Chapter 11

Setting your head on your steering wheel for a moment you felt tears prickle at your eyes, you tried your best to not let them fall as you heard Tommy sit down in the passenger side and put his hand on your thigh to comfort you but it just made your heart race harder, you needed to distract yourself quickly before you do something stupid like ruin your friendship by an emotional declaration of a crush.

Groaning you sat up straight and wiped your tears away before Tommy's other reaching hand could do it

"Why am I crying, this is good right? Moving on and stuff"

Tommy was cheerfully nodding, his hand still hasn't left your thigh but it was genuinely making you feel better so it was peacefully ignored

"Yeah fuck that! I'm moving on and spending the day with my best friend, we must celebrate!"

You tried not to notice how his grasp on your thigh tightened

"Okay after we get that furniture and throw it in house, let's go-to store and make dinner and get drunk tonight"

You were smiling at a very confused Tommy who could only do that damn head tilt as the realization hit you

"Tommy, you've had alcohol before right? You're 24"

The hand slowly left your thigh, you tried not to frown as he looked at his feet and shrugged

"Well consider this a very late 21st birthday party! Drayton already thinks I'm a bad influence on you, might as well prove him right eh?"

Your laughing made Tommy seem suddenly excited as you pulled out of your old driveway and made your way to the furniture store that Luda told you to go to.

The store seemed to fit in perfectly with the rest of the town, it had an old fashion way about it. You and Tommy made your way to the middle-aged man behind the counter who did a double-take at your companion, you chose to ignore his stare

"Hi! Luda Mae has some furniture here set aside for me?"

He continued staring at Tommy as he responded

"A-a-a yes, it's right over here"

He seemed to snap out of whatever he was feeling as he left from behind to counter and grabbed a list

"I have you here for a mattress, bed frame, dresser, love seat and a table chair combo with some miscellaneous kitchen wear, we have it set aside in the back if you'd like to bring your car around we can get a few items loaded"

You blinked in surprise

"Oh I didn't think there would be that much honestly I was just excepting a mattress and some lawn chairs for what I paid honestly" you tried to laugh off

"Well, these items were quite old, never could sell them plus Luda called in a few favours" he chuckled and gave you a playful wink, you laughed as he explained where you would need to drive to start loading the furniture.

You got to your Jeep and started putting down your back seats to accommodate the furniture when you saw Tommy looking at your irritated face as you placed the last seat in place as you turned towards him

"What? What's wrong"

You take a step closer to him and he gestured at the store while dramatically winking and pointed at you, you scoffed

"Oh stop you're being overprotective, he was just goofing around- plus he's like 10 years older than me"

Tommy still didn't seem convinced but seemed happy at your disinterest and nodded.

Pulling up to the warehouse door you were humming to yourself as you tried imagining how to Tetris this furniture to make as few trips as possible, you finally agreed that two trips would be all it took if you took apart the table

You went to help Tommy pick up the mattress to load he but he made a shoo movement and picked it up by himself,

"Wow I'm sooooo impressed"

You said as sarcastically as possible but you couldn't lie to yourself, seeing his muscles hardly strain while picking it up made the Texas heat bare down a bit harder.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," you said as closing the trunk with a little over half of the items stored in your trunk,

You and Tommy share a high five before loading into the Jeep and starting the short trip to your new home.

Pulling up it was hard to believe this was your new house, it was much smaller and one level which you preferred- it was beautiful pale yellow with white trimming, you fell in love the second you saw it-

"Why am I nervous? I've been inside before"

You nervously jingled the keys as Tommy looked at you for the next move, you take a deep breath and leave your Jeep, you unlock the trunk for Tommy and immediately go to the front door, you know better than to try and help now-

Unlocking your new home felt like a fresh breath of air, you couldn't help but stand in your new living room and laugh, you were interrupted by Tommy setting down a mattress behind you

"I can't believe I'm just living in Texas now"

He nodding and pointed at the mattress

"Oh the bedroom is just through here" you pointed, he effortlessly followed with the mattress in tow, you heard it be set on the ground and he immediately went to grab the rest as you sat on one of the kitchen counters and observed.

It was hard for your mind not to daydream of a secret fantasy of having Tommy living here with you, sighing as you looked around at the vintage style kitchen while thinking of making pancakes and dancing in pyjamas with him, these daydreams have been harder to ignore so might as well indulge a bit. You were distracted from your fantasy by a large hand patting your head, it seems like Tommy was done and very close all of a sudden, you tried to mask your blush as said

"Let's go grab the rest from the shop, then we can relax "

He shyly outstretched his hand to help you off the counter, you knew you could easily do it without his help but you weren't about to tell him that as you curled your hand around his and jumped down, you didn't let your hand linger on his that would be inappropriate- is what you thought anyway.

After another short trip to the store and back, you finally had your little home filled out, luckily it did come with some accommodations like a nice rug and a tv the old homeowner didn't want so your landlord just included them which was nice for you.

It didn't take long to set everything where you wanted, the only thing you decided to ignore was hanging up clothes because who wants to do that?

Looking at your hardly decorated home Tommy just seemed to fit into a life better than you hoped, it's bad but you wished he stood out amongst your world for once. You wiped the sweat off your forehead

"Alright I believe I owe you some ice cream"

Tommy immediately perked his head and flexed his muscles

"Yeah yeah I get it you don't work for free let's go, we're stopping by the store first though"

The drive to the store was much quicker than your old place so that was a plus, you and Tommy entered and both paused to enjoy the blast of cool air before you went to grab some ingredients for dinner, nothing fancy just some steaks and vegetables, you threw them in your basket and had an idea

"Tommy go say hi to your momma I bet she misses you something awful"

Tommy rolled his eyes but immediately turned and took large steps toward Ludas office

"Mommas boy" you chuckled to yourself as you made your way to the bakery section and picked out one of the sets of cupcakes you made two days before, you doubt Tommy ever had a birthday party with people who weren't blood which made your heart hurt thinking of him as a kid with no friends, you shrugged off the feeling of guilt just as you felt Luda envelope you in a hug from behind

"Oh I'm so proud of you my sweet girl"

You squeaked awkwardly and tried to turn and face her in the death grip with no luck but luckily Tommy took the basket from your trapped hands allowing you to lift your arms and pat her arms Tommy gave you a sympathetic shrug as if you couldn't see him smiling, you slowly detangled

"Oh you don't gotta be proud Momma Tommy did like 96% of the work"

"Ah he was just under good management, what's the plan for the rest of the day dear?"

You considered not telling her of your celebration plans but it felt wrong to lie

"Well Tommy and I are gonna get an ice cream cone, eat dinner and do some celebrating"

You saw her entire face light up as she looked at Tommy then back to you smiling

"What are we celebrating?!"

"Oh just me moving houses and I found our mister Tommy hasn't had a proper 21st drink yet so I hope you don't mind us indulging considering we don't work tomorrow anyways"

You saw her face fall for a second, shit did she not want Tommy drinking?

"Oh, that's great sweetie, I always felt bad my Tommy couldn't have proper parties, you know how kids can be"

Your heart hurt as your suspicions were confirmed, she suddenly smiled again

"But I think it's best if Tommy stays at your place tonight, can't have you drinking and driving"

She smiled even harder as she patted your quickly blushing face, you hadn't thought of that, you make quick eye contact with Tommy and tilt your head as a question to see if he was okay with that, he looked at the ground as he nodded yes and shrugged

"Yeah, of course, that's what we, actually planned in the first place you silly goose gosh!"

You dramatically laughed and if she saw through your lie she didn't say anything.

As the three of you made your way to the counter Luda excuses Karen from behind the counter who you just politely ignored

"So what are you crazy kids drinking tonight"

This felt weird, you and Tommy looked at each other and shrugged

"Uh, nothing crazy probably like a couple of beers after a long day's work between two bros?"

You stretched out the last word like an awkward idiot but luckily Luda just laughed

"Don't be silly you're celebrating" she immediately turned around and grabbed a 40 of rum and put it on the counter

"Consider it a house warming present! Plus with Tommy being such a big boy it's gonna take a lot to hit him"

She said with a giant smile, you couldn't place it but it felt like she was plotting something

"I mean, I guess your right"

She rang your dinner up and as you said your goodbyes and left the store.

After you had left you couldn't see Luda rubbing her hands together and smiling as Karen approached the counter

"Are they that dumb you have to attempt to give them alcohol poisoning"

Luda just sighed

"Yes."