Back To Us by Teresa Roman Page A

Parker gave them to me a while back, he told me they were for sleeping. I took one, but it didn’t feel like it was doing anything. So I took another one and then another. I probably should’ve just given them more time to work.”
    I shook my head and sighed. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. You scared the shit out of me.”

Chapter 6
    By the time Justin got back, my brother was dressed and pretty much back to normal. Mike finished his bagel and coffee and went in his room, probably to call Mel.
    “You don’t need to stay,” I said to Justin. “It looks like my brother has made a full recovery.”
    “You’re sure you don’t want me to hang out a little longer?”
    “No.” I shook my head. “It’s okay.”
    There were no regular taxis that drove around my neighborhood, so I called a service to come and get Justin. They showed up about fifteen minutes later. I walked Justin outside. “Thanks for coming,” I told him. “Looks like I owe you, again.”
    “No. You don’t.” Justin brushed back some stray hairs that had fallen in my face. His touch was unexpected, and made me feel that crazy fluttery feeling in my chest that I knew meant bad news or me. “See you Monday?”
    I nodded and Justin walked away. I waited until his cab was out of sight before going back inside. My brother was still in his room talking to his girlfriend. Suddenly I had an urge to get out of my apartment. I needed some air, having four walls around me felt suffocating. It was another hot day, but I didn’t really care. My mind was too busy trying to process everything that had just happened, but the more I tried, the more frustrated I became. I walked towards the Fulton Street Mall figuring that the crowds and the stores would be a good distraction. It was about a twenty-minute walk from my house. I didn’t have enough money for a shopping trip, but that didn’t keep me from being able to browse.
    By the time I returned home a few hours later my brother was gone. I didn’t hear from him for the rest of the weekend, which I prayed meant that he and Melanie had made up.

On Monday, after arriving at work, Mrs. Connor came looking for me. She had a list of activities planned for the next two weeks that she wanted to talk to me about.
    “We had a lot more sign-ups for the museum trips than I anticipated, so we’ll have to go in two different groups. This week we go to the Met, and next week to the Museum of Modern Art.”
    It sort of surprised me that so many of the kids wanted to go on the trips, but I liked the idea of getting out, so it was fine with me. On Tuesday, me, Mrs. Connor, Justin and a handful of kids met in the gymnasium before making our way to the train station. I watched Justin as he walked in front of me. Even in eighty plus degree weather, Justin still had on pants. It seemed weird because he had the type of job where it was actually okay to wear shorts.
    Justin turned around and I looked away before he could catch that I’d been staring at him. I weaved my way through the crowd until I was sure Justin couldn’t see me. He called my name to get my attention, but I pretended I didn’t hear him. We hadn’t talked at all since he’d left my apartment on Friday and with my worry over Mike out of the way all I could think about was the way Justin had looked at my apartment. I felt too embarrassed to have a conversation with him. Not that it mattered—we worked together so it was sort of inevitable, but I could put it off, or at least I thought I could. It turned out I was wrong, halfway down the block Justin caught up with me.
    “Hey,” he said putting his hand on my arm. “Did I do something to piss you off?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You didn’t hear me calling your name?”
    “Over all this noise?” I said, covering. I didn’t want him to think I was purposefully avoiding him.
    Justin wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “God, it sure is hot out here.”
    “If you knew