Page 11 of All of Him
Noah
I SLAMMED THE DOORand dropped my backpack in the foyer. I battled as best as I could against an oncoming panic attack by ripping off my jeans, throwing on my gym shorts, and searching for my running shoes. I didn’t put on socks and only took the shirt I had on off of me before running out the back door. I didn’t even know if it was closed all the way.
I slowed slightly once I entered the woods, but I still rounded the first corner pretty quickly. My foot slid, but I regained my composure enough to not fall. I ran for twenty minutes before easing up, almost wishing I’d kept times of previous runs. Whatever my record was, it had been crushed.
Amanda had had no right to ask me what she did. Then again, she had no idea what had happened. She only knew I’d been in an accident. She didn’t know it’d killed Garrett. She didn’t know I could have prevented it. And she definitely didn’t know that I battled the nightmare of it every day.
I almost wished I’d had her number to text her or even call and scream at her. But I’d never do that. For one, she clearly hadn’t known she would hit a nerve. She had just been curious and seemed thrown off and remorseful after I reacted. Then, there was the fact that she didn’t seem like the type of person who had a malicious bone in her body. Awkward? Absolutely. But not mean.
After my third loop around the property and once I was positive my only shortness of breath was from running itself, I stopped to walk. My legs were burning, and fresh blisters from not wearing socks formed on my heels. I regretted that decision immediately. As the blood and feeling rushed back to my limbs, the skin on my Achilles felt like it was being torched.
I slumped down on the back steps, wincing in pain, and pulled off my shoes.Fuck. Blood soaked the back padding on both of them. I’d be running with Band-Aids for a while.
I lay back on the porch, legs stretched out over the steps. The shade from the house kept me cool, drying the sweat from my torso. I hadn’t run shirtless before, and I suddenly became aware that all of my scars were out in the open. Holding my arm over my face, I looked at the long gash near my bicep. Staple marks bordered the thick line of healing tissue, mocking me.
It was probably due to the amount of adrenaline still coursing through me, but for the first time, I didn’t feel panic as I looked at that scar. Granted, I wasn’t looking at the more painful reminder on my face, but it was a step.
With all of the nonsense about the truck battery and Amanda’s badly timed question, I’d nearly forgotten that I had someone coming by the house to give me a work estimate. I jumped in the shower quickly before getting dressed, and then I patched up my heels, only throwing on flip-flops to start the healing process.
I’d found someone on a local community board online, but it seemed like it could be a scam. The guy I’d found went by Tony and was a retired contractor that only charged for materials and asked for lunch to be provided. He wanted help on the weekends, looking to teach customers and not just do all the work. It sounded like it was too good to be true, though he had been recommended by quite a few people. With the cost so low, I had to give the guy a chance.
The bell rang, and I rushed to the door before realizing I hadn’t put on my concealer. I froze, but I knew I couldn’t do it quickly enough. Hoping he wouldn’t say anything, I took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Hey! Noah Murphy?” The short, graying man held out his hand to greet me. In the other hand, he held a notebook and work bag. His jeans were covered in plaster and paint marks, but his brown eyes were as friendly as eyes could possibly be.
I shook his hand and shut the door behind him.
“Tony, is it?” I asked. Something about him looked familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.
“Yeah,” he answered, still beaming. “Tony Bette.”
Oh shit.
As soon as he said it, I put two and two together. He was definitely related to Amanda. Despite his short stature, those were the same eyes, and his ears stuck out in the same kind of charming way hers did. I thought about how she constantly pushed her hair behind hers, then shook myself out of it.
Tony started looking around immediately. We wandered through the living room and into the kitchen, where there was pretty much no wallpaper left. The cabinets had been partially sanded down as well—a project I’d spent two hours on the first week I arrived.
“You don’t like wallpaper, huh?” he asked, chuckling.
I shook my head. I’d probably taken it all off the wrong way. Hopefully, it wouldn’t affect the cost too much.
I watched him silently as he looked closely at each detail in the living room—the flooring, walls, and outlets. He spent a good ten minutes peeking into every item I hadn’t even thought of before turning back to me with a reassuring smile.
We went upstairs, and he took notice of the tile work that needed to be done in the bathroom. Again, there were bare patches next to the sink, where I’d plucked them out, hating every memory of the yellowing ceramic from my childhood. With every step down the hall and into the bedrooms, the floorboards creaked, making him stoop down and examine them.
“So, I know a bit about this place.” He trod carefully, standing back up and keeping his eyes on the floor. “Rumor has it that your parents let it go a little?”
“You mean, a lot?” I asked seriously. “Yeah. Drugs tend to take away your desire to upkeep your home. I know it’s a good deal of work.”
Tony nodded and gestured for me to follow him into a spare bedroom. The air was sucked out of me briefly as Garrett’s old posters from his teen years seemed to scream out at me.
“Outside,” he started, pointing out the undressed window. “What about the outside?”
I shrugged, keeping my focus out the window to avoid a panic attack.
“The fence is okay,” I choked out. “It can use some patchwork. I need new shutters, and the house itself needs to be painted. What do you think about the windows?”
“Oh, they’re fine,” he said confidently, not seeming to notice my unease in the room. “Other than a good scrub and some paint on the trim, they’ll be good as new.”
