Page 9 of When October Starts

Chapter Nine

Juno

The clothes he gave me were far too large on me. The shorts reached my knees, and I had to take off my panties too, since they were soaked as well. Not from looking at him, but from the rain.

The shirt was soft, and the sweater covered the shorts because of its length. It didn’t bother me much, since it was warm and cozy. I could get used to wearing my teacher’s clothes, but he was doing this as a nice gesture.

I gripped the ends of the sleeves in my hands and fisted them tightly, warming my hands before exiting the bathroom. His apartment wasn’t big, but thanks to the high ceilings and open floor plan, it made it look like a large space.

“Feeling a little warmer?” Ezra asked as he walked toward the couch with two cups in his hands. I nodded, then walked over to him and sat down on the couch. He handed me one cup, and I smiled as the warmth spread across my hands.

“Thank you.”

“Welcome,” he replied, then looked at my bare feet. “I’ll get you some socks,” he said, quickly walking back into his bedroom.

“Are you sure you wanna have me here in your home? This crosses the line, doesn’t it?” I asked, watching him come back with a pair of socks in his hand. He handed them to me, and I quickly put them on before taking the cup into my hands again.

“It’s an emergency. No one has to know, but this is the first and last time you’re here,” he told me, sounding slightly hurt by his own words. I studied his face closely, then carefully took a sip of my tea.

“Who said I would wanna come here a second time anyway?” My brow was raised, and now he was mimicking my facial expression.

“Right,” he said with a chuckle, grabbing his own cup and sitting next to me on the couch. He made sure to keep some distance between us, and I watched him as he sipped his tea.

“How long will it take for my clothes to dry?” I asked, leaning back and holding my cup in my lap.

“Normally it takes about two hours,” he said, puckering his lips as he realized that I probably couldn’t stay that long. Wasn’t a good idea.

“Maybe…you can tell your moms that you’re at Pixie’s,” he suggested. “I’m sure they’re worrying about you.”

“I told them I was on my way home when I was on the ferry.” I reached for my backpack and pulled out my phone, then unlocked it to open our family chat. “I’m at Pixie’s until the storm’s over,” I said into the phone to record a voice message.

I put the phone down on the coffee table, then took another sip of my tea. “This is gonna be fun,” I pointed out, looking over at Ezra. He was quiet, studying my face while I warmed up inside.

“Your sarcasm can get annoying sometimes, you know that?” he said with a smirk, putting his cup down on the coffee table. He leaned back as well, but his eyes stayed on mine.

“I know. It’s my defense mechanism when there’s times I don’t wanna talk to people,” I explained.

“So you want me to just be quiet and not say a word until your clothes are dry?” he asked amused.

“No. I kinda like talking to you. I was just thinking about this afternoon when you told me that we shouldn’t cross a line by hanging out together. This is a tad bit contradicting, isn’t it?”

“How did Benji not kick you out of school with that attitude of yours?” he asked, keeping his grin in place.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled, not giving him an answer to his question. After finishing my tea, I put the cup down and pulled my legs underneath me to keep them warm.

“Here, this will keep you warm,” he said, grabbing the blanket sitting on the armrest of the couch. I pulled it over my legs and snuggled into it, then looked back into his eyes.

“What do you do on an evening like this?” I asked.

“Not much. I usually watch tv. There’s a show I’m trying to keep up with, but I tend to just record it and then watch all the episodes at once on a weekend.”

“You know there’s Netflix and Hulu to watch series and movies. You’re not that old. You should have those subscriptions,” I mocked.

“And fall down that rabbit hole like every other person on this planet? No, thanks. I’d like to stay sane.”

I laughed softly, then reached for the remote and turned the tv on. “All right, Mr. Lame. Let’s watch that series of yours then.” I held the remote to him and he took it to switch to a channel I’ve never in my life heard of.

“What type of series is it?”

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