave. "What do you mean?"

She bit her lip and looked at him with pleading eyes. "I can't say. But just-" she sighed and ran a hand through her already tousled hair. "Just don't give up on her. She knows what she wants."

Jeriah's thoughts were spiraling. What could she mean, don't give up? Did Shaye feel the same way about him? When he gathered his thoughts to speak words, Tabitha had grabbed his duffle and was halfway up the stairs.

By the time he reached her, he was staring at a clean bedroom. When he meant clean, he meant scrubbed to look like new. His photos were dusted, the dirty laundry that was on the floor must have been in the drawers because the hamper was empty. Old food disappeared from sight and a fresh laundry smell radiated from the room. "What happened to my room?"

Tabitha blushed. "I-I may have done some cleaning."

Remembering his fight details were on a paper on his now cleaned desk, his mind went into overdrive. Knowing he had it memorized, he still didn't want her knowing abou that. "As in, you threw stuff out?"

She bit her lip and nodded timidly. "Just the really gross stuff." She stared at her soc covered toes, his socks he realized since they were about two sizes too big. "I cleaned all the laundry on the floor, and threw away all of the old food you left lying around."

"Is that a fruity smell in here?" He asked, hoping that the smell didn't seep into his clothes.

Tabitha bit her lip. "The smell of the food was so bad, so I sprayed some air freshener to kill some of the smell before you got back."

Trying to grasp all of the change around him, he asked, "And are those my clothes you are wearing?"

She nodded, as streams streaked down her cheeks. "I-I don't have any clothes that aren't my school uniform so-" she hiccuped.

Realizing she was panicking, he rushed over and wrapped his arms around her shaking form. "Hey, shh. It's okay. I'm not mad."

"But you aren't happy that-" hiccup. "I messed with your room-" hiccup. " and now you're gonna kick me out and I'm gonna be living on the street-" She sobbed into his chest.

"Shh," he kissed the top of her head. "No one's living on the street. I promise. It's just new. That's all, I swear." She nodded into his collarbone.

The doorbell rang. Sighing, Jeriah pulled away. Wiping the tears away from her cheeks, he asked, "You alright?" She nodded, he gave her a small smile as he walked out of the room as the doorbell rang again. "I'm coming! Jeesh, hold your horses!"

After jogging the rest of the way to the door, Jeriah found an old man with a butler's suit on underneath his tan peacoat. The man raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Jeriah. Jeriah wasn't short, but the man before him made him feel like a dwarf. "Can I help you?"

"Does the young Miss Tabitha currently live here?" The man asked in a posh tone. Like he was too smooth to be around middle-class houses.

Taken aback by the unexpected question, "um, yes? Wait," Jeriah stood taller. "Who's asking?"

The man held out a large envelope to Jeriah. Gingerly taking it, the man turned on his heel and walked down the snowy driveway toward a shiny black car and drove away.

Feeling dumb and awestruck, Jeriah looked down at the envelope, he saw it was addressed to Tabitha. Walking up the stairs to his room, he looked to the return address to feel joy fill him. Leaping up the stairs, he rushed into his room and saw that she had collected herself. "Bibi, someone gave this to me at the door. I think it's for you."

Hesitantly, Tabitha took the large envelope from his hand and scanned the face of it.

"I think you got it," Jeriah said cautiously. "You don't seem thrilled."

Her eyebrows furrowed, she explained, "That's because I didn't submit an application, and the only people who have that sort of information would be my parents or-" Anger flashed across her features. "I need to go somewhere."

Tabitha stormed past him, getting to the landing of the stairs before he caught up with her. "Where are you going? What are you going to do?"

She looked toward him, fury in her eyes. "I'm going to see the devil who broke my heart to spit fire at him. I'll be back later." Before he could catch up with an analogy, she was out the door with a sweater in hand.

Breathing out a sigh and running his fingers through his ebony shaved hair, he gathered up the homework Tabitha had conveniently left on the kitchen counter, and went upstairs to work on the schoolwork he put off for three weeks.