Authors note: This is the second part of my story about Bran. Should be said that this is a slower burn type of story. Hope you enjoy it regardless and vote 5 stars!
Feedback is appreciated, as I have lots to learn. When it comes to hate comments, it takes you longer to write them then it takes for me to delete them.
*
After the revelations about myself from the prior week, I was filled with something I'd felt very little of before. Motivation. Inspiration. Aspiration. I had so far in my young life just existed. Floated. I got decent at most things, but never really excelled in anything. I wonder how this 'new me' had come to exist. Was it all because of Mel? Or perhaps it was that I had discovered myself to be bolder than I'd given myself credit for before. It was almost a thrill to push my own boundaries like that. To aspire to be more.
Instead of slacking through the weekend, half-assing my assignments, half-assing the gym, and just staying put, I truly went for it. I wanted to be better. I started my Saturday with signing up for both climbing classes and boxing classes. The lifting session after was also one of my most intense, though not my heaviest one (I was tired as shit).
I spent the remainder of the Saturday at the student library, working with the assignment. It was from one of my economics classes. It was weird how it took forever before when I only worked an hour at a time. But now that I made an effort, and spent some more time on it, I wrapped it up pretty easily.
When I got back Trent even poked fun at me for being out all day, staying busy. As I stepped through the door, I was greeted with a football being tossed at me. I stumbled but managed to grab it.
"I guess I'm not the only horse horsing around," he said, smirking.
"Shut up, Trent," I said, tossing the Tommy-Wiseau-ball awkwardly back to him. I never played quarterback, and I was never good with the ball anyhow.
Sunday I started climbing. I got my ass handed to me by kids way younger than me. At least that was what it felt like, as they scaled some of the more advanced walls, while I struggled my way up the very basic ones. But hey, I challenged myself. But I would lie if I said I wasn't happy anyone I knew saw me. With practice, maybe I'll school the kids right back. What I didn't account for, however, was how sore I would become throughout the day, and probably Monday too.
What more, Mel even texted me. She told me the car was not fixed yet and asked if I could perhaps pick her up at her house the next day! I said yes as fast as I could.
*
I woke up the next morning, immediately took care of my morning wood, and got ready to attack the day.
As a person who 'waits' for the week, I was actually really excited to get the week started. I was up early and before I knew it, I was lightly jogging to my car and jumped in just in time to get a text from Mel.
"Good morning. Hope the weekend-waiting went well. I'll be waiting for you," she wrote.
My heart rate started to increase. Immediately I felt the teasing. Even if she didn't mean it that way, that's how I took it. I quickly wrote back that I would be there.
I went to work out, worked on college shit and when afternoon came around, I hurried to my car and sped off towards Mel's.
A few minutes later I was there. It was not the longest drive, as I think David, Mels husband, worked as some sort of maintenance man at the campus, thus they lived not too far away. To be honest, I didn't really remember, or give a shit about David. As I pulled up, I saw her lock her front door and walk down the driveway, just in time for when I pulled up. I saw her car in the driveway too, meaning her husband was at home.
"Mornin'," I said. "You quit biking?"
She grinned at me. Man, Mel had a nice smile!
"Good morning to you too, and good afternoon too. You have big comfortable seats," she replied coyly.
I smiled back. She got into the passenger side. New sweats today. Black ones. She sniffed the air when she got in.
"Is that cologne?" she asked half-mocking. I blushed.
When I showered after working out, I borrowed a bit of Trent's cologne. He wouldn't mind, and I figured he had an alright taste.
"Aw, don't be embarrassed, didn't mean it like that. I like it," she said. I almost choked. My mood was pretty good, but it got to a whole new level getting complimented. I felt my pulse increase and my redness increase even more. But she went on, like nothing at all.
"Had a nice weekend?" She asked.
"Actually, yeah," and then I went on to talk about how I signed up for new classes and how I spent my Saturday mostly at the library. I was slightly worried I'd bore her to tears, but she actually seemed to listen.
"My, my, boxing eh, big boy?" she teased and squeezed my right overarm. My muscles cramped at her squeeze.
"You definitely work out tho," she muttered.
"Ouch! Sorry, I'm a bit sore. I haven't really started yet. Boxing."
"Maybe you can be a big boy and protect old women like myself," Mel joked.
"Come on, Mel, you're not old, I told you."
"You're delusional. Guess how old I am," she said, demanding me to guess. I should've known this was most likely a trap. But I walked right into it regardless.
"I would say 35. Maybe 38?" I said, trying to seem calm and collected, but instead, my brain was firing on cylinders, trying to work in high gear, though not quite up for the task.
"43. Not far off," she said.
"Really? I would never have guessed."
"So now you know I'm an old hag."
"You're still hot, I would--" I muttered then trailed off, realizing what the fuck I was saying. Jesus christ.
I could tell Mel was somewhat stunned, but she recovered quickly. She sat upright and stared out ahead. But before she said anything, I tried to steer the conversation away.
"So how was your weekend then?"
She turned to look out the passenger window. Damn it. I got scared and ruined the moment. Mel obviously likes the compliments, so why would I be a dick and start talking about something that obviously brought tension to her life?
"It was fine," she replied.
"David won his poker?"
"Of course not," she said and looked back at me. "I think a drunk donkey would play better."
I barked out laughing. I didn't expect that from her. She joined in too.
"Sorry, it just can be a bit frustrating. Don't tell anyone," she said.
I moved my finger and thumb across my lips, mimicking zipping my mouth.
"Don't worry, I got your back. It's important to vent, you know," I said. Mel rubbed at my shoulder and squeezed it slightly. I screamed inside my head, but remained calm.
"Thanks. David is a nice man... I mean, he provides for the family, you know," she said, but she didn't really sound like she believed that herself. Almost like she was convincing herself more than me.
"Don't you both?" I asked.
"Yeah well... My salary more or less goes to my daughter's college fund. David doesn't really care about that, so yeah."
"Wow, I didn't know! That's quite admirable. What's your kid's name, then?" I asked, genuinely impressed. The compliment seemed to make her lighten up quite a bit, as she more or less beamed.
"My oldest's name is Hope, actually. And she's 18, so she's barely a kid to you, mister," she scolded me cheerfully. "And Maia is 17 next spring."
The rest of the drive was more or less chit-chat about her kids, college, and before we knew it we pulled into the parking lot. She went and got her trolly, I went and got mine. Working separately got me time to calm down, regroup and settle my mind. Mel was getting more comfortable around me, and nothing made me more happy. She felt safe enough to push and shove at me, talk about her kids. It was truly a bliss. And I was guaranteed to talk to her more later when I was driving her home.
The day went as any other day. At the start of each shift, we had to work around a bunch of clerks, interns and office people, but as the day progressed, the herd always thinned out until it was just the two janitors left. I did my floor as fast as I could, without being too sloppy. I sat on a chair outside the changing room, tying my shoes, when Mel walked up next to me and fiddled with the lock. We always kept the door locked, as personal belongings were kept there while we worked.
I glanced up at her. It struck me how tall she was. I knew taller than me. But now Mel practically stood over me, only a foot away. It was quite frankly somewhat daunting. I could even draw in her scent. It was a good scent, I can tell you that. It was a mix of cozy motherly warmth, a grown woman's perfume and a hint of sweat. It was almost intoxicating.
"Be out in a minute," she said and hurried in, oblivious to my daydreaming.
I scuffled back and forth waiting for her, contemplating how to talk to her, what and what about. I also wanted her to touch me again. Weird thing to say, but here I was. Everytime she did, my whole body felt like it was floating. I tried to think of topics relating to her physical therapy, or her hairdresser background, but I didn't know how to shoehorn that into a conversation. I wanted it to be genuine, or else it would just be awkward and weird. Maybe --
My thoughts were interrupted as she reemerged from the wardrobe.
"How was your day? Boys upstairs made a mess?" I asked.
"Nothing much. No carpets today. I'm going to tell the management they are going to stop throwing their garbage on the floor, or there's trouble. How about you?" she said. We started walking out into the parking lot.
"It was alright. Still a bit sore, though, but it was fine. I survived," I said.
"Looks like you did," she said and got into the car.
Even though I yearned for more inadvertent teasing, I didn't try to push it. She had already given me plenty, and I also wanted our relationship to be normal. Juuust in case, I was an idiot who read too much into things, or pushed things too far. So the drive back to hers went in some silence, with some small talk, but we both were kind of tired anyhow. I asked her how long she had worked as a janitor.
"Fifteen years. Certainly not the career I imagined, but a job is a job I guess," she replied.
Before that, she apparently worked as a hairdresser with her mom but got tired of it.
