“Um, thank you,” I say shyly.
Accepting his acts of kindness is still hard for me.
We reach my locker and I quickly open it so he can put the books inside. But he doesn’t.
I look at him. “Why aren’t you putting them in?”
He quirks up an eyebrow. “Because you need them to study.”
“It’s fine. I can use my notebooks. They have my detailed notes, anyway.”
“Not the recent topics. So I’m taking these with me to my place so you can study.”
Panic grips me. “No! You don’t have to. It’s fine.”
Heath leans down a little and bores his eyes into me. “Do you remember what I said when you came to school after that weekend?”
I try to sort through my memories of that day but everything is a blur. All I remember is the fear and anxiety that crippled me weakly. And him. I remember him holding me and becoming my safe place.
But the words are fuzzy in my head.
“I… ”
He continues, “I said, ‘I got you.’”
Air escapes my lungs hearing those words again.
I got you.
Those three words crack me from the inside, because now that I’m truly on my own with no support from my family. He’s the one I can rely on. He’s here with me, asking me to depend on him.
I nod, biting the inside of my cheek to not cry.
His eyes soften. “Grab anything that you want or need. I’ll carry it. There’s plenty of space in my room for your stuff.”
I nod again.
He cups my cheek and tilts my head back a little so I’m focused on only him.
Blue eyes stare at me with so much love, they nearly drown me. “Don’t overthink, Rose. There’s nothing to second-guess here. I love you and I’m not going anywhere. No matter what happens.”
My nerves loosen up and the tightness in my stomach unfurls.
Since the morning, I’ve been feeling so down. Seeing Heath enter my home and come out with my stuff as if it was a grocery store wrecked me. I was hoping that perhaps my mother was waiting for him, to ask him if I was alright, or my dad was threatening him to bring me back. But none of that happened. They weren’t there. They don’t care.
It’s hard to understand.
Because head and heart keep rejecting the idea.
Heath brushes his knuckles over my cheek, bringing me back to him. “Do you need that biology textbook?”
“No I don’t—” A thought crosses my mind. “Do you need help with biology?”
A smile breaks on his face and he pulls back his hand. “What? You’re gonna tutor me?”
“I can help you.”
“I’m terrible at it.”
