Chapter 41: Chapter 41

I enjoy the smell of his T-shirt and his room as much as I can before falling asleep. How close we were and how open he was with me.

I wish he was always like this.

I never get this hot when I sleep, but I'm sweaty when I wake up.

I try to open my eyes and see that I'm still wrapped around Kent and that he's still holding me. I was still tired. I didn't sleep at all last night until I got here, and after that rescue, I was pretty physically tired.

I sneak a look up at him and see that he is wide awake and looking at the ceiling. But he looks back at me as soon as he feels me move.

"Hey Julianna." When he whispers, my stomach does a back flip. My favorite is Morning Kent, who has a bedhead, the beginnings of a beard, and kind eyes. He looks more like the boy next door than a mean person.

"Hi." I give a quiet answer.

I wait for one of us to move, but neither of us does. Right now, it's just the two of us, which makes me happy.

"How'd you sleep?" When he asks, I gulp.

"Um, it's not that bad." I did wonder why that was the case. I couldn't sleep by myself, but when I lay down next to him, I fall asleep for the night.

"Good." He answers, and I roll onto my back to get a better look at his room. "What's that?"

"Nothing; I just haven't been in this room before. You never let me in here." As I look around, I whisper. It was plain and didn't have any interesting or personal things. The design was simple and neutral.

"Not a lot to look at." He gives a shrug. "How do you feel?" He makes fun of her with a laugh.

"It's not at all what I thought it would be, but it makes a lot of sense." I laugh, and so does he.

"What's that all about?"

I thought it would be a big mess, though." He rolls his eyes when I shrug. "But you would decorate a room this way."

"We can't all hang up ten sets of Christmas lights and call it decor." He laughs, and so do I.

"It looks like there's no color in here. There are no plants, pictures, posters, art, or anything else. I mumble. "But you seem like the type who gets things done."

"So you think a plant could change things, huh?" "That would be a beginning." I roll my eyes and he laughs. "Most of my stuff is at home. I didn't bring it with me, and I didn't go back to get it." He says yes, and I agree. "How often do you visit your house?" "At Thanksgiving, Christmas, twice in April, and twice in July." He answers.

"Sometimes spring! break."

"Wow." I sigh, unable to imagine seeing my family that little and being okay with it.

"It could be worse. I could be Kyle, who only sees his parents once every six months."

"God, I was sad about that the other night." I just shrug and say yes. "You're all so far away from your families."

"We all want the same thing." He agrees. "I know you and yours are different though," she said.

"They're amazing." I shrug. "Oh, crap, I really should call home. I still want to see mom, and I think I've waited long enough to go see her."

"I can bring you if you want." He whispers, and my eyebrows go up.

"I couldn't ask you to do that because it would take almost 30 minutes to drive there."

I don't care. He gives me his word and then thinks for a second or two. What do you think? The last time he asked, I said no, and there was a good reason for it: we'd already been holding hands for almost 12 hours, which was something else I was desperately trying not to think about.

"O—okay." I whisper, and he smiles quickly.

I get out of his bed and walk down the hall to the bathroom to try to calm down. How did a girl almost die on my watch last night, and Kent was the most important thing to me? I need to figure out what's important to me.

I quickly get ready, throw on some comfortable clothes, and text my mom from my phone.

ME [10:43 AM]

"I'm going home to see my family, and I should be there in 30–40 minutes."

I put my phone in my pocket and sighed. My mind was worn out. Last night, I really did need Kent. I needed someone who wouldn't bother me with questions and would just be there for me. He was willing to help me again when I needed my parents.

[MOM 10:48 AM]

"Do you want me to pick you up?"

[ME 10:49AM]

"No already on my way, see you soon xx"

"Ready?" Kent asks, and I say "yes" as I grab my keys and my dry raincoat from last night. I go with him to his car and jump into the back seat.

We don't talk much, and it's pretty quiet for a long time. I knew we both felt the same way, which was that we had probably hugged, smiled, and laughed a little too much in the last twenty-four hours. I couldn't think of a friend I had besides Kent who was anything like Kent. Even the guys I dated were nothing like him, and they never made me nervous or excited. I didn't want to get close to them at any time.

"How's it going?" I say yes when he asks.

"I-I'm fine." I sigh as I look out the window at the world.

"You okay?" When he asks, I look at him. "The last time I drove you a long way, you got car sick."

Oh, no, not yet. I shrug. I was almost happy that he remembered that.

"I'll still open the windows a little to let some fresh air in." He shrugs, and I take a deep breath of the cool fall air.

"I think it'll be good to spend a few hours at home with mom and talk things over with her." I shrug.

"Good." He answers. "Must I get on the highway?"

"No, go through that intersection and turn left." I teach him, and he nods.

I told him how to get to my house. I lived a normal middle-class suburban life, and from the look on Kent's face, I could tell he thought it was pretty cool.

He asks, "Which one is it?"

"Number 72, the blue one up here on the right." He agrees with what I say. I smile when he pulls up in front of the house. I always felt better when I went home. I had started to think of my apartment as home, but nothing beats going back to where my family was.

"Are you going to come home tonight or stay?" Putting the car in drive, he asks.

"I'm not sure." I shrug. "I'm not sure yet what I'll want."

"Give me a call if you need a ride. You shouldn't ride the bus late at night." He tells me this in a very serious way, and I laugh.

"I know Kent is worried about me, but I've been taking the bus for years. Also, my mom will just bring me back." I smile, and he laughs and rolls his eyes.

"Okay, well, I'll see you later." He says something, and I agree and take off my seatbelt.

I thought about whether or not I should say something to him. I knew I shouldn't leave things here, but I couldn't help myself.

"Thank you." I mumble and put my hand on the gearshift next to his. "I know that wasn't how you planned to spend your night, and I also know that it's not how you usually spend your time. It meant a lot to me and helped me a lot. Thank you." When I look at him and whisper, he gives me a half smile.

"At any time, honey." When he tells me, I move over to hug him.

"Thank you." When I say it again, he lets me go.

"No problem, see you when you get back." When he talks back, I nod, open the door, and step out onto the street. When I look up at my house, I see a picture of my mom walking down the driveway.

"Julianna?" When she asks, I smile even though my heart hurts. "Oh, I didn't know you'd be in a car. I came to see who it was." She says it, and I smile as my eyes start to hurt. She walks up to me and gives me a hug, making me feel better. "Honey, you didn't take an Uber to get to the city, did you?" She says this with her head shaking. She pulls back and looks through the open car door as she says, "Those are so expensive." "Driver's cute-"

"It's not an Uber, Mom." I insist. "This is Kent, my roommate. You probably haven't met him before." When I tell her, her eyes get big.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry." She says something, and Kent laughs.

"That's fine, nice to meet you, Miss Macey." He says this as he reaches across and shakes her hand.

"Colleen." She says it with joy.

"I'll let you two catch up, Julianna. Have a good day." He smiles, and I close the door, but the window is still open from the drive.

"Bye." I wave at him and smile. He smiles back. Kent is really good with parents.

As we walk up to the house, I lean on my mom's shoulder and listen to his car pull away down the street. "So that's who you live with?"

"Yeah." I shrug. "You've met one of them and two of the others."

"He is really attractive-"

"He's the mother of a friend of mine. He just drove me home so I could come see you." As we walk through the front door, I smile and feel my cheeks warm up.

"Why did you come home so quickly?" She asks, and my heart hurts. It all comes back to me, and all of a sudden, Kent is the last thing on my mind. "If I had known you were coming, I would have come to get you-"

"Because I needed to see you so much." She shakes her head and looks confused by the way I speak.

"Honey, what's wrong with you, Julia?" She asks, and I tighten my lips.

"Last night, something bad happened at work." I mumble something, and she sighs and gives me a sympathetic look before hugging me. I give her a hug back, glad to see her. I'm glad she knew how to help me.

"Come on, let me make you some tea, and then you can tell me what happened, okay?" She asks, and I nod behind her back.

I thought it was great that so many people cared about me. The fact that Kent was one of those people was even luckier.