Crushing Gravity
Chapter 9
"What's six times eight?" I ask the silence. It stretches out for several moments, and then there is a shift in blanket and a head pops over the side of my bed.
Leah blinks down at me from my spot on the floor, and gives me a slow teasing smile.
"Shouldn't you know this by now?"
"If I was going to be embarrassed by not knowing, I wouldn't have asked," I deadpan. "Are you going to tell me the answer, or am I going to have to work it out the long way?"
She chuckles, not offended in the least, and rolls back onto her stomach on my bed.
"Forty-eight," her answer drifts down to me and I hastily apply it to the rest of my math problem.
Normally, I wouldn't bother with any of my homework, I would just be moving to a new school soon anyway, but Leah has been getting on my case about not even trying it, so I've been attempting it for the past few weeks.
It was strange allowing Leah into my room the first time, and watching her flop onto my bed. There was no room for me to lie without any part of us touching, so I had taken to sitting on the floor.
I didn't really want to start my homework, it took me just an hour of staring at my bag before I sighed dejectedly and stated pulling things out. By that time, Leah had finished with hers and had to wait for me.
It turned out alright though, because apparently I've been learning nothing in school, and she helped me.
It's a small routine that we started, but it's kind of nice. Sometimes I get the bed and Leah takes the floor, but we always take at least an hour to do homework before anything else. Leah insisted. I don't know why I agreed; maybe because she's the first friend I've had in forever, and just felt obligated to.
"Done!" I say cheerfully.
"With everything?" Leah's face appears back over the edge, hair slightly mused and sticking to her cheek. She bushes it away absently.
"With the first problem," I admit and grow defensive when she gives me a look. "What, I keep getting distracted."
And I am again as my thoughts drift off to some random thing that pops into my head, like its odd that Leah's eyes are so similar to Wolfe's, the same shade of dark swirling brown.
"Sam," Leah calls, snapping her fingers in front of my face.
"What?" I ask, dragging my eyes back to her face where they had drifted to the window.
"I said that maybe we should take a break- do something outside."
I leap to my feet immediately in eagerness.
"Wanna grab something to eat and walk down to the beach?" I offer, already pulling on my shoes.
"God, yes; I'm starving," she complains, sitting up all the way and rubbing her stomach like its actually giving her hunger pains.
She just ate about an hour ago when we got here after school. It's not very surprising though that she's already hungry; she always eats so much- even more than me and I have always stuffed my face whenever it's available.
As we walk down the path from the house, Leah scoops up my hand to hold in hers.
That's another thing that's different. She would always try to hold my hand, and sometimes I would let her, or I would harshly yank it away.
I leave it alone and I can see her grin from the corner of my eye. She always smiles when I don't shake her off.
Do friends normally hold hands?
We stop at the only family run diner on the reservation, and sit in a far booth. Leah's gaze lingers on a particular table for two by the window.
She nods to it. "My ex boyfriend and I used to eat here all the time. That's where we always sat."
She doesn't sound hung up on him anymore, but there is the small taint of old hurt in her expression.
"The one with my name." She nods. "What happened?" I ask.
"My best fiend, who happened to be my cousin, visited from another tribe and he fell in love with her. They're engaged now. Wedding's in August."
"That sucks," I say not knowing what else to say.
She faces me again with a laugh, dark eyes sparkling. "I'm over it; and I understand now. It hurt a lot for the longest time, but I'm happy for them."
The waiter comes over and we order our food.
"Hey, you wanna take this down to the beach and make a picnic out of it?" Leah's asks, and I shrug so she asks for the food to-go.
The air outside is cool, thick clouds blocking out the sky and making everything seem like dusk even though I know there are still a few hours before sunset. The world is soft, a grey that doesn't bother my eyes, and it's nice that I can be outside without it hurting.
The only other color that really stands out here is the green of everything, so the world is just a wash of simple color.
Dark grey sky reaches as far as can see, bleeding into the ocean and lighter grey sand, and then the start of vegetation takes up everything else.
Leah and I find a good spot on the sand, leaning back into the logs that were used for the bonfire I had been forced to go to, and the fire pit lays is grey sludge with burned wood and ash.
Everything is wet, though it hasn't rained since last night, but nothing here ever really dries.
"How long were you and Sam together?" I ask after an extended silence of just eating.
"Three years," she says.
That's long. Even I know enough to know that it is.
"How old were you when you went into the foster system?" She asks, tentatively like she's not sure if she should ask.
"I was seven," I sigh, setting down my burger and digging my fingers into the sand. They bump into rocks and seashells, and dirt gets under my nails. It's unpleasant.
"What happened?" She's even quieter, hesitant, but curious enough to actually ask. I'm surprised it even took her ask long as it did. I expected it weeks ago.
"My mom had died two years before, so my sister dropped out of college to take care of me, but she couldn't keep me." My hands turn to fists, furiously crushing the sand in them. "They took me away. They didn't even listen to me because I was just a kid and what I wanted didn't matter. It was just a little money problems, we could have made it, but I was causing problems at school. She's should have told me they were going to take me away; I would have tried harder!"
I glare at my dirty shoes and rub the sand off on my pants.
Leah gently touches my shoulder, but I'm not in the mood so I shake it off.
"There's a bonfire this Saturday; would you go with me?" She asks after several seconds, effectively changing the subject with ease.
"Sure," I say, because friends are supposed to accept invitations to things. I'm getting kinda good at this friendship stuff.
She smiles brightly at me, and it's contagious.
We finish eating quickly and toss the trash into one of those bins along the beach. We walk for a while, mindlessly chattering. Well, Leah mindlessly chatters while I blurt things out randomly as they pop in my head. I don't know much else how to make the conversation two-way, but I am unbothered by the one sidedness of it. Leah seems just fine with it as well if her constant smile is anything to go by.
Something, suddenly, cold and wet drops onto my cheek like a tear, and I turn my head up to the steadily darkening grey.
"It's going to rain," I interrupt, making her brake off from whatever story she was telling me.
No sooner had I said that, than the sky opened up and cried.
The down pour is sudden, just a single drop in warning, before buckets off water in thick drops pound us from above.
I shriek in laughter as I'm soaked through in seconds and Leah's own returning peal is hard to hear.
Uselessly shielding her eyes, she grabs my hand and takes off running down the beach it the direction we had come. A chill seeps in, shaking my body in shivers, but I'm still happy, still laughing, and still stumbling behind my friend.
She drags me back into the diner, puddles immediately forming under our feet. I cross my arms over my chest, trying to retain heat as I shiver violently, teeth clacking noisily together before I can stiffen my jaw.
Leah's arms wrap around me from behind, and my back goes stiff. Her entire front is pressed into me, her hot face buried into my neck.
It's very uncomfortable to me; warning bells sound in my head. The most I've ever allowed her to touch me is to sometimes hold my hand.
I shudder violently like you do when you're suddenly being warmed, and my body naturally seeks the heat, so I allow her to continue to warm me.
Slowly, my body relaxes into her, as it grows more comfortable being held in this way. Eventually, I even lean into her, pressing myself as closely as possible.
She shivers too, arms tightening on my waist. She's so warm even in her wet clothes. It's like leaning on a working radiator as it works to heat a room.
The rain outside pounds on for about an hour before abruptly stopping like a switch was flipped. It's gone as suddenly as it came, and I even see a flicker of the setting sun.
"Come on," I say, pulling away from my friend, "let's go back to the house and get some dry clothes.
We both are still very damp, and being away from Leah now just makes me even more aware of how cold I actually am. I get the feeling of rolling out of my warm bed and stepping out into the snow outside, barefoot.
Or maybe jumping into an unheated pool in January is a better analogy considering the wetness. Eh, how would I know; I don't pay attention in English.
Leah holds my hand firmly as we walk, and she seems happy like she had just won something grand.
When we get back to my- the- house, I send her to the bathroom to change into some of Brady's clothes. I, myself, bundle up in several layers before sliding into my covers, still trembling slightly.
When Leah walks back into the room, she takes one look at me before pulling the covers up and sliding in next to me. She's really been ignoring the no touching rule today and she's covering my feet with hers, and- oh, her feet are really warm. How is she so warm?
With her pulling me into her, combined with the heavy blankets, I'm finally completely warm and I drop off to sleep easily for the first time in weeks.
A/N: Well, there we go; Leah is getting somewhere with her. What do you think guys? Is she giving in too easily or can she just not resist the pull she doesn't even know is there?
Review!
~Silver~