The Grove
Page 32
The sheets were musty in the cramped second bedroom of Johnny’s apartment. Moisture clung to the open windowsill, rolling across the paint as bare branches rattled in the breeze. Christian had been unconscious for days, his pulse thready and temperature fluctuating much like the weather. Ariahna sat in the wooden chair beside him, watching the peaceful set to his sleeping features. She hadn’t left the pawn shop yet out of fear that he wouldn’t be breathing when she returned.
“How are you holding up?” Rome said.
She didn’t bother to look towards the doorway. He had been here every day, asking her that same question. It should have been obvious, she thought. Christian wasn’t smiling or laughing. He had barely fluttered his eyelashes and she felt as if she might be sick. “He’s the one I’m worried about,” she said.
Rome nodded. “Me too.” He came to perch on the edge of the mattress, admiring her eyes where they had fixated on Christian’s face. “I heard Dallas came by again. Did he say anything this time?”
Aria shook her head, trying to smile and finding it truly impossible. “No, but he sat with us for a while. I think he can tell when someone’s here with him… that’s what I told Dallas, anyway.”
“You’re not wrong.” Rome set a hand on his knee, sighing at his mess of thoughts. “Has Johnny said when he might wake up yet? Kaleb seems to be back to his usual self already.” He smirked slightly at that. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“He doesn’t know,” Ariahna said. “Or if he does, he’s keeping it from me. I haven’t bothered to ask, really. Maybe because I know I’m not going to like the answer. I just keep telling myself it’s today.”
“One of these days, it will be.”
She accepted the statement quietly, praying with all of her heart that it was true. “Today,” Aria said, refusing to acknowledge any other possibility. “There was a bird outside the window this morning, singing the most uplifting song. It’s going to be today. It has to be…”
A squeak sounded from the hall, and Johnny gave up his lurking to venture inside. He stopped just a few feet into the room, hovering behind them in silence.
“If you want me to leave, just say so,” Ariahna said.
“Okay,” Johnny mumbled. “I think you should leave.” He watched her turn a challenging gaze to him, frown consuming all the kindness that normally occupied her face. Johnny slipped his hands into his pockets, observing her as passively as he could.
“What if he wakes up?” she whispered. Her eyes were back on Christian’s form, tracking the languid rising of his chest.
“If he wakes up, I’ll call you.”
Rome noted the subtle quivering to her chin. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said. “You’re going to end up falling behind on classwork otherwise, and I’m sure your dad’s going to notice at some point that you’ve been absent.”
Ariahna let out a breath.
“Look,” Johnny said, “I can guarantee you he’s not going to get better with you looming over him day and night.” He brushed off the cutting stare he’d received from Rome. “If you give him time, he will get better. And he probably won’t appreciate knowing you’ve made yourself sick worrying over him. You can’t stay here anymore. It’s as simple as that. I don’t mind watching over him for now, but this isn’t a hospital, and it’s not a halfway house.”
By her lack of an outburst, Johnny assumed that she might actually listen to reason for once. It wasn’t that he minded having her there; quite the opposite, really. It had just made it terribly inconvenient for him to handle business. Having an extra set of eyes and ears around had made for a quiet couple of days, and he was as anxious as any of them for Christian to make a speedy recovery. He excused himself to the hall, pretending he hadn’t noticed when Rome stepped out to join him.
“Is he really going to be alright?” he asked. Rome was careful to keep his voice low. “I know we didn’t have any assurances.”
The crack as Johnny tilted his neck suggested how much patience he had left for the matter. He traipsed a bit further down the hall, hearing the boy following at his back. “I don’t see why not. He’s still alive, and it seems like he’s been getting stronger each day.”
“You wouldn’t know it by looking at him.”
“You mean her,” Johnny said. He turned to smile at Rome acutely. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he bounces back once all that unspoken weight leaves the room.”
“She’s just worried,” Rome said.
“So are you.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t around to see what happened. I should have been. I should know why she’s as terrified as she is right now, and I should be able to fix it.”
“It’s not something you fix. This is what they call grieving, and despite popular belief, it can be done before anyone dies.” He sighed. “She hasn’t told you what happened yet?”
“I got the cliff notes,” Rome said.
“Be thankful you weren’t there for the show.”
“And you’re sure the curse is broken?”
Johnny lingered there, counting the remaining cigarettes in the crumpled box he had pulled from his pocket. “Curses. There were six of them, if you recall, and the person pulling the strings just went into the light. That magic is long gone now.”
“How do you know?”
The dark-haired man laughed quietly, looking at him with the most amused glint in his eye. “You can’t tell the difference? I felt the change almost immediately.”
Rome shrugged – a stiff and self-conscious gesture. “I guess nothing seems like it’s changed all that much to me.”
“If you can’t see it,” Johnny said, “you’re not looking hard enough. It’ll become apparent to you, I’m sure. At some point.”
Rome glanced back down the hall. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” The amusement Johnny had been radiating transformed into annoyance and Rome frowned tiredly at him.
“Don’t tell me that you’re jealous of the guy in a coma. If you want, I can make that happen,” Johnny said.
Rome shook his head, staring at the floorboards somberly. “Of course not. I’m concerned for Christian, and I hate that he was the one who ended up taking my place. I just want things to return to normal.”
Johnny chuckled. “Normal… There’s no such thing. I thought you would have figured that out by now. Life doesn’t slow down or stop because you’re scared. Fear just makes you a bigger target.”
Rome took the advice in silence, soon finding himself alone in the hall. He waited there, listening to Ariahna whisper a few last encouragements from the doorway. A well-needed embrace was waiting for her on the other side. Rome wrapped an arm around her waist, trying to give her a few reassurances of his own. “I’ve been looking after the tree,” he said.
“…Thank you.”
They moved through the apartment quietly, lingering outside at the top of the staircase. It was obvious she was reluctant to leave still, so they sat on the cramped stoop for a time, motionless.
“Rome,” she mumbled.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I’m happy that you’re okay. I know I hadn’t said it yet. I think we were both expecting something wildly different to happen in the end. But regardless… regardless of what did happen… I’m just, really glad,” she said.
“Me too. We accomplished what we set out to do.”
Aria stared at their joined hands, hearing the uncertainty in his voice. “The only question is, what do we do now?”
“The only thing we can do,” he said. “We take the next step. When Christian wakes up he’s going to want his magic back. Instead of worrying ourselves sick, what do you say we put our energy to good use?”
Ariahna seemed to perk up at that.
“So does that mean you’re finally ready?”
Ariahna took a deep breath. “No,” she said. “But life doesn’t happen when you’re ready.”
Rome stared after her as she rose to leave.
“I’ll keep that in min
d,” he said.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Jennifer and Jesse King are high school sweethearts living in the Pacific Northwest. They have been together for over a decade, through the growth of several small businesses. They are entrepreneurs, artists, and dreamers. Their shared love of fantasy and literature finally spurred them to co-author a series of books together.