by C. L. Stone
I pulled my knees up until they were pressing to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees. When I did, everyone stopped to watch me. I had no idea why and I felt my cheeks starting to heat up, unsure of if I was looking stupid or what. I slid a glance to Silas next to me, questioning with my eyes what they were looking at. He gave me a soft smirk, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Somehow I sensed it was just that I moved at all and they were super in tune to what I was doing in the moment. I could only guess that they expected me to say something about all this. I couldn’t think of anything to add.
Mr. Blackbourne cleared his throat and continued. “We’ll have to tighten the schedule. I’ll work one out and will send it to everyone’s phones. Luke, I still want that map of this house so make one tonight. Someone will bring you a laptop.” He pointed at me. “Miss Sorenson, I want you to stay out of the attic tonight and rest your voice. We’ve got school ahead and we can’t have you squeaking like a mouse. If anything else happens, you call me directly.”
I nodded to him, clamping my lips shut. His eyes communicated unspoken orders: stay out of trouble.
“Let’s go,” he said.
With that, everyone moved at once. I stood up with Silas. Mr. Blackbourne left the room. His footsteps echoed in the hallway as he marched down the stairs.
When he was gone, Silas turned to me, wrapping his arms loosely around my shoulders for a quick hug. “Call me when you get the new phone,” he said.
I hugged him back, smiling. I loved his hugs.
He let me go and turned away. Victor materialized in his place and gave me a hug. His fingertips traced my back, smoothing over a couple of ribs. “I’ll be back soon,” he whispered in my ear.
I hugged him, too. When he pulled back, Nathan replaced him, and gave me a tight hug without saying anything at all.
When Nathan left, North came forward. He reached around, holding me tight and nearly lifting me off of the ground, hugging. His fingers threaded through my hair. “I don’t care that your mother is sick,” he said. “If she touches you again, I’m coming back for you.”
“North,” I whispered. I wanted to say more, but I was stunned and breathless.
He placed me carefully on the ground and stormed out.
Kota strode toward me. His arms encircled my waist and his face buried into my shoulder. I hugged him in return.
“I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” he whispered in my ear. “Listen to Gabe and Luke. Stay out of trouble. Call me if you want.” He pulled back and put his forehead against mine. “You’re with us now.”
I felt my heart breaking. As much as I loved that Gabriel and Luke would be staying with me, Kota looked so determined and yet so lost at the same time. I wasn’t sure how to answer him. I wanted to tell him I’d be okay. He’d be back tomorrow. Right now it seemed like forever. I wanted them all to come back. I changed my mind. I didn’t want to stay. I wanted to run away with them, even if it meant hiding with the Academy. Despite what we’d been through, and how they’d come to save me, I didn’t feel like one of them at all. I desperately needed to be. I wanted that confidence, knowing I belonged. Would I ever feel as strongly as he did, so assured of my place among them?
“Miss Sang,” Dr. Green said from behind Kota. Kota moved away from me. Dr. Green held out a hand to me. “Let me show you how to take care of that mother of yours,” he said. “Then we should go. I don’t want to have to give her something else to make her sleep and we shouldn’t be here if she comes out of this quickly.”
I glanced back once at Kota as Dr. Green took my hand and pulled me out of the room and down the stairs. Kota looked not entirely happy about the situation, but resolved that this was what had to be done. I could only hope they were right.
In my mother’s room again, Dr. Green guided me to the bed. An IV stand was in place, holding a bag of fluid connected to the needle set in her arm by a clear tube. The liquid dripped slowly from the bag. It actually made me feel better to see it; at least she was getting fluids.
Dr. Green pointed to the three prescription bottles on her nightstand. “These are the only ones she should be taking,” he warned. “It’s what she’s currently prescribed. I think she’s been getting confused because she talks to so many doctors and she hangs on to old medicine. I’m going with Nathan to the hospital to dig up information and we’ll talk to some doctors about better treatment options. Stressing herself out so much that she comes after you is not an option.”
I swallowed, nodding.
“If she wakes up, make her some soup and ensure she eats. Don’t let her stress out. If she starts to, do whatever she says as long as it isn’t dangerous. Lie if you have to. Luke and Gabriel will be right here, so no matter what happens, they’ll pull you out if and when needed. Get her to rest as much as possible. When does your father get back?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. And I don’t know how to reach him. He didn’t mention when he’d be back.”
He pointed to the IV stand. “If your mother asks you about that, say you called a doctor to check her out while she slept. She may not like that but don’t worry if she pulls out the IV. I’m more worried about her waking up and if she gets that far, we can take it from there. Gabriel’s on watch to make sure she wakes up and if she doesn’t, you should use the house phone to call for an ambulance. We can’t get any closer.”
I sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I understood what he meant. It was too close now. I knew he meant they didn’t want to expose themselves to my family, and possibly they weren’t prepared, as they’d said, to do much more. I wondered at what point they would call in the Academy. I wondered what difference it would make.
With his green eyes on mine, he closed the space between us, wrapping his arms around me in a looser hug than the others. The movement surprised me at first. He was my teacher. A doctor. I often forgot, like with Mr. Blackbourne, that he was young, maybe only a few years older than I was. He was also friends with Kota and the others. Nine guys in all when I sometimes just counted the seven. I weakly wrapped my arms around his chest to make this friendly gesture mean something.
“Cheer up, buttercup,” he said.
I had no idea how to respond, but my heart warmed at his words. If my mother could see us now, she’d claim he was raping me. I blushed at both his touch and the idea of my mother waking at any moment, along with the guilt that weighed me down like bricks when I thought of how she would look at me.
He let go, moving away from the bed. I followed. There was nothing for us to do now but wait.
Apples
Gabriel, Luke and I stood in the garage as we watched the others get in various cars and move on to do what they needed to do. The bathroom was done. The house was back to what it was before. North took the fractured wood of the stool with him. No one talked about replacing it, but I worried that my mother would assume I hid it or had gotten rid of it and would punish me more when she noticed.
When we were alone, I relaxed. Having fewer people there meant I’d have less chances of my mother waking and catching us. Also, everyone else was so somber and tense. Maybe Mr. Blackbourne was right to keep them busy and away from here. Everyone needed a break to calm down a little and try to get back to the almost-normal that we were.
Luke, Gabriel and I gathered up in my room. Luke settled into drawing out a map of the house on notebook paper and occasionally left the room to go measure something with the tape. Gabriel kicked his shoes off, dropped into my bed, pulled the blanket up and fell asleep.
With nothing else to do, I sat on the floor and finished up my homework.
About an hour later, Luke crawled over to where I was sitting in the corner of the room on the carpet. I was finishing the reading assignment for English.
“Sang,” he said, his eyes big and his hand on his stomach. “Will you make something to eat? I’m starving.”
I found a pencil and wrote to him so I wouldn’t have to talk. “What would you like?”
“Anything,” he said. He tugged a band from his blond hair. Locks tumbled across his face. He raked his fingers through the strands, pulling them back to redo the ponytail. “I’ll eat bread and water.”
I smirked at him. I could do a little better than that.
A phone ringing cut through the quiet. Gabriel’s outline shifted on the bed. “Yeah?” he said in a groggy voice. “No, she’s right here. Fuck, yes, I’m sleeping. Shut up. Luke’s here. Stop yelling at me. We’re supposed to be up all night watching her, so I’m trying to sleep now. Fuck you.” Gabriel’s hand appeared from under the blanket and he dropped the phone onto the carpet with a thud. “Sang,” he called. “Phone’s for you.” He flipped over. The top of his hair appeared as the blanket shifted but he settled, going back to sleep again.
I looked at Luke. Who expected me to talk to them now?
Luke laughed. He walked over and scooped up the phone. “Yes? Yeah, she’s right here.” His eyes flickered to me. “No, he’s just napping. You know how he is when you wake him up. Yes, she’s still asleep. Yes, tell North Sang finished her homework.” Luke made a face at me. I smiled at him. “What? No.” He held his hand over the end of the phone. “Silas wants to know your favorite color.”
“Pink,” Gabriel mumbled from under the blanket.
Luke checked with me to confirm and I nodded. “She said pink. Well if they don’t have it in pink, go to another store.”
I tugged on Luke’s shirt sleeve, silently asking him what in the world he was talking about. He waved me off, holding me back with his hand and tilting the phone away. I could hear Silas talking but I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. I blew out a breath, shaking my head. I got up and crossed the room. If there was nothing else they needed, I was going to make food.
I padded down the stairs and popped my head into my mother’s room. She was still in a deep sleep, but the color in her cheeks looked better. I was going to try to get her to take a bath when she woke up so I could wash her sheets. Usually my dad did it, but now that I knew how bad her illness was, I thought maybe if I helped out more, she wouldn’t be so crazy when she was awake.
I meandered into the kitchen. I checked the fridge and started collecting ingredients to make bacon and grilled cheese sandwiches with apples.
Butter melted in the frying pan when I sensed someone behind me. I spun around, nearly knocking into Gabriel.
“Watch yourself, Trouble,” he said. He yawned, rubbed a palm against his eye. He combed the lock of blond back to mix in with the rest of his brown hair behind his ears. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Grilled cheese,” I whispered. I slipped bread into the pan, layered it with cooked bacon and cheese. I thinly sliced Granny Smith apples to add on top, plus another slice of cheese and another piece of bread.
“What’s with the apple?” he asked. “That’s weird.”
“It’s good,” I whispered.
“Whatever you say.” He folded his arms across his stomach and leaned against the counter.
“Gabriel,” Luke said softly as he walked into the kitchen. “We’re not supposed to leave her room.”
“Who the hell is going to tattle on us? Her mom’s still passed out. We’d hear her coming if she came through here.”
Luke made a face but his head turned as he spotted me cooking. “Oh thank goodness.”
“She puts apples in her grilled cheese.”
“Cool.”
“Do you not want apples?” I whispered to Gabriel.
Gabriel slipped next to me, dropping a hand on my hip and pressed his cheek to my shoulder. “Is it good?”
“Try a bite of this when it’s done,” I said. “If you don’t want it, I’ll eat the rest.”
Gabriel’s phone went off again. He let me go and stepped away from us to answer it. “What? Yes, she’s here, would I be all calm if she wasn’t?” He held the phone away from his head. “Sang, Victor’s outside. Run out there.”
I passed the spatula to Luke. He took it and flipped over the grilled cheese. Gabriel followed me to the side door, opening it for me. He hung out in the doorway as I ran through the garage.
The gray BMW was parked at the end of the driveway. Victor was leaning against the side door. Black slacks. White Armani shirt. The fire in his eyes was lit to a cozy setting. “Hi,” he said.
I smiled at him.
“Are they driving you crazy yet?”
I shook my head.
He straightened and turned to open the back seat of his car. He lifted out a brown leather messenger bag. “There’s two laptops in here. One is for you to play with. The other is for Luke to work on.”
He handed it to me. The leather bag was stiff. It appeared brand new.
He dipped his hand into his back pocket and pulled out an iPhone with a pink case attached. “This is yours.”
The cell phone was identical to the old one. “Did you fix it?”
“Sweetheart, you demolished the other one. This is new.”
Heat teased my cheeks. “I didn’t… I don’t really need…”
He dropped a finger to my lips, squishing my mouth closed. “Just say thank you.”
I smiled and mouthed a thank you around his finger.
He pulled me in another hug. “I’ve got to get some things done. I may not see you tomorrow. Text me.”
“I will,” I whispered, mashing myself into him. I didn’t want to let go.
He released me and stepped away. I held back and watched as he started his car and backed out of the drive. I waved as he drove off. How normal was that? Why couldn’t that happen all the time? Why couldn’t my mother accept that people weren’t all that bad? I was making lunch for Luke and Gabriel. We’d been hanging out all afternoon. No death. No raping. Just friends.
I collected the mail, since I was outside. Back inside, burning bread and butter met me at the door. I dropped the leather bag and the mail on the floor, sprinting to the kitchen.
The kitchen was empty. Grilled cheese smoked in the pan. I snatched up the spatula to plate the sandwich. Two additional sandwiches were sitting on the plate, too. Where did the guys go?
“Sang!” My mother’s voice clattered through my ears. Thudding footsteps sounded from the hallway.
My heart stopped. I dropped the pan on the stove and shut off the heat.
My mother appeared from the hallway, hair mangled against her head. She tugged the IV pole with her. It was on wheels so she could roll it along. “There you are,” she said. “What’s burning?”
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I left it on when... when I went to go check the mail. I thought I would get back quickly enough.”
My mother blinked at me. “Why are you whispering?”
She didn’t remember. The worst experience she’d put me through and she didn’t know. If I had never called Silas and if they never saved me, I’d still be there now, or dead. “Sore throat,” I whispered. I coughed softly once but swallowed hard so I wouldn’t go into a fit.
She staggered backward. “Don’t come near me,” she said. “I can’t get sick.” She paused. “When did the doctor come?”
I assumed she meant the IV. “I called him,” I lied. “You weren’t waking up so I called. They set you up with that. I hope that was okay.”
She shuffled on her feet, putting her weight on one leg and then the other. She didn’t look happy about it, and I knew it was because there had been strangers in the house, but to her they were doctors. They were who she saw in the hospital. I wondered how she rationalized it. She was okay with doctors but not anyone else? I wonder if she’d like Dr. Green.
She settled finally, as if accepting this answer. “Make sure you call your father if you need to do that again. Let him call.”
“Okay.”
“Where’s the mail?”
I retraced my steps to the side door. She followed me and I was worried she’d ask about the leather bag.
But the messenger bag wasn’t on the floor where I’d left i
t. Luke or Gabriel must have used the back steps to collect the bag. My heart fluttered, hoping they could remain quiet. I scooped up the mail from the floor and carried it over to my mother.
She took it from me. “You made three sandwiches?” she asked me, pointing to the plate I had made.
“I’m really hungry,” I said. She noticed that but she didn’t notice the bandages on my wrists and ankles?
Now that I was focused on her, I realized she hardly looked at me. Her eyes darted around me, occasionally looking at my knees or something similar but always out of focus until she looked at something else. Did I not notice before? Being around the others, they often touched my face to bring my eyes to theirs. Did I divert my eyes too much without realizing it? Was I looking around others but not really at them?
“You’ll get fat,” she said.
“Do you need anything? Water? I can make you grilled cheese or some soup.”
She considered this. “Bring me water and some yogurt.” She rolled her IV pole back to her bedroom.
I collected what she wanted quickly and raced to her room. I was there before she made it to the bed. I gave her a plastic spoon and her water bottle and nudged the plastic trash can closer to her bed. “If you’ll take a bath, I can change your sheets.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “What do you want?”
“Huh?” I meant to ask more, but dry air caught in my throat and I started coughing.
She reeled her head back, taking the top off of her water. “Go away. You’ll make me sick.”