That One Moment...

Chapter 9

Day 47

Sarah woke up feeling pretty miserable. The fight she had with her parents last night was not the first, but it seemed different somehow. She looked around her room wondering how she was going to move everything downstairs. Their house was a split level, so the basement was partially finished and had a sliding glass door out to the backyard. There was a woods behind the house beyond a small patch of grass. Some would find it creepy, but Sarah had played in the woods since she was little and it was a place of calm for her. It wouldn't be too bad once she got it set up. The bathroom that was on the landing between the basement and first floor had a small shower that would be enough for her to use as well. The difference between last night and other fights was that she was actually taking on more power, not quickly cowering before their objections and yelling. Of course, it felt like a sharp break, but it had been coming as she grew older and realized, at least after the fact, that she was not usually the one at fault.

Finally getting out of bed, even though it was only around 6, Sarah pulled out some jeans and another baggy sweater. Her parents had just pulled out of the driveway, so she could move around freely. Since she had some time before the bus would arrive, Sarah decided to start moving some things downstairs and see what she had to work with.

Sarah had taken a number of piles of clothes and random belongings downstairs and was currently debating on how to move the bed and dresser into the space she had cleaned up in the basement, when she was startled by the doorbell ringing.

Not knowing what to expect, Sarah ran upstairs and opened the door. She really should have checked first and then she would not have been standing with her mouth agape as she looked at who was standing on her doorstep.

Never in her wildest imagination would she have pictured Ryan at her door, especially not at 6:15 in the morning. It looked like he was also surprised to be standing there as well.

"So, uh, yeah. I was sitting in bed this morning and started to worry about you. I know this sounds strange, but I swear I saw your mom screaming at you when I dropped you off last night. I thought about knocking on your door then, but I left and then I kept just thinking about it." Ryan blurted out at her in a rush.

"Um. I'm ok I guess. Yeah. Thanks. It was something. I, um, ..." Sarah stuttered back, unsure how to respond.

Ryan stared at her a bit oddly. "Why are you holding a random stack of books, clothes, and pillows?"

"Oh. Haha." Sarah looked down at the random assortment of stuff that she had grabbed from her room to take downstairs. She had totally forgotten what she had been doing a second ago. "Yeah. So, I am moving myself into our basement. My parents think my working hours and noise will impact their ability to sleep. I'm not too sad about it. Might be fun to have more space."

"You want some help? I got a bit before school starts and can give you a ride."

Sarah just stared at him. This was weird. She wasn't sure what to say. Why was he even here? How did they get here again? Staring a bit too long, Sarah realized it would be helpful moving her dresser, bed, and other larger things downstairs...

"Well. I guess so. I was wondering how I would get my dresser down two flights of stairs."

Ryan's face turned into an odd expression where Sarah got the impression that he was questioning himself for offering. Laughing, Sarah added "no turning back now!"

That was how she found herself working with Ryan for a half hour to move as many of her possessions downstairs as possible. In the process, she found herself telling Ryan a bit about her family. She talked about her older sister that was away at college, her dad's issues with alcoholism and how it was impacting her (but left out some of the details), and how she couldn't understand why her mom stayed. In return, Ryan talked about his quite normal and supportive family, but also about the stress placed on him as an only child and all the expectations both he and his parents had for him. As they discussed his many athletic endeavors, it turned to the women's basketball team and their upcoming practices and tryouts. Sarah didn't know how it happened, but Ryan talked her into trying out. He also made it clear to her that there were a lot of people willing to help her out with juggling school, work, and sports. She had made friends, including him, Chris, and Abby that wanted to help. Half of her thought it was just Ryan feeling guilty for his seemingly perfect life in relation to her parental issues, but the other half of her brain wanted to really believe it.