Sometimes, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. In my head, a lot of the time, I can't fathom whether what I just did was wrong, right or somewhere in the middle. Like, for instance, was agreeing to go to James' house (when I knew my best friend liked him), wrong? Was it selfish of me? Or does it not really matter and I am looking too much into it? Am I supposed to tell Willow that I'm heading over to his house right now or should I wait till later when I could do it in person so I could properly explain what happened?

"Uh, Kristen, are you okay?" James said, as we continued walking to his house.

I shook my head as if I were trying to erase all the thoughts jumbled up in my head. "Yeah," I said.

The rain started getting heavy. I could feel each heavy droplet fall on my skin and clothes at a rapid pace.

I felt shivers run through my body as a gust of wind hit my body.

"Oh my god, you're cold. Here just take this," he said unzipping his jacket.

My eyes widened. This was most definitely not okay.

"No! I'm not even cold, I like being colder rather than hot. I can't stand that," I said.

He rolled his eyes and gently placed his jacket over my shoulders. The warmth was comforting. His jacket was made of wool on the inside.

Was this something he was doing to be polite? James was an incredibly good guy. He was probably raised like that. I had never really seen guys like him in Seattle. Maybe the guys I had just spent my time with weren't all that great. That's why I felt this sense of protection for Willow, I think. I would never want her to go through a fraction of the things I went through.

"James, actually I think it'd be better, if I just went home," I said, as I stopped in my tracks.

That would take me out of this situation entirely.

James raised his eyebrows. "It's so foggy out here, that we could barely see straight, and you think you're going to make it all the way back home?" He said.

He unfortunately had a point. We had made a bunch of twists and turns trying to get to his house and it felt like we were walking for hours but it was probably like fifteen minutes.

"Why did you even walk to school, if you lived this far?" I asked.

"I just felt like it," James said, quietly.

I just nodded.

*******

When we finally arrived at his townhome, warmth hit my body instantly. It felt like a warm hug. Nobody was home.

"Where is everybody?" I asked, observing the quiet living room.

"Work," he said.

I looked around at the pictures around his house. It was him and his mom everywhere. Pictures from when he was like twelve to now.

"Mama's boy, much?" I teased.

He gently smiled and I made my way into the living room.

"You should probably change out of those wet clothes, or you'll get sick," he suggested, leading me to his dresser in his room.

"I don't have any clothes to change into," I said.

He scoured through his clothes.

"I'll just dry off over here and then head home and change when things clear up," I said.

My phone began buzzing almost instantaneously.

It was my mom.

I headed to the living room, picked it up and lowered the volume on my phone.

"Hey, baby girl! I'll be spending the night, make sure to stay at a friend's house." She screamed into the phone. She was drunk. I heard hooting and hollering in the background. It was only 10 am.

I sighed and just hung up the phone.

I went to the text messages app and opened Willow's name.

"Hey," I wrote.

I needed to stay the night at her house.

"Grounded." Willow texted back, automatically.

Willow's parents were very protective of her. They definitely didn't like me sticking around. They even programmed an automatic response in her texts for when she got grounded. I knew I couldn't go to her.

I decided to text Elijah. He was like an actual brother to us.

"Hey Elijah!" I texted.

"Hi," he wrote back.

"The storm is insane!" I wrote back.

"I wouldn't know I'm in LA for the week!" He texted.

"Since, when?" I asked, suspiciously.

"Wow, you really don't pay attention when I talk 😒," he wrote back.

I sighed and closed my phone.

"Kristen?" Called James.  He walked out of his room to the living room. "Was that your mom?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Hey, do you know why Willow's grounded?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, but it might have to do with the whole failing her midterm thing because you two went out the night before." He reminded me.

I dropped my head. "So, they'll definitely not let me stay the night." I said, thinking out loud.

"Why don't you just stay here?" He said, as if he were pointing out the obvious.

I face-planted. This guy definitely didn't know why but at this point, I was left with no options.
I let my eyes wander around the room for a couple of seconds as I tried to think of an alternative. There wasn't any.

"Fine," I muttered.

"Gee, thanks!" He said in a goofy, sarcastic voice, because he was actually doing me a big favor. He rolled his eyes and walked towards his room.

I guess I was here for the night now. Although, I was going to make sure, this would be a short and unremarkable night.