Woke Up Married

18. Fourth Wheel

I knew I was going to get home pretty late. I had stayed with Rain at her house while she let her broken heart take the best of her. She cried herself to sleep.
I walked the mile or so to get home. The weather was fairly warm with a cool breeze but I was okay with it. It felt nice and it helped me clear my aching mind.
Just stop expecting him to suddenly fall in love with you, I thought my hands in fist. I unclenched them and took a deep breath. I just wish I understood him.
Part of me was trying to not be upset. He must have gone to the court hearing, and told them he wanted a divorce, and then got back together with Hollie.
Another part of me was saying you love this boy, and if you don't tell him he will never know. Don't give up on him.
I guess part of me was still hooked on him because he could be so confusing. One moment saying lets just be friends and then the next almost kissing me.
I heavily sighed and decided that no matter what I needed to try to remain strong. He was just a guy. He didn't rule my life.
When I reached my street I could see Jamie's car in my driveway not too far away. I hesitated for a moment but pushed myself forward. My insides felt exhausted from holding in the tears, and hurt. I just wanted to sleep...for a long time.
I could feel the little pep talk I gave myself on the way home crumbling under my heart beat the closer I got to Jamie.
At least I didn't see my mom's car. She must be gone with Leonard.
They planned on still going on date nights even though he was officially moved in officially. It sounded nice to say the least. Mom even seemed to be in a better mood lately.
They had gone to dinner and a movie. I imagined they would be gone a while.
I trudged across the grass not wanting to face him, but there he was sitting in the pool of yellow porch light looking down at his hands. When I made my way up the stairs with every step it seemed like an eternity.
Especially since he was staring.
I'd never actually seen him this late before. I was actually really surprised that he was even here. Why was he here? Did he come to tell me in person that he was going to be with her?
"Peyton," He got to his feet. I didn't know what to say, so I just stood there. His voice was light and he actually seemed a little down. "I came to check on you. You seemed really out of it back there and I was worried."
"You were worried?" I was surprised.
"Of course I was. Are you okay?"
I nodded, even though it still hurt. I didn't want to be jealous. I wanted to see him happy. With everything lately I was just glad to see him, and now that it was just us I felt a bit more relieved. I guess there was nothing I could do. His heart belonged to someone else...
I tried to hold onto that reasoning, and not cry. "Uh, it's getting late. I guess you should be going home. Huh?" I didn't want to break down in front of him. I was trying to be strong.
"Do you want me to leave?" He kept his green eyes on me. I could feel my heart clambering around in my rib cage. Look what you do to me, I thought.
"Um, I just thought you would have better things to do than, well, spend your afternoon with a teenager."
"It's not like that I swear. In the beginning it kind of freaked me out, but now things don't seem so..." He must have noticed how gloomy I was because he stopped talking and just looked at me.
"My mom will probably be home soon and I have homework. Not to mention that I'm still grounded because I didn't come home that one time." I didn't really want him to go but I also kind of needed him to. I was worried he would see me cry, or feel the wrath of my mother when she returned from her date and saw us together.
"Oh, that reminds me. How have you been doing in math?"
"Terrible as always. I feel like I know less than when I started, but Mr. Gonzo says that they're holding make-up tests and that'll help a ton if I pass them."
"That's good." He half smiled. "Do you need help with your homework?"
"Yes but if my mom returns and..."
"I'm not worried about your mom. If she returns and says something I'll take the heat for it. It's just homework."
I shrugged. "I guess." Because the truth was I really needed his help, and I had already spent several sleepless nights trying to work through equations that seemed impossible. Plus I kind of wanted to be near him just a little longer.
We went upstairs to my room and I turned on the lamp on my desk. I already had my algebra book open from last night. I took the pile of doodles and the taped up paper heart off the desk and went to shove them in the top drawer.
I wanted him to see that I could be serious. I would get rid of my distractions. He motioned for me to hand them over.
I did and pulled out a chair for him but he sat down on my unmade bed instead. I glanced around the room as he sifted through the doodles of dresses, and other outfits.
"Oh, I like this one." He held up a doodle of a long ruffled dress, then added it back to the collection and kept looking.
"What is this?" He held up the taped up heart.
I just stood there awkwardly. I didn't know what to say or do. I never had a guy in my room before, and even though he was oblivious about the situation, or he simply just did not mind, I was a little freaked out. "Um, just something I was working on."
He looked at it for a moment and then put it back in the pile he was still looking at.
I grabbed my textbook and came over to sit beside him. He handed the papers back and smiled. "You could really do something with those you know."
"You think?" I sort of blushed. I never really thought I was that good at anything, but maybe he was right?
He nodded and took my textbook out of my hands. "Have you worked anymore problems like the ones we went over last time?"
I shook my head yes. "I still don't understand them really though."
He slid the paper to the right side of the book and scribbled down numbers and worked through the problems with such ease. I wasn't really sure, but it made more sense when he explained it than when I did it alone.
I leaned in to watch him work out the problems. I hadn't even noticed we were so close now. He stopped writing and looked over at me. Our faces were just a few inches apart.
My breath caught in my throat. His lips were so close I could kiss him. Suddenly that's all I could think about and it was making my stomach do flips.
At that moment I heard the front door open. Mom must be home. Then it really sunk in, and I remembered Jamie's car in the driveway.
We separated without mentioning a word and Jamie stuck a random homework sheet in my hand and started sifting through the book. It was almost like that moment didn't happen.
I was rewatching the scene in my head when my bedroom door opened and mom stood in the doorway. "Peyton, who's car is in the..."
Jamie stunned me. "Ralph had ten pumpkins and only had two hours to deliver them. He travelled at a rate of two miles every 10 seconds. If he lost a pumpkin every mile, how many seconds did he travel to lose 4 pumpkins?"
"Uh, um, four?" I asked.
"No that's incorrect. Like this." Jamie wrote something down in the corner of my notebook and then showed it to me. I stared at it. It looked like another language. Math was so foreign to me, it made my brain hurt.
"What are you doing?" Mom had her arms crossed over her chest.
"Um, algebra." I actually had to look down at my textbook to register that was still what we were doing.
"Not on the bed." She unfolded her arms just to extend her finger toward my unmade bed. Yeah because that didn't look suspicious already.
We scrambled to get off the bed. Mom made herself at home in my room and walked over to us as I put my books and papers on my desk. I didn't like my mother in my room. It was my territory and she didn't belong past the threshold.
"You must be Jamie." Mom said she had never met the guy before.
"Yes, ma'am." Jamie was so polite. It threw me off. I wanted to tell him he didn't have to give my mom a special treatment, or anything.
"Are you dating my daughter, Jamie?"
"Mom!" I said hastily. I couldn't believe her. That was none of her business. She was way too blunt for her own good.
Jamie didn't seem to mind her abrupt interrogation and my whining at her. He just shrugged a little. "Dating is complicated. I married her instead."
I wanted to hide. What was he doing? My mom would kill us both but for some reason she started laughing.
Leonard appeared in the doorway and my embarrassment skyrocketed. "What's so funny?" He asked rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. He had Buddy Holly glasses on and a paperboy hat.
"Come meet Peyton's boyfriend. He has a sense of humor." Mom had abruptly stopped laughing and to be completely honest that creeped me out. She didn't seem mad but I was worried, my heart beat was telling me loudly.
Leonard and Jamie shook hands. Jamie complimented one of his many odd tattoos and that spun off into a bizarre 3 party conversation with Leonard, my mom, and Jamie. I felt so excluded and weirded out by this suddenness.
Before I knew it, Leonard was all "Oh, yeah. I have one in the other room. Come and see it. It's red."
I had no idea what they were talking about but now I was left here like a fourth wheel. Not even a third wheel, but fourth. I sat down at the desk, and looked at what all Jamie had scribbled in my notebook.
I sat there trying to work out that problem while my brain reeled. What just happened?