Page 78 of Hurry Up And Wait

“Look,” I said, taking a deep breath. “After the explosion, I was a mess. You didn’t see it because you were off staring at hot men. But I was a total wreck. I was seeing shadows and freaking out about every noise in the house. It was totally unlike me. I mean, I didn’t even want to be alone because I thought someone was constantly coming after me. Shawn did that to me, and now he’s out there on my roof, tauntingme and trying to scare me. I won’t let him do that. I won’t sit back while he torments me.”

“Fine.” Her irritation was plain, but she wasn’t going to stop me. I could feel her giving in. “But I’m opening the window so you can concentrate on your swing. You never were very good at baseball.”

“Yeah, well, his head isn’t two centimeters around and this is much thicker than a baseball bat.”

“It’s a good thing you never played baseball if you think a baseball is two centimeters in diameter,” she muttered.

I ignored her and hurried over to the window. My hands were shaking and I was terrified out of my mind. I felt that horrible pain in my chest, the same as when I was at IKE’s house and thought there was someone there. The difference was that Riley was with me this time, which helped take away some of the fear. And this time, I wasn’t wandering around in the dark. I could do this.

“Ready?” I asked her.

She cracked her knuckles, then her neck and nodded at me. “Let’s do this.”

“Alright, on the count of three, raise the window as fast as you can.”

She nodded and I started the countdown.

“One, two, three!”

She heaved, but the window did nothing. I turned to her with a glare.

“I guess we should have made sure the window was unlocked,” she chuckled, flipping the lock. “Again?”

There were so many things I wanted to say, but this wasn’t the time. “Three, two, one!”

This time, the window flew open, and I stuck my upper body out the window, turned to my would-be assailant, and swung with all my might. It wasn’t until my arm was already in full motion that I saw the surprise on Kavanaugh’s face. It was too late to pull back. I couldn’t stop the forward momentum.

“Oh shit!” I shouted as the metal connected with his face. I dropped the pan, covering my mouth as he went flying backward, stumbling to the edge of the roof before falling over.

I turned to Riley in horror, unable to believe what I had just done.

“Did you just?—”

I nodded, my hands still covering my mouth.

“And he?—”

I nodded again, unable to truly believe that Kavanaugh was my perpetrator.

“We should?—”

I nodded, slowly shutting the window. I turned to Riley, wincing. “Do you think he’ll ever sleep with me again?”

“I think it’s best we pretend this never happened.”

I swung the door open,staring at the man on my porch curiously. “Can I help you?”

“Remember me? Fox from the grocery store?”

I knew exactly who he was and why he was here. “Yes, you were picketing about Funyuns space on the shelf.”

“Right,” he grinned.

“How’s that going?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe, pretending I didn’t see Kavanaugh behind him.

“I think we might be making some headway,” he nodded. “Hey, did you happen to notice anything unusual tonight?”

I pretended to think about it a moment. “Nope, not here.”

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