Leap of Faith by Cassidy Shay (the giving tree read aloud .txt) 📕

The next day is Saturday, and he comes over to my house at about eleven in the morning. Lucky for him, I'm usually up around 7, even on the weekends. If he were dating Lisa, he'd be out of luck. "Come on," he says as he comes to the living room, where I'm reading a book. 
    I look up at him, confused. He's got a smile on his face, and I'm not sure what he's talking about. Did we make plans for today? "What?" I ask him. 
    "Joe called me a few minutes ago. We're gonna go to lunch with him and Miranda." I look at the clock on the wall. Despite sounding so anxious to leave, he sits down next to me on the couch. 
    "Mikey, I'm not even dressed." Even though I got up several hours ago, I didn't actually get up. My hair is still a mess and I'm in my pajamas. He grabs my hand, which makes me lose my place in my book. 
    "Please," he says. His eyes plead with mine, and then I start to stand up. 
    "Fine," I say. "But I'm taking my time getting ready." 
    Despite saying that, I do my best to hurry and get ready. I throw my hair up into a pony tail, and throw on some jeans and a t-shirt. I took a shower the night before, so at least I don't have to worry about that. I throw some deodorant on, grab my purse, and head back to the living room. 
    My mom's in the kitchen, and I stop to tell her where we're going. "When will you be back?" she asks. 
    I shrug. "I don't know," I say. "We're just going to go out to lunch, and I don't know what we're doing after that. I'll have Mikey call you if we decide to go on some cool adventure or something." She smiles, and gives me a little shove. 
    "Alright, have fun. Just call me and let me know if you'll be here for dinner." I give her a hug, and then head to the door, where Mikey's waiting. 
    "Ready?" he asks, and we head out the door. 

When we get to the restaurant, we spot Joe and Miranda sitting at a booth. They're sitting on the same side, and Mikey and I climb into the other side. 
    "Hey, it's about time," says Joe, and Miranda rolls her eyes. "What took you so long? I called you like an hour ago."
     Mikey points at me, and it's my turn to roll my eyes. "I was not dressed when Mikey arrived at my house. I wasn't expecting spontaneous double dates."
    "Well, you should know better. Next time, you better not keep me waiting." 
    The waitress comes by then, and takes our drink orders. For the next few minutes, no one says anything as we all look at the menu. After we've all ordered, Joe looks at Mikey. "So dude. How have you been? You haven't really talked to me much in the last few weeks."
    "Well, I haven't really had time. With school and the radio and all that..." he trails off, and glances over at me. 
    "You had all that going on before. I'm worried about you. I know you're going through a lot right now, but you don't need to cut your friends off." I watch Joe's face as it switches from frustrated to concerned and back again.
    "Well, I've been talking to Father a lot. He keeps telling me that it's no problem, that's what he's there for, and all that. But I'm still waiting for him to send my parents a bill, make them pay for my therapy sessions." His hand gets tighter around mine. "But it's been helping me. It's still not a good thing that's going on, but I feel better than I did when they first told me."
    Joe nods his head. "Okay, man. I just want to make sure you're alright." He takes a drink of his water, and then looks at me. "And how have you been, Miss Amia?"
    I smile. "I've been good. This last week has been nice. But I'm not really looking forward to going back to school after tomorrow." I laugh. "But I don't know if I'd ever be ready to go back to school." 
    He nods. "Same here. I can't wait until the end of May. Then we have the whole summer to do whatever we want to do."
    "Yeah, but then comes college," says Miranda. I've only met her a few times, but I've learned that she doesn't say much. She's very quiet, and only talks when she has to. Of course, this makes her and Joe a weird couple. "And with college comes adulthood, and responsibility, and bills, and all the opportunities to mess up."
    "At least you know what you want to do," says Mikey. "I have about two months to make up my mind, and I haven't even begun to narrow the list down. I have all these possibilities laid out on the table, and I can't eliminate any of them."
    "Now, that's not true," says Joe, smiling. "You know you aren't going to be a pop star." To me, he says, "He's a terrible singer. And you're not going to be a house wife. But you also probably won't be a rocket scientist. And you know prostitution's out."
    I close my eyes as Mikey laughs. I love that sound. Not just because I can hear it, but because it's beautiful. I can't imagine anything sounding better than his laugh, and I can't imagine anything feeling better than him. I lean my shoulder against his, my eyes still closed. He's not laughing anymore (it wasn't that funny), but I just want to be closer to him. 
    I love you, I want to say to him. I am in love with you, I want to yell. I want you. 
    But of course I say none of those things. Instead, I focus on the way he feels now, at this moment. I match my breaths with his, and for a minute, I forget that he's not the only thing in the world.

 After lunch, Joe says he has to get Miranda home. "I got permission to take her out to lunch, but she has to go babysit her little brother and sister."
    Standing out by Mikey’s car, he grabs my hand and smiles at me. "So where do you wanna go now?"
    "I don't know," I shrug. "Can we go somewhere? It doesn't have to be something big, but I've been in my house pretty much nonstop for the last week, and I want to go somewhere." 
    "Well... do you just want to go to my house? We can just hang out for a while." I’ve never been to his house, because his mom doesn’t like me, and I don’t want to do anything that would make things worse. "My mom and dad aren't home right now, so you don't have to worry about making any conversation with them."
    I think about it for a second, and then I nod. "Sounds good to me. Now I can see all the embarrassing baby pictures you have on your walls," I say as I duck into the car. 

An hour later, we're sitting on his couch watching a movie. As soon as we got here, I went straight to the movie cabinet, searching for one that I’d never seen before.
    Now, he has his arm around my shoulders, and I’m laying my head against his chest. 
    "This is nice," I mumble. "We should just stay like this forever." He hugs me closer to him, and I can’t help but smile. It just feels so good, with his arms wrapped around me. When I’m with Mikey, I feel safe. I know that he’s not going to hurt me. I close my eyes for a few seconds, trying to preserve this feeling in my memory. I want it to be cemented into my brain, so that when he's not around, I can remember it. I can be at home.

A little while later, we're laying down on the couch. Her back is against my chest, and my arm is slung across her waist. Her hand covers mine, holding it against her stomach. The movie is starting to wrap up, but I'm not paying much attention to it. I can feel her against me, I can smell her hair. I'm having a hard time focusing on anything else.
    "Mikey?" She says my name like a question, and I never know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. 
    "Yeah," I breathe into the back of her neck.
    "Can I... Can I be honest with you for a second?" What's going on? 
    "Of course," I tell her. My voice is low, soft. Even I can barely hear it. 
    She hesitates. I feel her take a deep breath, let it out slowly. "Well..." A minute ago, I would have told you that there was no space between my chest and her back, that we were as close as we could be. But she somehow finds a way to push herself closer to me, and her hand presses my hand tighter against her stomach. "I think..." she starts again, and then stops. 
    I press my face against the back of her neck. "You think what?" I ask. 
  "I love you," she whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear. She holds her breath, waiting for my reaction. 
    I tighten my arm around her waist. "I love you too, Amia." Now that I've said it out loud, loud enough for her to actually hear me, I feel like all the air's been let out of my lungs. I wonder if she feels the same way. 
    For the next few minutes, neither of us says anything. The movie ends, but I don't want to get up to change it. We watch the credits roll, and eventually the screen goes back to the menu at the beginning of the disc. "We should probably take that out," I say, but make no effort to move.
    "Mm-hmm," she says, but she doesn't move either. She sounds sleepy, and I feel her body relax completely.
    "I can take care of it later," I say. I close my eyes, try to enjoy this time that I have with her.

I wake up to the alarm on my phone ringing. It's 3:15. I have fifteen minutes before I'm supposed to be on the air. I have fifteen minutes to get up, take Amia home, and get to the station. I start to sit up, which wakes