Into the Darkness

“OK fine, let’s go. But you’re following me home in case someone comes along and tampers with something else.” I locked my car and climbed into his. I was drenched. My lips started to tremble as the cold took hold of me.

He turned the heat up in his car and took his scrub top off, wearing only a white wife-beater underneath. I couldn’t help but look…obviously. He leaned over to the backseat and grabbed a Jersey with the name ‘Edwards’ scrawled across the back.

“Here, put this on.” He tossed it over to me.

“No it’s OK, I’m fine Alex,” I answered not very convincingly, my teeth chattering as I spoke.

“I’m not taking no for an answer. Change into this or you are going to catch a cold. I’ll turn around.” He turned to face the driver’s side window.

I turned to face the opposite side of him, slowly pulling my top off. Even my bra was soaked. I undid the hooks and quickly pulled the jersey over me while I swiped my bra off. Not a bad effort in a small confinement. Suddenly the atmosphere changed as I looked over at Alex, his face in turmoil. Yeah okay, I’d let this one go. I was half naked for a second and he was a hot-blooded guy despite the wedding band on his finger.

“Better?” He leaned over and brushed away a wet lock of hair from my face. Suddenly the car felt hot, the air was charged. I was certain I was blushing. Whether it was from the heat or his touch, I couldn’t tell.

We pulled up to his house. It was a small cottage in a secluded part of the town, very cute, reminded me a lot of Hansel and Gretel minus the gingerbread of course. It was dark and I could see no lights on. I was hoping the witch—oh, slip of the tongue—I mean Samantha, wasn’t there, only because it would feel awkward, me wearing his top and all. He opened the front door, turning the light on. I followed him through the hallway as he continued to turn on some lights.

“Samantha isn’t home. She’s in San Francisco for the night babysitting her nephew.” He looked over, watching my reaction. I was relieved. Not that I was doing anything wrong but there was just something about him that made me feel comfortable. I felt my body relax.

“Nice place. It’s very cozy.”

We entered the living room, my eyes drawn to the enormous fireplace nestled against the back wall.

“It’ll do for now. Unfortunately my wife doesn’t seem to think it’s good enough.”

“I would love a place like this. But then again I love fireplaces. Nothing beats curling up in front of one reading a good book.”

“You don’t sound like a normal teenager.” He laughed.

“Define normal?” I asked.

“Well, definitely not my sister,” he said. “I’ll be back in sec. I’ll try to find these jumper leads. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”

Alone in the living room, I walked over to the mantelpiece to look at the photos that sat perfectly aligned in their frames. There was one of Alex on his graduation day standing proudly with his mom and dad, another of Alex and Adriana when they were kids. It was adorable. They were both wearing cowboy hats and holding up an icecream cone which had three scoops. It looked enormous compared to them. There were a few others which I assumed were of Samantha and her sisters. The one that caught my eye was the one of them on their wedding day. She looked stunning in her dress. Her face was radiant as she looked into his eyes. Alex was holding her, his eyes a different shade of emerald than what I normally saw. I had no idea how that was even possible. Despite that, he looked happy and I reminded myself again to ignore these feelings that were starting to build up inside me.

“I found them,” he murmured as he stood close behind me.

We weren’t touching but I could feel the electricity radiating off him. His slow breaths were blowing against my skin, whooping my body into a frenzy. I closed my eyes, just for a second allowing myself to live in the moment.

“Your eyes, they look different here. Are you wearing contacts?” I turned slowly to face him, the emerald green shimmering in front of me. Like being under a spell, I stood still, gazing at them.

“No,” he whispered.

His face inches away from mine, I started to panic because I knew I had no self-control. I don’t know how long we stood there staring into each other’s eyes, my heart beating a million miles a minute. I could have sworn he was leaning in, thanking God his cell started ringing and broke us from the temptation.

He took the call in the kitchen, talking briefly before hanging up.

“Sorry, that was just Samantha, talking my ear off about her nephew.” He sounded annoyed. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the baby talk or the fact that she called and interrupted us.

“Are you guys thinking about having kids soon?” I regretted asking almost immediately.

“She wants to but I think we are way too young.” He sighed. Clearly it was a touchy subject. Why oh why did I open my big mouth and bring this up? Now I had visuals of them having sex, fuck! I was getting annoyed with myself, and this strange possessive feeling was nagging at me. This jealousy was all kinds of wrong.

“I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just that I’m kind of sick of this topic being brought up. I don’t understand why she can’t see how young we are, that there are still so many things for us to do before settling down—like our careers, traveling… Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink or eat?” he asked politely, changing the subject.

I was starting to feel awkward being here, not with him, just in this place…her house. The feeling nagged me, the voices in my head telling me to let it go, walk out and not look back. “No, I’m fine. We probably should head back. It’s getting dark outside.”

He grabbed his keys and the jumpers, turning all the lights off before we headed back out to the car. I climbed in, this time the music low, playing a Bon Jovi ballad. We were awkwardly quiet. Had I done something wrong? I wanted to look at him but was afraid he would catch me in the act.