“That’s really weird,” Courtney stated matter-of-factly. I was stumped. I had no idea why Ally could have been acting so weird.
“Did you guys ever talk about anything big?” I asked, wondering if maybe Ally mentioned something that would give us some sort of clue as to why she was acting the ways he was. Courtney just shook her head, blowing air out of the side of her mouth, her delicate cheeks getting pushed by the air. I knew then and there that I couldn’t let anything happen to this girl. Not that I expected Ally to come in here with a gun.
That would really fucking suck a second time.
No, but I still felt the instinct to protect Courtney. Not only in this instance, but with everything in life. I wanted to stand by her and talk back to the rude deli man who kept giving her an attitude, or scare off the college frat boys that tried getting into her pants. I wanted to crush whatever bugs that came too close to her and fight any douchebags waiting at the edges of their barstools, just itching to buy Courtney a drink.
I wanted to keep her safe.
“Well besides the whole drug thing.”
“How did you find out about that anyway?”
“We were transporting a patient when a ton of pills fell out of her pocket. It was pretty hard to hide from then on out,” she put a hand on my thigh and scratched gently, ”then Ally took me aside and told me everything. I guess hoping I wouldn’t tell on her.”
“Did you?”
“No, of course not. Well, I was going to, but she did make a good case for herself. I felt bad,” she responded, almost trying to defend herself. I reassured her with a tender rub of her knee, “I thought she would cut it out.”
“Yeah, so did I."
“How did you find out?”
“She offered me,” a pause as I looked down, squeezing her knee a little bit harder, finding the words difficult to say. I looked at her and she flashed her all powerful smile, letting me know that it was ok, that she understood. No words needed to be said.
“Well something’s up. I’ll text her now and see what it is,” Courtney said, grabbing her phone, protected by a bright yellow matte cover, and quickly typing up a message. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to reach out to her, but I let the text go anyway. If there was a way of finding out what was wrong, it was through Ally herself. She was either going to keep up her stalking behaviors or resort to different tactics, but she definitely wanted something from one of us.
“Enough about creepy druggies, let’s relax,” Courtney said, flipping on the television and Maury immediately taking his place on his interview seat, a trailer trash couple arguing at each other. I looked at her, wondering if she was actually enjoying this.
“Oh man! I love this episode!”
Well, that answered my question.
I was surprised that I laughed out loud, this girl was special. She grabbed one of her Eiffel tower pillows and hugged it to her chest as she got comfortable on the couch, her attention now drawn to results; who, in fact, was the father?
“Watch this part, she absolutely flips her shit,” Courtney said, pointing over to the television just as the woman, wearing a dangerously tight Harley Davidson t-shirt, jumps up on the couch and starts kicking at the “father”. I thought her reaction was a little over dramatic, especially considering that it sounded like no one cheated or anything, but hey, it was reality television. Was I really holding it up to my logical standards?
And yet, I sat there, actually enjoying this. For once in my life, it didn’t matter what I was doing, or what I was watching. All that mattered was that Courtney was by my side and I knew I would have a good time. I didn’t need any of the other bullshit.
We sat there for an hour watching Maury, then another hour watching Jerry Springer, a thirty minute fuck break, a steamy forty minute shower with another orgasmic massage, and then sat out on her couch, dozing off on each other's shoulders. I woke up entangled around her, as we both squeezed together on the couch. I kissed the back of her neck as I looked down at my vibrating phone and realized Sky was texting me. I looked up at the time and realized it was almost nine o’clock, weird for her to be texting now.
SKY:
Hey, can you come over? I really need to talk to someone.
“Shit,” I said, wondering what Sky would need, especially since she was reaching out to me and not Connor. We were close but Connor was her twin, she usually went to him for personal things. Something must have been really off.
“What’s wrong,” Courtney mumbled, still affected by the nap. She turned over and looked me in the eyes, giving me a quick peck on my lips, her nose tickling the tip of mine.
“It’s Sky, she needs me,” I said, flipping over the phone and letting her read the text. She looked back up at me, a gentle hand on the side of my head and another quick kiss, “Hurry, go. And then come back.”
Of course I was going to come back. I didn’t want to be anywhere else, not by myself, not with my thoughts. I was already feeling myself overcome the powerful grip the painkillers held over me after the surgeries, and that was all thanks to Courtney. I nodded and returned her peck with a hungrier kiss, one lasting just a bit longer, our lips parting just the slightest.
I got up and threw on my clothes, Courtney doing the same as she walked over with me to her door, an arm thrown lazily around my waste,
“Text me,” Courtney said, opening the door and letting me out.
Then, a shrill scream ripped through her as the door swung open and her eyes trailed down to the ground. She jumped in towards me, my arms instinctively locking around her, looking down at what she saw. There, laying in a pool of blood, were two rats, their heads sliced clean off. It was a gruesome sight and a clear message. This wasn’t a cat bringing home dinner, this was a deliberate act. Ally thought that we were the ones who ratted her out. She had no idea that I had been just as broken as her and Courtney was too good-hearted to have ruined her life. We were both innocent.
“Fuck,” I said, turning Courtney around and leading her back in the house. I got a trash bag and took care of the dead rodents.
“This isn’t good,” she said, clearly looking shaken. Emma, hearing the scream, rushed out of her room and stopped just short of actually seeing the rats. She turned before she got a chance to see and went back to Courtney, I didn’t blame her either.
“Listen. Call the police and tell them to file a report and give them the rats. I’m going to figure out what’s wrong with Sky.”
Courtney nodded, a shaky hand still covering her gaping mouth, her eyes getting moist with tears. I took her in my arms, wrapping her inside my embrace, pumping my muscular arms and drawing her into me. I kissed her forehead, held my lips there for what felt like a comforting eternity.
“It’s going to be ok,” I said, looking down into those beautiful auburn eyes that were now glistening even more as tears ran down her cheeks, wetting the place where her face had rested on my shirt.
“Promise?” she asked, looking up at me, both her hands held in tight fists against my chest, the anxiety and fear not letting her relax.
“I double-dog promise,” I said, squeezing her tighter in my arms. A double-dog promise was something me and my siblings would do when we really meant something, when we meant it with such a sincerity, one that was rooted down somewhere in our souls. At least that’s what it felt like back then when we double-dog promised to not tell on each other or cover for one another. But now, this double-dog promise was much more intense, because if this one was broken then that would mean I had let Courtney get hurt.
And that just wasn’t going to happen.
“Good,” she said, smiling a bit underneath the slowing flow of tears.
I kissed her again and hurried into my car, driving over to Sky’s apartment, unaware of the car that started up behind me, parked off underneath the dark shadow of a large palm tree.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“What’s wrong?” I asked, hugging Sky tight as she ran into me, her door slamming
open and tilting a long black and white photograph of the city skyline she kept above her couch. She immediately started crying into my shoulder, her tears soaking through my shirt just as Courtney’s had done moments before. I rubbed her back and tried to calm her down, reassuring her that I was here.
She backed up a little bit and allowed me into her apartment, a very nice and well-furnished apartment on the second floor of an exclusive apartment complex, one equipped with its own private massage parlor and bamboo forest spa center.
My parents really spoiled the shit out of my younger siblings.
She walked over and crashed down onto her dark black leather couch, hugging her ivory white plush pillow close to her chest. She still huffed a little bit but overall she looked like she was starting to calm down. I walked in and shut the door behind me, not even thinking to lock it as I walked over and threw an arm across her shoulder.
“What happened, Sky?” I asked again, brushing a lock of hair that was clinging to her wet cheeks.
“I guess I should start from the beginning,” she said, and I knew that this was going to be something I should probably brace myself for. Sky and I were close, but she never started a conversation like that, not with me. She was always so composed and put together, the voice of reason.
And then she told me everything.
It all started the day she came to visit me in the hospital. She recalled feeling like she was broken, her spirit shattered after seeing me in that bed, worst of all, seeing me with that trigger in my finger. She was terrified of what was going to happen, what kind of Jason she was going to get once the hospital released me.
She wasn’t herself when she walked out of my hospital room and broke away from my family. She was just going to take a quick walk to the bathroom, just a quick break from it all, splash some water on her face and be done with it.
She walked into Dr. Evans. She recalled him standing there in front of her, ruffled hair from working a long surgery, his stance strong and commanding. She immediately felt something. He said he recognized her from somewhere, maybe some television show, some movie he had just seen. My sister, not herself, played along, twirling her hair, biting the bottom of her lip, wanting to feel something.
She shifted her weight from leg to leg, thrusting out one hip or the other, attracting his attention, creating that hunger. They both went at it, ravaging each other in the bathroom stall.
She said she used protection. She said she didn’t know it ripped.
She said she was pregnant.
I looked at her, the words dropping like heavy boulders in the room, shattering through the roof and breaking through the floor underneath us, making everything shaky and almost dangerous. I looked at my little sister, saw the emotions written across her face like fucked up graffiti. She was so young, she shouldn’t have to be feeling this way. She needed to know that I was going to support her with whatever she was going to do. Just like Con, Sky was my blood. I wasn’t going to push her away for anything, especially not now, not after I faced first hand just how fleeting life could be.
“Sky, listen. It’s going to be ok. You hear me? You don’t have to tell mom or dad yet until you relax a bit. Are you going to tell Blake?” I asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Sky said, looking down at the plush gray carpet underneath the sleek black couch, a hand unconsciously resting on her stomach.
“Whatever you decide, I’m here for you,” I said, squeezing her tighter and letting her head rest on my shoulder.
“Thanks, Jason,” she said, pushing herself up and walking over to the kitchen, pouring two glasses of water. Well, mugs of water, two mugs with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck printed on them to be exact.
I took the Donald Duck and set it down on the glass table.
“Have you told Con?” I asked, wondering what he would say.
“Not yet, I feel like he’s going through a lot of his own stuff right now,” she said, her sympathy and consideration for others could never be questioned. It was like that one time when we were little, a duckling the size of a small candle, the kinds you get at Target, was waddling straight into the middle of the road. Sky saw this from her perch on the playground swing and decided it would be her duty to single-handedly go and save the duck, which meant running straight into traffic at the horror of my parents, who were luckily able to snatch her up before she stepped over the sidewalk.
The duck also made it out alive.
“Yeah,” I replied, nodding as we both understood, both of us knowing that Connor was just now figuring himself out and we hoped he wasn’t going through a torturous time. It was a ridiculous thing to hope for. One would think that Connor would have no problems growing up, he just loved someone for fucks sake and now he had to be scared of people hurting him. It was bizarre for me to comprehend.
And now my little sister was pregnant.
“How do you think mom and dad are going to react?” she asked, curling up on the other end of the couch, embracing the pillow again. She was like that. All she needed was a good five minutes of hugging and consoling and she would go off on her own.
“Listen. If they can take me back in after I burned through seven thousand dollars of their own money for my drug addiction, then I think they’ll be just fine with your news,” I said, smiling at Sky. I needed her to know that things would be ok, that no one was going to cast her out and that this could very well have just been a blessing in disguise.
“Well, that is true. You really shit the bed on that one,” Sky said, giggling a bit through the remnants of the tears.
“Besides, the-“ A rock smashed through the window, cutting off my joke and landing right on the glass tabled, shattering it into a million sharp pieces, propelling the shrapnel everywhere, slicing into my arms and forehead as I instinctively covered my eyes.
Sky shrieked and crouched down, covering the top of her head as well. When the glass rain subsided and silence ensued, we both looked up. I ran to the window, shards crunching underneath my sneakers. I looked out and saw an old beat-up Honda sputter off down the street, its black paint job spotty and stained. I tried to make out a license plate but couldn’t see that far in the dark.
“Jason, you better come see this.”
I walked back over and looked down through the framework of the table, now destroyed. Sitting amidst the sharp glass shards was a large, gray rock with a piece of paper wrapped around it. I carefully picked it up, not realizing I could be tampering with evidence, and removed the paper, reading it out loud.
“So you rat me out and now you’re ratting my sister out? What kind of game are you fucking playing? Well, you and your pretty blonde bitch are in it now, Jace.”
“What... the fuck?” Sky said, staring at me, her mouth wide open.
“It’s Marco, an old… eh, friend of mine who thinks me and Courtney reported his sister for stealing drugs.”
“Shit! Jason, this guy is crazy!” Sky said, gesturing out towards her broken table.
“I need to go be with Courtney,” I said, feeling a sudden urge to protect her, to stand in front of her and make sure nothing would ever hurt her.
“Can you stay at Connor’s tonight?” I asked Sky, gathering my stuff as I got up and walked towards the door. I didn’t think Sky was in danger, but I just wanted to be sure she was safe and I knew she would be ok at Connor’s place.
“Yeah, I’ll head out now, give me a second.”
She packed up her overnight bag and we both left, both of us scared, both of our lives changing on a dime.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I ran up the steps to Courtney’s apartment, feeling the need to look over my shoulder as I turned each corner. The slightest rustling in the bush or movement in the shadows had me on edge. I even jumped a little as I turned the corner and almost walked into an older woman, crouched over a yappy Chihuahua that thought my ankles would make a good chew toy. I was so on edge that she was lucky I didn’t punch her accidentally.
That would h
ave been really shitty.
“Sorry,” I said as I walked around her, the little rodent looking guy on the leash still barking away, and knocked on Courtney’s door. I heard her peek through the peephole and breathe a sigh of relief as she unclicked the lock and swung the door open, letting herself melt back into my strong, protective chest. I instinctively took her into my arms, feeling whole again, like I could breathe.
I knew she was ok.
It was in that moment that I truly realized how truly scared I was of losing her.
What was even scarier was how big of an effect she was having over me. Something that had never happened with anyone else was happening in light-speed with Courtney. Sure, I was physically attracted to her from day one, but it was as though once we got a chance to actually figure out who we were, it was like nothing else mattered. Like she was... well like she was the last one.
“Everything ok?” I asked, locking the door behind me as we walked over to her wet bar where she poured me a shot of Vodka in a shot glass that looked like it was imported straight from the Bahamas. We both took one, shooting it back, letting the cold liquor slide down our throats, reinvigorating the both of us while slackening our muscles at the same time.
She poured us another.
“The cops came and took a report. They said they were going to look for Ally.”
“Yeah, well they need to look for Marco too,” I said, dropping the rock down on the counter, the note reattached to the top with tape. She looked at me, shock lining her face.
“Fuck,” was all she said as she came over to me and leaned back. I was sitting on a stool so she was able to fit perfectly in between my thighs, her lower back against my center.
Numbed (The White Coat Series) Page 10