Free Committed by Alycia Taylor

to kiss him, but I told myself to
let him sleep and save it for later.
    I went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. I downed the whole thing while I was still standing there
with the door open. I was definitely dehydrated. As I kicked the door closed and thought about making some
breakfast, I remembered Zoe. First of all I never
called her last night. She didn’t call me either, so I
assumed that meant she’d had a lot of fun. I hoped she
wasn’t mad at me, but I was sure she would understand when I told her what
happened. She was present for a few of my big ones in
high school, so she knew that sometimes they just take control of me. Thank God
they were few and far between. If I had to go through
that every day I’d be a basket case.
    Zoe and I were also
supposed to have breakfast. Some new French Bakery had just opened up down the
street from the school and she’d been dying to try it. I looked at the clock, it was eight-thirty. I had
planned on her picking me up at nine.
    I picked up my phone and texted her, “Are we still on for breakfast?”
    She texted right back, “Yeah, if
you’re not going to blow me off again.” I knew she wasn’t too mad because she included a smiley
face.
    “I’m sorry. Had a panic attack.”
    “Oh shit! Why? Did Braxton do something?”
    I laughed out loud. “No. Braxton is amazing. I ’ll tell
you when I see you. What time will you be here?”
    “Nine?”
    “Pushing it a little.”
    “I’m hungry!”
    I laughed again. “Okay, I’ll hurry.”
    I went into my room and gathered my clothes and things for the shower. It was the
first glance I ’d gotten of myself since the previous
night. I was kind of a scary sight. Braxton really
must’ve loved me if I looked that bad sitting on the
floor and he didn’t run screaming from the apartment.
    I shook my head and sighed when I pushed open the bathroom door. Braxton got
undressed for bed in the bathroom the night before and the T-shirt and jeans
he’d been wearing were still lying right where he had dropped them. I got undressed and dropped mine on top of his. I decided that I would just put them all in the hamper when
I was done. Men…
    I knew Zoe was going to be there soon and give me a hard time about not being
ready yet, but I needed to shave my legs. Plus, the water felt good on my muscles that were still tense from the night before.
Sometimes when I had a panic attack I felt almost like
I worked out the night before. I guess it was just
from holding all my muscles tight for so long.
    I stayed in the shower too long but by the time I turned off the water and
started drying off I knew it had been worth it. I felt
like a new woman. I dried my face and hair a little
before I stepped out to get another towel for my body. When I did, I realized that there wasn’t another towel hanging on the rack by the
sink. I would probably blame Braxton for that too and
smiled thinking about it.
    I wrapped the towel I had around my head and stepped over to the linen closet to
grab a towel. Ow ! Shoot! What the hell was that? I looked down and saw that I had stepped on my T-shirt and
Braxton’s jeans. There must have been something underneath them. I bent to pick them up and realized that it wasn’t
underneath them; it was something hard in the pocket of his jeans.
    I thought about just leaving it alone. But… I was going
to throw them in the hamper and I didn’t want whatever it was to get ruined. I decided that it wasn’t snooping if he left them lying
right in the middle of the bathroom floor. I stuck my
hand in the pocket and when I did, a little box fell out and hit the floor. I stood there staring at it for a long time. It was a white velvet box like the ones engagement rings come in. I finally wrapped the towel around me and sat my
nearly naked butt down on the rug. Why would Braxton be carrying around an
engagement ring?
    Maybe it was not a ring. Maybe it was his sister’s
birthday and he got her some