Written from Bronwen’s point of view.
I came out a few minutes later and he was finishing his conversation, "I'll be there as soon as I can," I heard him say, "Ok, I love you too mom."
"Hi," I said quietly, "Your mom?" I asked, pointing to the phone.
"Yeah, she was mad I didn't go to church last night, so now I have to come over earlier." he explained, shrugging.
"I'm sorry for keeping you."
"Thank you for telling me."
"Thank you for listening."
There was an awkward silence. It seemed we were having too many of those. "So we should be there in about an hour, if you wanna take a shower you should hurry up."
"What?" I asked, looking up at him.
"I'm not going to let you spend Christmas alone, so go get ready," he said, avoiding my eyes.
"But what about your family," I wondered, "I mean your mother must hate me."
"She loves you," he said looking directly at me, "I never told her what happened, I said we just split... I just told her you were coming to Christmas and she started setting another place while I was still on the phone."
I smiled. "I'll just take a quick shower," I said walking into the bathroom, "Get yourself anything from the kitchen you'd like." I stood in the shower and again remembered last night. I don't even know why I let myself call him. I just hurt too much and was sick of it. I was amazed that he came, and even more that he stayed.
I walked out of the bathroom and went straight for my closet. I grabbed a red turtle neck sweater and a tan skirt. I quickly got dressed. I ran to the bathroom, put some gel in my hair and dried my curls. I put some light make-up on and went down stairs. I walked into the den where Joey was watching the Saved By the Bell movie, "I'm ready."
"I just gotta stop by my place and change, it's on the way," he said getting off the couch.
"Ok," I answered following him to his car.
"Why didn't you say any of this stuff before, while we were together?" Joey asked after we had been in the car for a few minutes.
"Explaining my thought process isn't something easy to do," I said letting out a sigh, "I barely understand it. But I think I know why I did it. I didn't want to tell you about my mom at first because I didn't want to force that on you, and didn't want that kind of pity."
"What about that night?"
I stared straight ahead at the road, scared now that everything was out in the open. "I can't even remember all of that night. I felt like I was torn into shreds. I don't remember thinking much, but I didn't want you to see me like that so I was going to drink till I didn't have to see anyone, but I lost control and left with someone else." I turned in the leather seat to face him and saw his eyes fixated on the road. "I know I can never take back what I did, but after knowing what happened to my mom, I couldn't leave things between us like that, I had to let you know exactly what happened."
He pulled into his driveway, "Ill be right back," Joe said.
I sat alone for a few minutes and watched him walk to the car. He had a black sweater on and dark jeans, cuffed. I could tell he had put water in his hair and spiked it up. He got in the car and I inhaled deeply. "Enough cologne?" I asked, smirking slightly.
He laughed, "Well I didn't have time to take a shower."
"Thank you for staying last night, and taking care of me," I sighed, "You didn't have to do that."
Joey started the car and pulled out, "As much as I didn't want to, or I wish I didn't want to I did," he sighed and glanced at me as we paused at a stop sign, "I guess your still a friend," he said placing a hand on my knee.
I melted into the seat. The rest of the day was fun. His family accepted me. Steve and Janine were a little reluctant, because they knew what happened, but opened up after a while. It was a little awkward at times, I just wanted to throw my arms around Joey, but I knew I couldn't. It turned out to be a much better Christmas than I expected.
I woke up slowly the next morning. I felt better than I had in months. I remembered what had happened last night and I knew why. I rolled over to look at my clock and caught sight of Joey on the floor. Scared to wake him, or worse that I might wake from a dream I just watched him, like I used to. He wasn't snoring, laying on his side. He was so peaceful, I was in love. I heard a ringing and looked to my phone but that wasn't it. I sat up and searched the room, spotting the cell plugged into a socket in the corner of my room. Joey quickly woke up and went for it. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, to give him some privacy.