Lighting a Match in the Rain

Chapter Thirty-Four

Reed was waiting by my car, leaning with both of his palms against the door and his head hung down. "You can just tell me," he said, turning to face me as I reached him.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Tell you what?"

"That you don't want to do this," he said, shaking his head. "Not take the judgment. I wouldn't blame you, you know."

I stepped closer until he leaned his back against the car and placed his hands on my hips. Leaning into him, I cupped his face with my hands. "If anyone tries to talk me out of this, I won't hear them," I insisted. "I promise you."

His chest rose and fell as he nodded. We said nothing else at all, yet I've never had a conversation so deep as the one I had with his eyes in that moment.

I leaned further into him and kissed his lips, hoping everything I was thinking was being translated through my actions. He kissed me back, gripping my hair tightly in his fist and pressing his fingertips into my waist. "Let's get out of here," I spoke, pulling away for only the time it took to speak. "I need space from them."

Understanding, he nodded, tightening his grip on my waist, and pressing his lips hard against mine. "We can go to my place."

Though I really didn't want to get out of his touch, I climbed in the car. He followed suit before I pulled out of the driveway and headed for his house, dreading the thought of what I'd be facing when I had to go back home.

#

Word had gotten around quick. Sunday morning, I woke up to at least thirty direct messages on my social media accounts that regarded Reed picking me up from the party on Friday.

"Can't wait to see how bad this fallout will be."

"You'd be better off getting back with Sebastian."

"You won't catch his eye forever. His interest will go elsewhere."

The comments were rude, offensive, and just flat-out ridiculous. So I silenced my notifications and didn't reply to a single one.

I made a quick decision to text Reed. If I was getting rude remarks, I was sure he would be too. Or maybe he wasn't. Either way, I didn't find out because he didn't answer or reply.

By the time I got ready for the day and headed downstairs, dad was gone and my mom and Macey were on their way out of the door, bundled in their boots and coats. "Ella, Honey, there's a box in the living room full of Grammy's old stuff that I found in the basement. I think it's mainly just a few knickknacks and some jewelry. Please pick out what you want to keep for yourself. Macey already grabbed what she wanted."

I nodded but furrowed my eyebrows. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I'm dropping Macey off at a friend's and then going to the store for some groceries..." she paused as Macey waved at me and walked outside. "We will talk later," she insisted, her eyes telling me it wasn't up for debate. Great. I could only imagine what other fight we were going to end up in. I'd stayed at Reed's house so late last night that when I came back early this morning, everyone was deep asleep.

I watched her leave, actually thankful to be left alone for the morning. I'd expected to come downstairs and immediately get yelled at for what happened the evening before.

When I dropped down to my knees beside the cardboard box left in the living room and looked down inside, I expected to find old stuff that wasn't worth anything but sentimental value. I pulled out old sweaters, some feminine and lacey with old mismatched buttons, and some with dark shades of stripes. There were old pictures of her and her husband--my Grandpa who passed when he was only sixty-seven--that I put aside to keep, along with a few dainty gold bracelets. Not finding anything else that I wanted to keep in remembrance, I picked the sweaters back up out of the floor and put them back in the box.