“Earth to Kass. Are you willing to come back to the planet or are you going to stay lost in space?” Darios waved his hand in front of me.
“Yeah, sorry, what were we saying?” I asked.
“I'm going to leave for a few hours. I’ll be back, okay?” he waited for my response and I nodded.
Darios left but he gave me the same speech that Jason did, making sure I deadbolted the place and put the alarm on. I walked over to my couch, lost in my thoughts. The memories were so vivid that I felt like it had just happened to me. The thing was I didn’t remember all of it. My phone chimed, I looked over and it was from Tara. I picked it up to read it.
Tara: Hey what time r we going to the club?
I ignored it. I was going to throw it, when it chimed again.
Jason: It’s me. Can we talk?
Jason wanted to talk, but my heart wasn’t ready. I had fallen for him and now everything was so complicated. I sat down on my couch. I was too exhausted and emotionally spent to care about anything right now.
It was raining again, but this time there weren’t any thundershowers just a heavy rainfall. I got up to try to eat something. I wasn’t up to eating anything, but I knew I needed to or else Darios would have a shit fit.
I walked over to the kitchen to eat something when my cell began to ring. I picked it up from the table. MY BOY was written in bold letters over a pic we had taken of both of us. I put it down and chose to ignore it, until a faint knock on my door caught my attention. My phone chimed.
Jason: It’s me.
Jason was outside in the rain. He hated the rain just like I did. I made my way slowly to the door, but I couldn’t find the strength to open it. I watched him through the peephole. He was completely drenched, from his hoodie right down to his Converse. I watched as he paced back and forth.
“Kass?” he said meekly. He leaned in, his hands on the door to steady himself. “Fuck, I know I fucked it up, but at least let me explain to you what happened. Kass?” he said with regret in his voice.
I watched as he struggled with himself. He tried to knock again, but stopped. He paced back and forth, trying to figure out a way to talk to me.
“Kass?’ he choked out. “You know I hate the fuckin’ rain. Now you know why. But you make it go away. The rain, it doesn’t bother me when I'm with you,” he murmured. “Fuck. Kassia, please?” he begged with his voice cracking.
I unlocked the deadbolt and held onto the door. I swallowed hard and opened it. Jason stood with his hands in his jean pockets, his head was lowered and his hoodie soaked.
“Come in.” I gestured for him to walk in. He stepped inside and stayed at the door entranceway. I closed the door behind him and walked back inside.
We stood in silence. He and I had an eighteen-year history that I knew nothing of.
“Tell me what I don’t remember Tell me your version,” I asked, my eyes brimming with tears.
“My brother came and broke into the house. My parents had cut him off, telling him that if he chose to do drugs then they would no longer deal with him. We hadn’t heard from him for over a year. He came in from the back door. My dad confronted him. That’s when I hid under the stairs, in the cupboard. I heard them arguing and then I heard two loud bangs, which turned out to be gunshots. He had shot my parents. I watched from a small slit as he went around the house trying to find money.” Jason stopped and took two deep breaths. He stood far from me and didn’t once try to look at me. “Then you came. I heard you calling. My brother hid, but you came inside asking if we needed help. I saw you. I saw the way you looked at what had happened. That’s when I inched out and you found me. You saw me and smiled a little. You told me it was going to be okay. You took my hand and squeezed…you told me you were taking me to your house. Then it happened,” Jason said grimly.
“What happened?” I asked, afraid of what he was about to tell me.
“My brother ran out to stop you. He stood at the door waiting for you. He hadn’t seen me I guess, but you threw me in the cupboard and told me it was going to be okay and to be quiet. All I heard was you running around the house to get away from him. He finally caught up to you and threw you down onto the ground. I was watching from behind the door, through the little slit. You were fighting him, telling him to get off you. I ran out and took the small marble statue my mom had and used it to stop him.” Jason’s voice broke and he began to cry. My heart shattered as I heard him tell me his version of the story we shared. I instinctively moved forward, but Jason backed up. “You pulled me into your arms and asked if I was okay. You then ran to your house and held me.” He wiped his tears with his wet sleeve.