When You Come to Me by Jade Alyse Page B

that it didn’t come out sarcastically, hoping that he didn’t go into a long rant about the status of his relationship with Sophia.
    He nodded. “Yep…”
    The twenty-minute ride was silent between them, save for his music that played on the radio. Brandon Greene kept his eyes focused on the road, tapped his hands on the wheel in a frustrated motion.
    Please God, she thought, please don’t let him say anything…
    When she saw Brandon pass the movie theatre, she looked in his direction, and said, “Um, Brandon…did you forget where it was?”
    “Nope…”
    “Where are we going?”
    “Don’t worry about it…”
    “I would like to know where we’re going,” she said. “This is kidnap, you know…”
    “Natalie, grow up, will you? Could you do that for me?”
    “What on earth is your problem?”
    He didn’t answer, he only drove, and she watched the lights pass in a fleeting blur, felt the air from the cracked windows, saw her friend in some fixed state, only sighed, flopped back in her seat, and Brandon accelerated more.
    “Brandon…” she said in low voice after moments had passed. He didn’t answer.
    “Brandon…” she called again. “Would you like to tell me what’s wrong?”
    She hated asking, just as much as she hated the fact that she didn’t know where they were going, as if she wasn’t yet adjusted to the “unknown” with Brandon Greene.
    “Now is not the time for Annoying Natalie…”
    She’d had enough!
    “Brandon…pull—“
    “Natalie, if you say my name one more time…”
    “Brandon…pull the car over…”
    “Natalie…”
    “Brandon…the car! Pull it over…”
    And he did. He found a side road, a tree-lined avenue with brick ranch houses.
    She climbed out of the car, he followed suit, and they stood before each other in front of the car. The lights were still on.
    With her arms folded, she looked at him, couldn’t believe that she was tapping her foot like her mother, didn’t know why she got so mad at him, didn’t know why, in the silence of that residential street and the way his eyes enlarged in her direction, she felt her stomach do something weird.
    “What’s your problem?” she asked again. “I haven’t seen you in a month, then you give me this attitude? I don’t know where you come from, Brandon Greene, but that’s not how you treat friends…”
    “She’s been sleeping with someone behind my back!”
    “What?”
    “Sophia…she…she’s been sleeping with someone behind my back…”
    “Who?”
    “I don’t know…”
    “Well, how do you know that she’s been sleeping around?”
    “Scotty told me…”
    “Well you cheated on her,” she reminded him. “Surely you didn’t think it wouldn’t come back to bite you in the butt…”
    “And why are you not on my side on this?”
    “It’s not about sides, Brandon…I…”
    Suddenly, she felt that exhaustion return, the type that made her want to steer clear of him altogether, the kind that wanted to smack some sense into him, the kind that made her angrier that what she thought appropriate for a Christian girl, than what she thought appropriate for their situation…
    And she looked at her friend, prayed to her Lord that he didn’t say another word, that he only understood, that they were close enough to where he could see the exasperation in her eyes…
    “I loved her, Nat…”
    She took a deep breath…
    “I mean, I really, really loved her—“
    “You’re so selfish, Brandon Greene…”
    He closed his lips, his eyes grew bigger, and the expression that followed suit made her stomach turn again.
    “What?”
    “You’re so selfish,” she repeated, tightening her folded arms. “Lord have mercy, you think the sun rises and sets on your behind, don’t you?”
    “Where in the hell did that come from?”
    “Observation, Brandon! Pure observation!”
    She turned away from him, wanted the feeling in her stomach to go away, wanted the image of the look in his eyes to leave her