The Boy Who Knew Me When(7)

Once Brandon was dressed he climbed into bed next to me and propped himself up on his side.

“I know that doesn’t change anything Jem, if that is why you are crying.”

I shook my head back and forth trying to force the tears back into my eyes but it didn’t work.

“I love you Brandon, I really do and I am so sorry I am hurting you!”

He put his hand to my cheek and leaned over me kissing the tears from my eyes.

“Shh, it’s OK baby, it’s time to grow up, time to move on. I get it, you can’t give me everything. I have always known , deep down I knew I didn’t have all of you. No matter how many times I tried to convince myself otherwise I knew. But I also knew you loved me, somewhere deep down it was there.”

He wiped the rest of the tears from my face and we stared at each other briefly before he got up off the bed and held his hand out to me helping me up.

“Get dressed and walk me out?”

I walked Brandon out to his car without saying a word. Not because I didn’t have a million things that I wanted to say but because I knew it would hurt both of us too much to say them. He opened the passenger side and pulled out a small manila envelope.

“Don’t open this until I am gone. It’s a little cheesy but I wanted to give you something to remember me by.” He handed me the package.

“Don’t forget about me Jem. I am not going to be an idiot and say I am going to wait for you because I know you will never come to me. But I am hoping we can be friends, which is such a strange thing to say after everything that just happened. But I don‘t want you to forget that I will always be there when you need me.”

He placed his hands on my chin, pulled my face to his and kissed me for what was surely to be the last time.

“I won’t forget you Brandon, I promise. And so you know, I don’t regret a thing. You should know that, every second we were together, I regret none of it.” I cried.

His arms wrapped themselves around me once again and I felt his soft lips kiss me quick and soft on the top of my head, “Thank you, baby.”

Then he turned around, got in the car and drove away leaving me standing on my front lawn holding onto the envelope for dear life.

If it were not for Brea catching me off guard I am not sure I would have ever moved.

“Earth to Jemma!” she called out jabbing me in the ribs with her bony finger causing me to jump.

“Ow!” I yelped. “Did you come to make up or do you still hate me?”

She thought for a moment.

“That depends, was that Brandon? He said he might stop by.”

All I could do was nod. I seem to be at a loss of words most of the time these days.

“Well, what happened? Did you get everything sorted out?” she pressed.

“I think so, it was hard but I think we both know where we stand and are going to try to make friendship work. Though I am not so sure how to do that with him almost two thousand miles away.”

Then I turned and walked back in the house taking the stairs up to my room as Brea followed behind.

“Well, in that case, I forgive you. Sorry I freaked and bailed on you. As far as your future with Brandon, it’s friendship, not romance. It’s a lot easier to make a long distance friendship work than it is to make a sexual relationship work.”

I nodded in agreement as she stepped through the bedroom door stopping as she reached the bed. She made a gesture that looked a lot like sniffing the air and before I knew it she punched me in the shoulder.

“You bitch! Did you and Brandon have sex?”

I felt my eyes widen then quickly turned away from her knowing all to well that Brea was one of the few people who could read me like a book. I pulled my suitcase up and began dragging it to the door.

“YOU DID!” she shouted. “What the hell Jemma? What were you thinking? Are you two back together? Was it hot? Say something for crying out loud!”

But the truth is that I didn’t know what to say or where to even begin. I was not even so sure I wanted her to know anything at all. So I just said,

“Not sure about Hell, never been there. I wasn’t thinking, no, YES and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. We have closure, we are staying friends, enough said. Don‘t push it, OK?”

She let out an exasperated sigh and surprisingly gave up without protest. “OK.”

She paused, both of us taking in the inevitable moment of ‘moving on’ that we were now faced with.

“Then I guess it’s time to get this shit loaded and get the hell out of this crap hole of a town?”

I let out a much needed laugh at her question and simply said, “Let’s do it!”





Chapter Three