Her Miracle

CHAPTER 23

I say, “What are you doing here?” 

I’m already asking a question where I know the answer. It makes me sound stupid but I really think I know his intentions. Chivalry isn’t dead. Titus is the living epitome of it. He has his ways of being the person in Castle Rock who isn’t an asshole towards me. His ways are just so surreal. 

Titus. A word. His name. A perfect breeze. The breeze I always cherish and look forward to. 

The dark alley behind Eleanor’s has the huge green dumpster and Chester’s car. I really need to invest in a bike. 

“Wait, Let me get you an umbrella, Titus.” I ran back to where I came from to turn the knob and get back in Eleanor’s to look for an extra umbrella. But his hand stopped me pressing it to my shoulders. We were both under the rain and completely drenched. 

“No, Andy. Don’t bother…” He answers me in his usual low voice. 

“Why?” I squinted my eyes at him with my heavy lashes with the rain pouring down on us. 

I shuffled my hands inside my duffel bag to grab my umbrella. It might be small but it's useful to at least not get our heads wet. Or maybe it’s not anymore seeing that our hair was dampened with the drops of rain. 

“If you’re also going to get that foldable mini umbrella inside your bag? Don’t bother.” 

He knew I had an umbrella? Well, it’s something constant that we should have umbrellas. Speaking of which, we're in a county that’s super rainy. Titus must’ve observed me too much. He did pay attention. It made my heart flutter. 

“So we’re staying under the rain and let ourselves be totally wet? We’re going to get sick.” I replied in an amused tone. 

Here goes his hilariousness again. Almost every day he has something to look forward to that makes me enjoy the little things. And he’s still trying to make me stay. I don’t know if he’s really my miracle. But he did give me the lucky charm. My miracle is going to be more than a catastrophic event that really is going to change my life. That would be the day I’d have the opportunity to leave everything behind and run to where I truly belong: Anywhere. As long as it’s outside Castle Rock and start a new life. 

“Only if you don’t take a shower or change your wet clothes when you get home. Let’s live in the moment, shall we?” 

Even if it was dark I could feel that he was grinning widely at me. It’s not Titus if it isn’t something you live in the moment. A moment that you feel alive. A moment I felt I really did exist. Maybe not in the eyes of my own mother nor the rest of the people in the town. But I did exist for myself. 

“Not to sound rude or anything. Or maybe not that I don’t want you here… But what are you doing here? Leaning at the wall like a bystander robber waiting to attack Eleanor’s?” I voiced out the thoughts that ran inside my head. 

“Well, like the past days. I like taking you home to keep you safe and to know that you get home safely. It’s the least I can do”

“For the record, you’ve already done so much already. More than I actually expected.” 

And just like that. I knew that once you let a person in again after a long time and you just open up to them like no other. They also give you the support and care you haven’t received from other people. Every day with that person is not like those boring days. Lifeless and no color. Once you do accept them, they also change your life, forever. Bringing color and life back inside you. Then, there’s growth. A moment you have been waiting for. 

“That’s not it...yet. Well, come on now, Andy! It’s getting late. I’m still taking you home.” He responded clutching onto his jacket. 

We got out of the dark alley leaving Chester behind inside Eleanor’s who had things to do. The lamppost right at the end of the alley shone at us brightly. Titus positioned his hand at my back as we walked side by side. 

For safety, we followed the gutter on our right. It leads to our house together with the lamppost that guided our way. There was an aisle of them like the lights of the runway of an airplane in a hangar. There were no cars even if this neighborhood was the rich side of Castle Rock. Everything is just timing. 

The cemented roads that led to our neighborhood. The water rose up because of how strong the rain was. Our sneakers were now soaked in it. I felt Titus’s hand disappear behind me making me look around. He made a small leap to the water of the cemented road that leveled to the gutter splashing us both with his step. 

“Andy!” His voice was like a shriek but maybe because the rain was too heavy it seemed like a whisper. 

“What?” I called out. 

“Stop!” 

“Why?”

“Don’t you enjoy these waters? Just by stepping and letting them splash?” He shrugged. 

I did enjoy jumping into muddy puddles. A whole lot more when I was younger. My dad believed that there is nothing wrong jumping into it other than getting all the mud where my mom gets mad with the laundry. Overacting as she is, sometimes with the frustration of getting the stain off, she throws my clothes or my brothers’ clothes away just cause she had the means to buy new ones. I’m amazed that she could afford new clothes but not afford a nanny being the town’s all-around doctor or something. I scoffed at the thought and leaped to the road as Titus did. 

He took my hand and danced like the rain had a rhythm just like that night we danced our hearts out cleaning Eleanor’s. The rain was its own beat. It had its own kind of peace. For us, it might be disastrous but for the clouds, it was part of their being. 

“Weeee! Rain!” Titus screamed like he was welcoming the rain and as if it wasn’t a bad thing. 

We didn’t walk to my house using the sidewalk now, giddily splashing each other, running, and pushing each other. 

I watched him enjoy the rain. Titus was now spinning and dancing under the rain. One thing I’ve learned from him is that peace could be anywhere. It could be in the smallest details or smallest things that you do every day and that could give you the lightest joy that warms your heart, forgetting the problems for a while. 

“Enjoy the rain while it lasts!” He wiggles my hand while he shakes his body to the non-existent music. I enjoy it anyway. 

I smiled at him, letting my hands let loose, and did upper movements like macarena. While I did the macarena I continued stomping on the water beneath us. Just like Elsa, the cold never bothered us anyway. Frozen was one of the best movies of Disney. I’ve rewatched it a hundred times and still get the feeling like I’ve watched it the first time in history. 

We were getting closer and closer to my house. I scoffed at seeing Izzy’s house. She’s really done with my s**t. So is Kai. If they were the real ones, am I really the person who has the problem? 

My driveway with my mom’s car and my brothers' in sight. Oh s**t. Cruella de Vil arrived. Great! 

“s**t! My mom’s car!” I blurted out. 

“It ends here… I hope you had fun… at least for a short while?” Titus responded. 

“Well, I did. I’m forever in your debt.” I smiled at him. 

The rain had no plans of stopping. It felt neverending. I pulled Titus into a hug. He hugged me back. A rush of this good energy spiked through me. This hug made the world stop turning, pausing the millisecond just for this moment to happen. A hug that warmed both of us in the middle of this deserting rain. A hug that I hoped would last. 

We both let go, and he reached for my hand and slowly inched away until our clammy fingers weren’t feeling each other’s fizzing warmth anymore. 

I ran to my front door and got inside the house. And now, I can say the cold did bother me. It wrapped me like a blanket, surging in each part of my body. 

“Andy!” 

The devil screamed from the living room. 

I turned to the living room instead of going straight to my room. Great! A party pooper she is. 

“How dare you come home late at night and come home wet too? You were with your boyfriend, right?” She spiked out at me. “If you get pregnant by that new dude of yours, you’re going straight out of this house. I’m so done with you!”

Here it goes. She lashes at me like no other. Normal days of my life. I hug myself getting myself warm with my wet clothes. She really loves wasting my time with her pointless arguments.

“Mother, you never cared about my welfare anymore after the accident. Aiden is much more a parent to me than you are. I hope you realize that. And mom, stop accusing me of fake things when there are certain things that you deny yourself.”

My mom tried to rebut back but Aiden popped up beside me wrapping me with a towel in a swift movement and motioned my mom to stop with his palm. “Mom, this isn’t you. You’re never home. I think you’re hiding things from us which is completely unfair.”

“Go on to your room and take a shower. You’re going to get colds or worse flu. I’ll take care of this.” Aiden faces me and waves me off. 

I complied but I hear him say to our mom who was dumbfounded for a second. 

“You are slowly abandoning us by showing that you’re working almost 24/7. Yet, when I come to the hospital, nurses say you aren’t there. Which means you might be living with someone else!” 

I thought Aiden was blind than Zach. I was wrong. Zach did have the instincts but Aiden did the research. But I was right for one thing. 

Aiden was a better figure than my mom was.