FicWad

"Yeah, we have a shovel," I said as I stood up and started walking towards the door. "My dad used to use it for gardening. I don't know why my mom brought it with us when we moved. I guess it was just a little part of dad she wasn't quite willing to give up." James followed me as I walked out of the bedroom and through the living room to our dingy garage.

As soon as we stepped inside, I couldn't help but plug my nose. It smelled as bad if not worse than rotten milk. James' face scrunched up too, but he didn't complain about the smell. That was something that I loved about James. He wasn't a complainer at all. Doing my best to ignore the stench, I made my way over to the pile of tools in the corner of the darkened garage. Unfortunately, in order to find the shovel, I was going to have to use both my hands. Reluctantly, I unplugged my nose and started hastily digging around in the pile for the shovel. Luckily, it didn't take too long to find it.

The shovel wasn't really in that great of shape though. It was old and rusty and smelled. It would, however, get the job done. Holding the shovel out as far away from me as possible, I made my way through all the junk lying on the floor and back to where James was waiting for me. Wordlessly, he took the shovel from my hands and we both ran outside to get away from the horrid stench. I took a big gulp of fresh air as soon as we were out of the garage. Now I could see why I hadn't been in the garage for such a long time. I wondered when the last time was that anyone had been in that rotting old place.

We face another problem once we were outside though. It was snowing really hard. White flakes seemed to be diving right into my eyes and into my skin, chilling me to the bone. Shivering, I longed for something to help me keep warm. For a moment, I even forgot what I was doing outside. It took James' reminder for me to remember, "Uh, Olivia? Shouldn't we dig the grave in the backyard? I mean, it's okay if you want it in the front, but they're typically done in the back."

I stared at him blankly for a moment or two before realizing what he was saying. Once my mind had unfroze, I nodded, "Yeah, let's do it in the backyard. It'll be better there." James and I tromped through the snow and around to the backyard. As soon as we were in the backyard, I picked out a spot for the grave. The spot I chose was right under a small pine tree. It seemed the best place in our small yard for a grave.

I pointed the spot out to James and he immediately started digging. Knowing that there wasn't really anything for me to do at this point, I backed up and leaned against another pine tree while I watched James work. He dug with ease and it didn't take him long to dig a hole large enough for a body. While I watched him work, my thoughts somehow ended up going back to our makeout session from earlier. My mind was imagining James and me in a dark room all alone in the middle of the night. The worst part was that my twisted mind was trying to think about what James would look like naked.

Of course, that was the moment that James turned around to face me to tell me that the job was done. Feeling embarrassed for my dirty thoughts, I whipped my gaze away from him when he looked at me and started blushing furiously. It was a very good thing that James couldn't have read minds, or else I would've died or fainted on the spot.

"You're really red," James commented with concern as he reached up a hand to touch my cheek, "Are you cold?" I shook my head a little too quickly and found myself blushing even more. James, wanting to figure out what was wrong with me, continued, "Something wrong? Did I not dig the hole right or something?"

"Oh no," I replied quickly so he wouldn't get the wrong idea. "You did a great job. Let's...uh...go inside and get my mom, shall we?" I didn't really want to go back inside and then lower the corpse into the hole, but it had to be done eventually and it was best to get it over with. There was no use in putting things off. Besides, then I wouldn't have to deal with any more questions from James. After all, it wasn't like I could answer him by saying, "Nothing is wrong, I'm just thinking about you and me in bed together." Oh no, I definitely couldn't say that.

James and I tromped back around to the front door and headed back inside to the bedroom. When we reached my mom's bedside, we both paused and looked at each other with dubious expressions. Apparently, neither of us were too excited about hauling the corpse around. It had to be done though. Telling myself that I could do this, I took a deep breath.

Leaving the blanket over her body, I slipped my hands under her back and gave James a meaningful look. James, taking my que, slipped his hands under her legs. Together, we managed to lift her body off the bed. She weighed a lot more than I thought she would though. The two of us hurried back outside to the spot where James had dug the place for the grave. Even though it was so cold, we were both sweating by the time we reached the backyard.

Slowly and carefully, James and I lowered her body into the hole in the ground. To my surprise, it fit perfectly inside. I took a look at my mom's face one last time and wished that wherever she was, she was happy. With that done, I started dumping the dirt from the hole back over her corpse. James quickly intercepted and took over the digging for me. That was probably a good thing because it probably would've taken me a lot longer to replace the dirt than it took him.

When the hole was finally filled back up, I looked around for something to use as a gravestone. My eyes fell on a smooth, gray rock lying in the center of the backyard. I had never seen it before. That was odd. It was as if it had appeared out of the middle of nowhere. I hurried over to where the rock lay and picked it up. Hauling it back over to where we had just put my mom, I dumped it on top of the pile of dirt. It wasn't a gravestone, but it was as close to one as we were going to get.

Seeing the stone there seemed to make my mom's death seem more real than before. Before it had been as if I had been walking through a daze, but now, the reality set in. I would never hear her speak or see her rare smile ever again. She was gone from this world and would never return. I stood in front of the grave with my lip trembling and my body shaking, partly from the cold and partly from the pain inside me.

Finally, James put his arms around my shoulders and started steering me back towards the house, whispering in my ear, "Let's go inside now. You're shaking like crazy. I don't want you to get sick again like last time." I didn't fight James and let him lead me back around the house and into the living room. It was a relief to get back inside. I hadn't realized that it had started snowing a lot harder outside and that the temperature had dipped a few notches. I wanted to turn up the heater, but knew I couldn't. Using the heater this time of year was very expensive, and I could barely pay the rent as it was.

Shivering, I followed James up to my bedroom. I didn't know why we were going there, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to get warmed up. Once we were in the bedroom, James pointed at the bed. I sat down on the place where he had pointed and let him wrap blankets tightly around me to help keep the chill out. They warmed me up quickly and my teeth soon stopped shattering. James was standing at the foot of the bed almost uncomfortably.

"Why don't you sit down?" I suggested to him, sliding over on the bed to make room for him to sit next to me. James blushed and shrugged his shoulders as he moved across the room to take a seat next to me. There was something different between us right now. There was a kind of sexual tension or something going on. I could feel it and so could James by the way he was acting. I could see he was glancing at my chest out of the corner of his eye. Normally, a guy doing that would've totally freaked me out, but this was not a normal guy. This was James. I could trust him.

"My mom died when I was sixteen," James commented out of the middle of nowhere. I looked over at him curiously. James rarely spoke of his parents or of his life at home. This was the first time he had ever brought his parents up in a conversation. I put a hand gently on his arm and said, "I'm so sorry. How did it happen?"

"She died from cancer," James replied simply. "She was against using any medicines to save herself. I guess it had something to do with her religion. My dad left my mom when I was really young, so I don't technically have any parents anymore either." That came as a shocker to me. I had no idea that James was an orphan. But where did he live then?

"That's sad about your mom," I whispered before blurted out, "But where do you live?" James laughed at the look on my face and replied, "Just with my aunt. We get along pretty well. She doesn't really care what I do as long as my grades stay above Cs. That's why I've been able to hang out here with you so much."

That all made sense. I had always wondered how James had been able to sneak over to my house so often. Now I knew. The two of us continued to sit together in silence for a while. The tension between us was really starting to build up. Something weird inside me kept telling me to move closer to James and start nuzzling him or something. Another part of me told me that I was becoming a psycho and I needed to repress these emotions.

Trying to ignore all these crazy thoughts, I glanced out the window for a distraction. The wind was blowing hard and snow was swirling all around, covering the world in a sheet of white. I was glad I was safe inside and not outside where it was cold and dangerous. James followed my gaze and peered outside as well. His brow creased when he say the heavily following snow, and he stated, "I should probably get going now. It's getting dark out and it's snowing like hell out there."

I nodded as James stood up and walked towards my bedroom door. The two of us exchanged awkward glances when he reached the door. I noticed he didn't kiss me or hug me. A little part inside of me felt hurt by that, but I wasn't about to beg for a kiss. At the door, James just stood there and waved awkwardly with an awkward little smile on his face. With that, he turned, flipped his blonde locks over his shoulder, and disappeared.

As soon as he was gone, I slipped out of the bed and wandered over to my drawers to find some pajamas. It had been a long day and I was really tired. Flipping through loose clothes, I finally found a dark blue nightie with black lace on the edges. It wasn't exactly warm, but it certainly looked better than my old tank top with holes and stains in it. Deciding that this was going to be the best thing to wear, I headed to the bathroom with the nightie swung over my shoulder.

Once I reached the bathroom, I quickly stripped down and slipped the nightie on in an attempt not to freeze to death. The house was still really cold. It felt even colder than before. Doing my best to ignore the cold, I washed my face and then let my hair out of it's ponytail. It fell long and loose around my shoulders, reaching a point just below my breasts.

Now that I was done in the bathroom, I crept back through the hall and into my bedroom. I collapsed onto the bed and pulled the covers tightly around me. Something didn't feel quite right though. My mind wasn't at peace, which wouldn't let my mind sleep. I tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to figure out what was wrong. I couldn't get warm either, which was kind of becoming a problem. Then I detected the problem; James.

I was worried about him for some reason. I didn't like the thought of him outside traveling home in the dark and all by himself. Sure, maybe I was being paranoid, but I just couldn't seem to get him out of my mind. That was when I knew what I had to do. I had to go and bring James back. He needed to stay at my house tonight.

Without a second thought, I grabbed my old black robe and threw it over my shoulders before heading downstairs. Forgetting all about the cold outside, I flew out of the back door and ran down the block, searching for a familiar figure in the distance. Finally, I was able to a small figure huddling on the path ahead. Needing to catch his attention, I called out, "James? Stop a second. Why don't you just come back to my house tonight?"