Chapter Nine ~ Alone at Last
A month later, at the beginning of summer, Jason and Elizabeth were swimming at Elizabeth's house. Both were in the pool, Elizabeth was lying out on a raft drinking sweet tea in a closed spill proof cup. Elizabeth was trying to tan, but Jason was playfully splashing her with water. She would only occasionally splash back, but not so often. Still teasing her, Jason swam up behind her very quiet like and flipped her off her raft!
Elizabeth screamed shrilly, "Oh my goodness! Jason! Why did you do that?! The water is freezing cold, and it was not very nice! You shouldn't….."
Jason just let her rant at him while he just stood there with a sly smile on his face. When Elizabeth finished letting off steam, her face was bright red from yelling so much, therefore Jason splashed her again to "cool" her down.
"I'm sorry," Jason grinned boyishly.
"Its fine, I guess… It still wasn't nice though….. As well as I'm in the water…." She broke off, splashing Jason with the icy cold water.
"Hey! That wasn't fair!" Jason exclaimed.
"Sure it was, after you sneaking up on me like that!" Elizabeth laughed.
"Okay, okay! Let's call it a truce then," Jason stated, with his hands up in surrender.
"No way!" Elizabeth yelled competitively. They carried on like that for another hour, but Elizabeth eventually ended up winning much to Jason's displeasure by pushing him into the pool, and dunking him under the water.
Later that afternoon, Jason and Elizabeth were sitting on the couch, eating ice cream and popcorn, while watching a movie. They were sitting close together. Jason slowly put his arm around Elizabeth, pulled her closer to him, and gently kissed her sweetly upon the lips. When Jason released her, Elizabeth had a confused look on her face.
"What was that for?" Elizabeth pondered aloud.
"I don't know…I just wanted to kiss my girlfriend….. Is there anything wrong with that?" Jason worried.
"No, it's fine! I was just wondering that's all…" Elizabeth stated quietly.
"Okay….? Whatever…" Jason said reaching for her again. This time Elizabeth pushed Jason away. He tried again but the same result from Elizabeth occurred.
"What's up? Why don't you want me to kiss you?" Jason asked confused.
"I don't know! I just feel like we kiss far too much and need to do less of it. Can we just watch the movie please?" Elizabeth said exasperated.
"Um, I kinda have to get home to help my dad with the yard," Jason explained pointedly.
"Alright," Elizabeth sighed, while turning off the movie.
"Bye," Jason said awkwardly heading towards the door.
"Bye, see you later," Elizabeth said with unexpected tears brimming on her eyes and gently rolling down her cheeks.
As Jason opened the door, he wiped the stray tear from her cheek and Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug. Jason, turning red, quickly left afterwards.
Later the next day, Jason called Elizabeth, just like he promised.
"Hey! I want to apologize for yesterday afternoon. I don't know what came over me," Jason apologized sincerely.
"I think I do. I'm so attractive that you just wanted to kiss me a lot," Elizabeth laughed jokingly.
"Oh! Well, that's a reason I suppose. But the right one, I'm not sure…" Jason pondered, jokingly.
"Hmmmm…. True I guess no matter! Let's enjoy the time we have right now to talk!" Elizabeth exclaimed, in the same manner.
"Okay, why not?" Jason agreed.
"Well, what's up?" Elizabeth asked.
"Nothing much really, I just called to apologize for yesterday," Jason said avoiding.
"Well, you could come over and we could redo yesterday, if you'd like?" Elizabeth inquired.
"Okay, sounds like fun! I'll be over in 20ish minutes," Jason said hanging up.
Jason was over there in 15 minutes. He knocked on the door and Elizabeth's dad answered it, because Elizabeth was upstairs getting dressed. When she came down several minutes later, she was wearing white short shorts, with a loose navy blue flowy shirt. Jason and Elizabeth's dad were talking at the front door. When Elizabeth saw Jason from the top of the stairs, she came running down them and leapt into Jason's arms right as her dad started to leave. Jason, surprising Elizabeth, caught her without even letting her toe touch the ground.
"Thank you for catching me without falling or letting me fall," said Elizabeth appreciatively.
"You're quite welcome!" exclaimed Jason. There was a quiet awkward pause between the 2 of them while Jason was still holding Elizabeth above the ground.
"Ummmmm… did you want to watch the same movie as yesterday or do you want to go home and get my swimsuit and we can go swimming again?
I'll invite Samantha and Katie who can invite their boyfriends," suggested Elizabeth.
"Let's do the swimming idea. That sounds like a lot more fun than watching a movie. But while we're here alone, I need to ask you something," Jason explained pulling her to the couch to talk.
"Yeah sure go right ahead," agreed Elizabeth curiously.
"Um, well these past few months we've been going kind of fast in our relationship like you said yourself yesterday. It kind of bothers me because I'm afraid of messing up and causing you unnecessary pain. That would absolutely kill me if I did. But I was wondering if you would mind if we just took things a little slower than what we've been doing," Jason said unsurely and nervous of Elizabeth's response.
"Yeah, that's perfectly fine with me. I feel as though as I, have been the main cause of the problem. I'm really sorry, and I hope you'll forgive me of this unnecessary problem I have created," Elizabeth said tearfully.
"Hey now, don't cry about it. Of course I'll forgive you, even though it's not your fault. Why wouldn't I? But, I also think we need to be praying about this so that God can help us with this," Jason suggested.
"Yeah, of course I agree. I think that that is totally needed. We need to put all of our worries at God's feet, knowing that he'll provide for us," Elizabeth stated calmly, the tears going away. So, because of this new resolution they just made, instead of kissing a lot, they just had a light hug.
"Okay, you can go home and put your swimsuit on while I get mine on and call Samantha and Katie. Does that sound like a plan?" inquired Elizabeth suddenly changing topic.
"Yep, sounds good to me. See you in about 20 minutes," Jason said leaving.
When Jason left, Elizabeth dashed upstairs to put on her bikini and call her friends. The bikini she was wearing today was black with neon rainbow with a heart on it in the corner. As soon as she was dressed, she grabbed her phone and called Samantha and Katie as a group phone call.
They both answered, "Hello?"
"Hey, it's Elizabeth," the caller said.
"Hey, Elizabeth!" they both exclaimed.
"I was just wondering if y'all would want to come over to my house to swim. Jason is coming and you can call your boyfriends and invite them too. It'll be a lot of fun! Just get dressed and bring whatever you need to have a fun filled day with your friends," Elizabeth explained.
"Yeah sure definitely, it sounds like a ton of fun! See you in about 10 minutes," said the girls together.
Elizabeth then set out everything they would need on the pool deck. She got snacks, drinks in cooler, inflatable rings and rafts, water guns, sunscreen, extra sunglasses, extra towels, and other stuff of the kind. It was about 5 minutes until they arrived. Elizabeth was applying sunscreen and waterproof mascara. She wanted to make herself look pretty and tan but not sunburn. She was putting on her finishing touches when the doorbell rang. She quick grabbed a strapless cover-up and put it on while dashing down the stairs.
When Elizabeth opened the door, her friends Samantha and Katie had worried looks on their faces, like something had happened. They exchanged glances and told Elizabeth that they needed to talk. Elizabeth ran into the kitchen, grabbed some bottles of coke, and ran back into the living room where Samantha and Katie were sitting. She set the bottles down on the table and sat down. Her friends' worried glances weren't exactly reassuring.
"Elizabeth, we have some bad news and we know you're not going to take it well," Samantha began. "Well, I guess we should start telling the story from the beginning. You called us after you told Jason about the swimming idea. We were all excited about it and called our boyfriends and told them too. Jason had offered to pick them up and drive them to your house. The guys turned down the ride because they had to pick a couple things up afterwards. Well, you know how far Jason lives out, and on his way over here….. Here's the bad news, he got in a car wreck. We were driving on our way here when we saw the wreck. Jason's car was flipped over. There was an ambulance and everything. When they had finally gotten Jason out, he was unconscious, his head was bleeding, and he had tons of cuts all over. They took him to the hospital right away, but they weren't sure how he would be," Katie explained, her eyes full of tears. Elizabeth just had tears streaming down her face as she was silently crying.
"Will you drive me to the hospital like right now? Please?" Elizabeth asked her voice full of concern and sadness.
"Of course, but you might want to change first and fix your makeup," Samantha said, while Elizabeth was slowly getting up and walking upstairs.
When she came down 5 minutes later, she was wearing short jean shorts and a fitted lacy v-neck camisole. The tank was a pretty teal fading to a light teal. She had her hair up in a messy bun and fresh makeup, all water proof, applied nicely. She was also wearing black flip flops, which matched her attire.
She came dashing down the stairs with phone in hand and a scribbled note in the other, which explained all she could write on it about what had happened to her parents where she went. Elizabeth quickly taped the note to the door. With her friends already in the car, she quickly opened the car door and jumped in. Samantha quickly drove to the hospital to see Jason and the other guys because they were already there visiting him. Elizabeth was crying a lot on the way there which was like 10 to 15 minutes. She was seriously worried about her boyfriend and how badly he was injured.
It took Samantha a long time to get to the hospital because of traffic. When they got there, Elizabeth asked for Jason Kane's room. When they got pointed to his room, Elizabeth ran to the door crying. She was stumbling with her hands to get the door open, but when she did get it open, she was too stunned to speak at what she saw. Jason was just as Katie had described him. Surprisingly, he was awake when she came in. Elizabeth was explaining to him all she knew about what had occurred. She was having a difficult time doing just that through all her tears. While she spoke, she observed his appearance. Even though he wasn't bleeding anymore, he still looked pretty awful. His head was stitched up and so were some other cuts on his legs and arms. He had a big white bandage around his head, covering up a majority of his beautiful hair. He had quite a few bruises as well. Elizabeth knew that a lot of his cuts, especially the stitched ones, would leave scars.
Later, when the nurse came in and told Elizabeth that Jason needed to get some rest, Elizabeth gently bent down over him and kissed him softly so careful not to wake him, seeing as he had already fallen asleep She then left the room with tears still streaming down her face. Outside the door, Elizabeth just stood there, silently praying to herself that God would lay a healing hand on her boyfriend. She knew that she couldn't do anymore and that Jason was in God's hands now.
When Elizabeth had opened her eyes, Katie, Samantha, Josh, and Luke were all standing in front of her. Each of them gave her hugs and quietly told her that they'd be praying for Jason's healing. Then, they all went back to Elizabeth's house. Her parents still weren't home yet so Elizabeth called them and explained what happened. After the phone call, Elizabeth asked, "Can we pray for Jason right now? Please?" Her close friends all eagerly agreed to her request. When they finished praying, Elizabeth got a phone call from her dad!
"Hey, Dad…." Elizabeth said through all the tears.
"Are you and Jason alright?" Mr. Banks asked his voice full of concern.
"I'm fine, but Jason has been better," Elizabeth cried, tears streaming down her face even faster now because they just kept coming.
"I'm so sorry! I hope he gets better soon because he may not be with you much longer," Mr. Banks stated sadly.
"What do you mean?" asked Elizabeth shocked.
"I just was told that I got transferred to Hawaii," Mr. Banks said excitedly.
"You did?! That sounds amazing, but what about school, my friends, and especially my boyfriend?" Elizabeth asked concerned.
"Well, I don't know about those things yet. But don't tell anyone until this tragic event with Jason has passed. Also, make sure that you tell Jason this news first though, before any of your other friends. Understand?" Mr. Banks asked strongly.
"Yes, sir. I promise not to tell anyone until Jason has healed completely," Elizabeth promised and hung up the phone.
"Who was that?" Elizabeth's friends asked.
"My dad, but I can't tell y'all what he said until Jason is completely healed and anyway Jason would be the first to know because he's my boyfriend.
"Alright," her friends agreed even though mystified.
