The room fails silent and Clarissa listened to the breathing of the other occupants, which suddenly sounded incredibly loud. Every inhale and exhale the room made echoed around her mind. Had she really said that? Right here in front of everyone?
“Aaron’s my brother,” Skull said pulling her into his arms. Clarissa buried her face in his chest, thankful for a place to hide her bright red cheeks, “Look I don’t want to talk about this here.”
“Then when?” Clarissa asked.
“Tonight, but not here,” he said.
“Come on,” Clarissa said, entwining her fingers through his and holding tightly to his hand. She didn’t look back at the others, because she didn’t want to see their faces. She had never liked to let people down, but tonight was about Skull and her, not them. Her fingers were cramping by the time they reached Green Grandma, but she still didn’t want to let go of him.
Before unlocking the car she looked up at him and gently touched his cheek. He looked excited, but exhausted, his brown eyes were bloodshot and Clarissa hoped it was only from the lack of sleep.
“I won’t say it,” Skull said, “I won’t say it right now, it’s not fair to you, you’ll understand after we talk.”
Clarissa nodded and dropped her hand away from
his to unlock the car. Sliding behind the wheel of Green Grandma wasn’t as familiar or as comforting as her old blue clunker, but she reminded herself any car is better than no car.
Upon arriving at her apartment complex Clarissa took a deep breath before getting out of the car.
“Nice car,” Skull grinned.
“You be nice to Grandma,” Clarissa laughed, thankful for the distraction from the nerves that were squeezing her stomach.
“Is this your Grandma’s car?” Skull asked.
“No, her name is Green Grandma,” Clarissa said as they entered the elevator heading up to the fourth floor.
Clarissa unlocked the front door and they both took their shoes off before stepping onto the carpet. She grinned up at him, both thankful and impressed that he had actually remembered this time. She grabbed two sodas from the refrigerator before rejoining Skull in the living room. He was sitting on the sofa leaning back against the arm. His pose was self-assured as always, but the worried look in his brown eyes let Clarissa know that he was more concerned about their ‘talk’ than he wanted to let on.
Clarissa sat down next to him, handing him one of the cans.
“Thanks, Bookworm,” he said.
“Not a problem,” Clarissa said attempting to keep her voice level, as not to betray the panic that was twisting her insides, “So, what’s up?”
“I don’t even know where to start,” Skull said, shaking his head.
“How about why you were arrested tonight?” Clarissa suggested.
“Because the charges were dropped,” Skull laughed.
“That doesn’t tell me why,” Clarissa crossed her arms.
“Because I was watching a house where a drug bust happened,” Skull said.
“What? Watching a house? Like spying on someone or something? Are you trying to play at being a government agent or something?”
“No,” Skull shook his head, “Nothing like that, unfortunately, because that would be a freakin’ cool explanation.”
“Yeah, too bad,” Clarissa laughed, trying to ignore the tension that had locked her shoulders and made her body ache, “So why exactly, were you there?”
“Looking for my brother or to be more specific I was looking for someone who might have had information to where Aaron might be,” Skull said.
“Is Aaron in trouble or something?” Clarissa asked, cocking her head to the side.
“That’s just it, I don’t know,” Skull sighed.
Clarissa touched his face and kissed his lips softly, but he was the one to pull away this time.