Kyle was later than usual getting home that evening. After school let out, William, Jason, and Darryl stopped him inside the hallway to grill him about Sera and Heather. It took a bit of talking to explain that he’d grown up next door neighbors to Sera, and that he really didn’t know Heather all that well; she was just a friend of Sera’s. For some reason, they seemed to want to know every little detail about her growing up, and Kyle finally had to simply make an excuse about needing to get home so everyone could visit tomorrow before they’d let him go.
Getting back home, Kyle was surprised to find the front door already unlocked when he got there. “Mom? You get off work early?” He called out as he tossed his keys in the ashtray near the door. When no one responded, he glanced out the window and frowned slightly when he noticed her car wasn’t parked in the driveway yet. Had he accidently left the door unlocked all day?
Frowning, and a little nervous, Kyle crept through the house and peaked in each room downstairs to make certain nothing seemed out of place. Slowly he eased his way up the stairs, being careful not to step on the boards that always creaked. As he got near the top of the stairs, he could hear water running in the upstairs bathroom. Softly sitting his book bag down, Kyle picked up a nearby vase from the windowsill at the end of the hall, and pulled the artificial flowers of it and laid them gently down.
Gripping the vase tightly for a weapon, he eased down to the bathroom door and waited at it for several moments, with his heart beating quickly in his chest. He might’ve accidently left the door unlocked this morning, but he’d taken his bath last night. There’s no way that the water had been running all night long!
Working up his courage, he quietly eased the door open and tiptoed into the bathroom. The shower curtain was drawn, and hot steam was wafting up around in waves. Easing up, Kyle slowly reached out his left hand and took a grip on the curtain, while drawing back the vase in his right. With a sudden yank, Kyle pulled the curtain back, ready to strike out at any intruder…
And Sera yelped in surprise and punched him square in the face!
Blinking, Kyle stumbled back, slipped and fell hard on his ass. “You jerk!” Sera yelled and tossed a bar of soap at him, thumping him hard upside the head with it.
“Yeoooouwwccchhh!” Kyle flung the vase backwards and grabbed at his forehead with both hands. “Ooooghhaahaa!”
“Hey! Don’t even try and play something like that!” Sera snorted, but Kyle simply groaned and held his face.
“Kyle?” A little doubt and worry was starting to creep into her voice.
“Jerkface?”
When Kyle still didn’t respond, Sera turned off the water, eased out of the shower, went over, and knelt down beside him. Gently, she pulled his hand away from his face. “Let me see, you big baby. I didn’t hit you that hard!”
“I think I’m blind!” Kyle groaned as he slowly moved his hands down towards his lap. A large swath of soap was smeared across the left side of his face, and his eye was shut tight.
“Pah!” Sera let out a dismissive snort. “You’re going to be fine. You just got some soap in your eye!”
“Well, I don’t feel fine!” Kyle shot back. “What the hell’d you do that for? What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were a burglar or something!”
“Come on, get up.” Sera tugged gently on Kyle’s arm, helping to pull him back to his feet. “Mom’s not home this evening, and I don’t have my keys to let myself in. It’s cold outside, and since I knew where the spare was here, I let myself in. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
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“Sorry,” she said apologetically, while leading Kyle over towards the sink. “You probably don’t want to get in the shower, so just ease you head into the sink here and rinse it out for a few moments.”
“Damn, it burns! What type of eye-eating soap were you using anyway?” Kyle complained.
“Umm.. Just whatever was in the sink here already,” Sera admitted sheepishly as Kyle tried to tilt his head under the faucet.
“That’s pumice soap!”
“Should I call someone? 911? Your mother?” Sera was really starting to sound worried now.
“Just give me a few minutes,” Kyle sputtered while letting the water pour over the side of his face.
“I’m sorry,” Sera repeated. “What can I do?”
“Nuffin,” Kyle said, “but, you’re going to owe me one, big time, for this!”
“Fine. I’ll make it up to you somehow,” Sera promised as she let go of his arm and went over to dry off. A few moments later she left the room and he heard the sound of her footsteps go into his bedroom. After some banging around in there, Kyle could hear her footsteps as she went downstairs.
“Great! Just leave me up here with my head stuck under the sink, blinded, why don’t she?!” Kyle grumbled as he tried to hold his left eye open under the water. It still stung, but it was getting more bearable.
Grumbling to himself, Kyle didn’t hear the quiet patter of Sera’s bare feet as she came back up the stairs and into the bathroom. “Here,” Sera said, and Kyle jerked and banged his head against the faucet on the sink, startled by her sudden voice.
“OW! Dammit, don’t do that!” He yelled while half spinning around to look at her.
“Sorry.” Sera was half smirking, almost as if she found the whole situation amusing, as Kyle stared at her with his one good eye. Wearing what appeared to be nothing more than one of his tee-shirts, she was holding out a small Ziploc bag filled with ice towards him.
Grumbling something under his breath that she couldn’t understand, Kyle grabbed the ice and slowly held it against his eye. Giving Sera the cold shoulder, Kyle strode past her and into his room to flop down on the bed with the Ziploc bag draped across the top of his face.
“Oh, don’t be a baby. You’ll be fine,” Sera scolded him.
“Just shut it. I’m not in the mood,” Kyle shot back grumpily.
“Fine!” Sera flopped down on the other side of the bed and told him, “I’m going to use your helmet to log in, then, Mr. Grumpy Ass.”
“Do whatever you want. I don’t even care.” Kyle snorted back at her while trying to keep the ice in place. Damn if his eye wasn’t tender still!
Sera didn’t say anything else, and the room drifted into silence.
Before long, Kyle was drifting off to sleep as the ice helped cool the burning sting around his eye. As he slept fitfully, he never noticed when Sera eased over and removed the Ziploc bag and took it downstairs to empty and refill before all the ice melted and it sprung a leak somewhere. He never noticed when she gently kissed two fingers and then pressed them lightly against his forehead and whispered, "Sorry."
And, he never noticed when she climbed up in the bed, rested her head against his shoulder, and went to sleep beside him.