Peeking out from behind the door, Jeremy looked at the shower stall and at first saw no one. Then, as his gaze drifted lower, he saw through the stall’s frosted glass that someone was sitting on the shower-floor.
Squeezing spit down his tightening throat, Jeremy felt his arms and legs tremble with fear and dread as he drew nearer to the shower, calling out “Courtney!” again and still not receiving an answer.
It definitely wasn’t anyone of the men in the Jones family, and Courtney’s car had been the only one parked outside.
Grabbing hold of the handle of the sliding door and taking a deep breath, Jeremy feared for the worst as he slid the door open.
What he saw inside the shower was almost enough to tear his heart from his chest. Sitting on the floor, seemingly unhurt but crawled up into a ball with her legs bent in front of her and her head resting on her knees, was Courtney, her blonde hair soaking wet from the spray of water which rained down on her.
“Courtney!” Jeremy tried again, finally getting a response from her in the form of her looking up at her. Now it felt more like an icy hand was crushing his heart as Jeremy discerned from Courtney’s red, swollen eyes that she had been crying. And it wasn’t just that, it was how Courtney was looking at him as though he wasn’t really there.
“Courtney…” Jeremy tried again, hearing how much weaker his voice had suddenly become.
“Y…yeah?” Courtney’s voice was barely even a whisper; it was more of a sort of pathetic, devastated noise coming from somewhere inside her. Jeremy had never ever heard her sound so utterly destroyed in all his life.
“Oh Christ…” Jeremy groaned out, feeling as though he couldn’t get any air to his lungs anymore as he looked at Courtney. She was a crying, whimpering mess, and it was his fault. He was supposed to protect and love her and now he had hurt her far worse than he could possibly have imagined. And for what?
“Courtney… oh fuck,” not able to bear it any longer, Jeremy stepped into the shower and used his body to shield her from the downpour of lukewarm water, the back of his blue t-shirt quickly being soaked through as he reached down and pulled her up into his arms.
Not considering the fact that he was supposed to have been a hell of a lot better the first time that he held his arms around her naked body as she pressed it against him, Jeremy had to fight hard not to squeeze his arms around her as tight as he could when he heard and felt her sobbing as she pressed her face against his chest.
Having acted without thinking when he stepped forwards and scooped her up into his arms, Jeremy now felt certain that Courtney would soon break loose from his embrace and tell him that she hated him. And he figured that it was what he deserved for making her feel so bad.
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