Page 33 of The Breaking Pointe
Nodding at me, she agrees. “Yeah, I could eat. Plus,” she says, starting to walk us toward the exit of the exhibit, “I’m having a good time, and I wanna talk more.”
That was all I needed to hear.Feeling’s mutual.
The idea of us grabbing a bite sounds like a ball, but as we get closer to the outside, the weather is looking like it has other plans for us.The sky is getting darker and darker the
closer we get to the doors, and by the time we are there, I’m able to notice the muted lightning showers that are occurring.There aren’t many food places within a close range, so eating is about to be a complete bust.
“It’s gonna storm.I can smell it,” she tells me, finally letting go of my hand as she looks up at the sky.
“How can you smellit?”Igive her aconfusedexpression.
She turns to face me.“You can’t?It smells damp.”She looks around. “Where should we go?”
I sigh, looking around also, trying to think fast as I feeltiny sprinkles start to drop on the exposed parts of my skin. “Every restaurant is about a twenty-minute walk,” I state, watching her shield her eyes as the sprinkles become larger
as it gradually starts to shower.
“I don’t know the area, but I don’t care. Anything to get us out of the storm, Colton,” she says louder, trying to drain out the sound of the rain picking up.
Now it’s coming down, and it isn’t holding back. We are getting soaked as the seconds go on. With jumbled thoughts, my brain tunnels into one idea—the closest place.
My condo.
“I, uh—my place is a few minutes away if we run!” I say loudly, grabbing her hand.
“Your place?!” she yells back, holding my hand, but not moving from her place.
“Yeah, it’s just down the block!”I shove my hair out of my face that’s drowning in hair product and raindrops but suffering for the single purpose to listen to her.
“Are you sure?!” she asks, accepting the rain as it pours on her face.
“Only if you are!”I say, shielding my eyes.
She looks around one more time, then takes a breath, nodding and allowing me to lead her in the direction we need to go. Together, we start to run, gripping each other’s hand tightly.
* * *
When we get inside of my place, Bonnie doesn’t hold back from wanting to introduce herself. I hurry to close the door, feeling my clothes weighing me down.
“Bonnie, no jumping,” I say sternly.“I’m sorry, she doesn’t usually do this.I can put her in another room if you’d like.” I hurry to grab her.
Noelle shakes her head.“No, don’t, please.I love ani- mals.She’s really sweet, and the storm might scare her.” She shakes her head, petting her as if she were her own. “Please?” she begs me, frowning.
I stop in my tracks, putting my hands up.“Okay—yeah, sure.”I don’t mind putting Bonnie in my bedroom, but I would rather not. Most of the time, though, women want her as far away as possible. That, or Bonnie hates them. There’s never an in-between. It’s odd for her not to be growling like an erratic banshee. I won’t question it, but it’s odd.
“Feel free to get comfortable.You can help yourself to anything or look around if you wanna get familiar with the place while I grab some clothes,” I say, kicking my shoes off by the door before shuffling to my bedroom.
I quickly change into a clean, plain white t-shirt and whatever clean sweatpants I can find.I throw the wet clothes into the nearest hamper and shoot over to my dresser to findmoreclothesforNoelle.She’ssosmall,she’llprobably
drown in anything I give her. I’m not sure it even matters if I give a shit about sizes in this moment. I just need to get her dry so she isn’t sick.Minutes later, I come out of the bedroom with fresh, warm clothing for her.
“Look, I know it isn’t ideal, but I hope a t-shirt and sweatpants works,” I say, dropping them on the couch in the conversation pit.
I get no response, but instead just silence, making me look around to find Noelle.
“Noelle?”I ask, looking around the kitchen and down into the living room pit.
She stands at a wall that holds various pieces of my artwork and sculptures surrounding it.
