Mike was not dumb. He was brilliant—just not at math.
“Out, before I change my mind,” the doctor snapped, “And if you help with any more escape plans, I won’t hesitate to make your life miserable.”
“Are you threatening my girlfriend?” Mike growled. I wish I could see what was going on but he’d stepped out of my line of sight the moment Caitlyn was threatened. For a second there, I almost forgot they weren’t dating.
“No. I would never threaten a minor. It’s just a helpful suggestion,” the doctor finished, not intimidated in the least. I wanted to open my bleach bottle and pour a little water on his shoe to see how he liked being bullied.
Caitlyn started pushing the cart out the door, but then we stopped again. “Leave that here. We’ll use it for later,” he said.
“I’m taking the cart,” she said. I heard the stubbornness in her voice and blessed her for it. She wasn’t going down without a fight even if they did end up detaining her. The floor vibrated with heavy men all moving in the same direction at the same time. I peeked out my hole but could only make out lots of jeans.
“She wants to take the cart—she takes the cart,” Garrett growled.
“Psst, get out,” she hissed as the sheet lifted. I slid out and glanced back. The football team had all lined up between the doctors and the cart and were creating a wall to enable my escape.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble, Mike. I’ll leave it right out here,” Caitlyn said as if she had changed her mind. She shoved me in the direction of the exit. It was all I could do to keep from sprinting to the door.
She wasn’t that far behind me. When I glanced back, the guys were still blocking the way. At least one good thing had come from this: I’d never have to worry about being bullied again.
Melissa was in my car already and had it idling at the exit. Caitlyn and I jumped in and she sped off, running a stop sign and then a couple of red lights before she finally slowed down. “So how did it go?”
I waved at the current light, hoping she’d not make it optional. She shrugged and stopped.
“Fixed, but I’m burnt out. I’ll have to take care of the rest of the cheerleaders tomorrow. Do you think you can gather everyone that needs help?” I rested my head against the window. It felt too heavy to hold up.
“Yeah, I’ll invite them over for a slumber party at my house for my birthday. Can you do it tonight?” Her voice sounded distant.
I laughed. “And Melissa?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to tutor Mike in math.” Or at least I think I said it.
Chapter Sixteen
“Get up,” Melissa said, shaking me awake.
I was in my bed, but I don’t remember getting there. Maybe she and Caitlyn dragged me in.
“I can’t do this today. It has to be tomorrow.” I wanted to sleep for, well, forever sounded good right now. Sleeping Beauty had it made. My head was pounding again.
“I’m not talking about that. Those doctor guys are here—talking to your parents.”
I sat up, making the pounding worse, and the world started spinning. “What do you mean the doctor guys?”
“The ones from the hospital. They showed up maybe thirty minutes ago. I thought they’d leave, but after giving your parents twenty questions over the hiking accident, they asked why your car was seen speeding away from the hospital moments after a room full of dysfunctional football players suddenly got better.”
“And?”
“Your dad’s ticked you were speeding. Your mom’s playing it cool. Hasn’t broken a sweat.”
“Okay, so what should I do?”
“Go in there and tell your dad I was driving. Be cool. I can’t remember what agency they said they were from, another one of those acronyms, something like P.R.U. But we’ve got a bigger problem.”
“What?” Like this wasn’t enough. Was one of the cheerleaders losing it?
“You left the bottle of bleach at the hospital.”
I felt the color drain from my face as I replayed the events. I had. I was working so hard to get untangled and out of there, I had left it on the bottom layer of the cart. That was bad, really bad.
“What are we going to do?”
“I’m going to go back. You stay here and I’ll call once I’ve got it,” she said before she snuck out the window. Yep, I had just traded my life for a spy movie. Now I had the government after me and my friend crawling out the window. I really wanted Tyler around too, but that was out of the question.
To the living room, it was.
“Hey honey. Hope we didn’t wake you,” my mom said as I came in the room. The smell of something chocolate baking wafted in from the kitchen as the cuckoo clock signaled five o’clock. Was this Saturday ever going to end?
“Hey Mom. Sorry; I was just beat. Who are they?” I nodded in our visitors’ direction. Their black suits screamed government. Goosebumps ran down my arms as I met the man’s steel blue eyes. He could probably see right through me. A blush crept up my cheeks. The woman beside him had mousy brown hair and looked like she’d make a better librarian than a government agent. Maybe this was her first field assignment out of the lab.
“Oh, they just came to ask about Tyler.” My mom patted my arm.
If Mom can do this, you can do this, I told myself.
“And to ask about your car speeding away from the hospital,” my dad added. His arms were folded.
I looked down. “I loaned my car to Melissa to go pick up some more clothes. She wanted to stay one more night with us because her parents are gone. She also mentioned something about going with a friend to check on Jacob, but I guess it’s all locked down.” Now I had to figure out how to throw the trail off Melissa.
“Hello Lilly, my name is Agent Patterson, and this is Agent King. I have a few blanks we are trying to fill in, if you don’t mind.” He flipped to another page of his notepad. I recognized his voice as the man who had wanted to quarantine Caitlyn.
I shook my head, not trusting my voice.
“And Melissa was at the hiking accident as well?” He lifted an eyebrow as he asked, revealing a small scar. He’d be sort of cute, if he weren’t so creepy.
“Yeah, but she was way ahead with Jacob when the accident happened. I can’t help thinking if she was there, she could have stopped it. I’m not much of a hiker, to begin with.” I looked away. The blood on my shaking hand and the way his leg looked would never leave me. I swallowed and took a deep breath, staring hard at the carpet until the memory passed.
He waited until I looked up again, meeting his gaze. I’d seen death; he was nothing compared to that.
“And when he fell, did you notice anything unusual around? Had Melissa come into physical contact with him at any time before then?”
“Probably. She was technically on a date with him. I was with Jacob, but I was going too slowly, and they took off. Tyler was kind enough to stay with me.”
“I thought she was dating Jacob,” said Agent King.
“Yeah, it was messed up. She and Jacob had been dating before that, but they split up, and she was using Tyler to sort of get back at him. I guess it all worked out in the end,” I replied, before looking back to Agent Patterson “Is there anything else? I guess I need to call Melissa and see where my car is.”
“That will be all,” Agent Patterson said.
My gut dropped a little. His eyes clearly broadcasted he didn’t believe my story.
“If there are any tickets, she’s paying them,” my dad said as I left the room.
“That’s for sure,” I replied.
I shut the door and resisted the urge to crawl into my closet to add another barrier between them and myself. If I was going to get that paranoid, I shouldn’t be using my phone at all. What if they already had a phone tap on it?
Okay, play it cool. Just don’t say anything that can be used against you.
I plunked down on my bed and texted Melissa before turning on the computer. Over thirty minutes
later, which gave me time to check half my school’s Instagram’s accounts for anything unusual, I was bored, annoyed, and worried. “Call me,” I texted for the third time.
With all that had been put into the bottle, I knew I couldn’t get rid of it again if it all came out. It was bottled death, and the town couldn’t take another blow. How had Gran dealt with all this stuff? I wish we had a trail to follow. After this was all fixed, I was never going to touch this side of me again.
I gave up and dialed. On the third ring, she picked up. “So?”
“Well, I found it, but there’s a problem.”
“What problem?” I held the phone tighter as if to brace myself.
“They got it first. One of the guys saw them grab it and take it with them.”
“Into another room? Or out of the hospital?”
“He didn’t know. Garrett just said he grabbed it.”
“So why didn’t you call?”
“I’ve been checking every bottle of bleach I can find. I think I’ve permanently damaged my nose and lungs with how many bottles I’ve smelled.”
“Okay. They’re still talking to my parents so I’ll see if I can find it in their car.” I swung my legs off the bed and started for the door.
“Good luck,” we both said at the same time.
I slipped out of my room and casually strolled out the back door. I grabbed Twiggy by the collar and walked her to the gate, then pushed it open and let go. Yeah, she would eventually come back, but she might give them a run for it if she didn’t just lie down.
She ambled into the front yard but ignored the man sitting in their car. I smiled and mumbled fetch. That seemed enough to spur her to go over to him. I made a show of trying to go after her, but it didn’t take very long for her to jump up against his car and start scratching at the windows. I jogged over, grabbed her collar, and glanced inside. Bingo.
I made the motion for him to roll down his window. He seemed to be debating it but eventually put it down. “Sorry about that.” I flashed my widest smile.
He nodded and started to roll the window up.
“Wait, just a second.”
He dropped his finger off the switch, leaving two inches open.
“You part of the people checking into the football game?” I hoped I looked more innocent than I felt inside. I looked down so he couldn’t see I was pulling a whopper of a lie.
“Yes.” I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me because he had on those mirrored sunglasses.
“What happened was weird, right? You guys have any idea yet? I heard drugs.”
He shook his head. This was not boding well.
I glanced in the back seat at the bleach bottle again and bit my lip. “I don’t think it was drugs. I was there the day before, when the whole team was practicing and saw something. You know what? Never mind; I’m sure it was nothing.”
I turned and headed back for the yard, taking Twiggy with me. Behind me, I heard the window going down.
“Hey, kid, why don’t you tell me anyway? You don’t want those boys to lose scholarships or anything because of drug accusations.” He tipped his sunglasses down, “If you saw something, it could possibly help a lot of your friends.”
I pretended to hesitate and came back. “Well, I was going to borrow Melissa’s phone because mine was dead and I saw someone standing near the water cooler. The same one all of them drank from after practice. There was a girl there I didn’t recognize.”
That part was true. I didn’t recognize Caitlyn anymore. If I played this vague enough, hopefully no one would remember her being there either.
“What did she look like?” He pulled out his phone.
I swallowed, wanting to give some outlandish description. “She had black hair, and she was taller than me. And she looked really angry. She poured something into the water. So when everyone freaked the next day, I thought of her. I feel weird saying anything, but like you said, I don’t want anyone to go down for drugs when they didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Any other distinguishing features? A scar, eye color, maybe someone you go to school with?” He started to dial a number in his phone.
“No. I didn’t recognize her from school and by the time I got closer, she was gone. I went into the locker room to call and when I came back out, all the players were drinking from the cooler.”
“Thanks.” He stopped the recorder.
I smiled and started for the backyard again, then paused.
“Was there something else?” he asked when I didn’t move.
“It’s nothing. Maybe I’m just creeping myself out.” I started walking again.
“What?”
“I thought I saw someone down there.” I pointed two houses down. “They just went around back. But maybe it’s because I was talking about her.” Thankfully, I knew the sweet old couple who lived there, and neither of them matched the description. Martha was currently sporting purple hair thanks to the beauty college.
“You stay here.” He got out of the car and ran in the direction I’d pointed, phone raised.
I grabbed the bleach bottle and hurriedly stashed behind a shrub before Agent Patterson and King came out the front door. I made a show of grabbing Twiggy again as if I’d run to the bush to grab her. My mom was behind them holding my third-grade picture. How embarrassing.
Twiggy followed behind me, bouncing as much as her heavy frame allowed.
The agent from the car came back panting.
“Did you catch her?” I asked, trying to keep my cool.
“No, but there were footprints in the mud over by where you pointed.” He now had dark stains under his arms and he huffed a little, like he was still out of breath.
“Oh, well if I see her again, is there somewhere I could call?”
Agent Patterson pulled out a crisp card with block lettering and held it out. I didn’t meet his eyes as I took it and shoved it in my back pocket. Fat chance.
“Last question. Do you remember seeing this person possibly when you went for the hike?” Agent Patterson asked.
“Not on the way up. And to be honest, coming back is all a little fuzzy too. I mean, Tyler fell and I freaked. I made sure he was okay, but then I left him alone there for awhile while I was running down the trail to get help. Now that you mention it. Just a sec.” I pulled out my phone and dialed Melissa.
She picked up right away. “Hey, I’ve got some agents investigating into what happened with the football players here. They wanted to know when you were coming down the mountain after Tyler fell, I think you mentioned something about a girl on the trail with black hair. I forgot about it before because I was all worried about Tyler.”
“What?” she asked.
“Agent Patterson and King are here and I told him about that girl I saw at the water cooler. The one I didn’t recognize. Didn’t you say you saw someone coming down the trail?”
“The one with the creepy green eyes?” she asked after a beat.
“Yeah, hold on, I’ll tell them. Melissa said the girl had creepy green eyes. Anything else?”
“It looked like she was wearing a jumpsuit, which is weird for hiking,” she added. I had to be careful we didn’t get too outlandish with this.
“She said the girl was wearing a jumpsuit.”
“She had laser eyes, smelled like chocolate, and was holding a baby unicorn,” She whispered.
I rolled my eyes. “That’s all,” I told the agents.
From the phone, Melissa added, “You’re no fun. And by the way, I’ve got all the cheerleaders coming to my house tonight.”
“And if we contact Melissa later, she’ll give us the same story?” confirmed Agent Patterson, maybe because I was still pushing down a smile from the baby unicorn comment.
I wiped the smirk off my face and nodded.
“Okay, thank you for your time.” He held out his hand.
A shock went up my arm as I shook it. He had so many rioting emotions inside, I felt almost blinded by him. I let
go and shivered.
“Are you okay?” He stepped closer as if to steady me, and I flinched.
“Fine.” I tried to push a smile on my face. “Well, going to go work on some homework.” I glanced at my mother and went inside. I hadn’t taken anything from him, but I went to the bathroom and washed my hands anyway. The feeling of running water on my skin comforted me. This was just getting crazy.
My mother knocked on the door a few minutes later. “Are you okay? Even I saw something was up when you shook his hand.”
“He felt so weird. He had so many emotions jumbling around inside him. It felt like someone had shoved a few more than his own in there. I don’t know how else to put it, but I need to stay away from him.”
“We’ll figure it out, then. What were you doing out front?”
“You saw me?”
“Yes, thankfully they were facing us. I grabbed the first thing I could find to keep them distracted.”
I rolled my eyes. “Those old pictures of me should be destroyed. And they had the bleach bottle.”
Mom nodded and pulled me into a hug. It felt good, something stable in all the craziness that had just gone down.
“Well, that was quite a story you gave those men.”
“Do you think it will go back to normal after I fix the cheerleaders?”
“I don’t think it can, honey. Too many people have been changed. Even if you manage to fix all of them, Caitlyn will still be different. We are all made of up of the experiences we’ve gone through and by taking that away from her, you’ve made her a different person.”
“Can I take it back?”
“I think it’s gone too far take it all back. I can’t tell you the number of times I wish I could rewind my life.” She smoothed my hair back.
“I wish you hadn’t said that.” With all the jarring thoughts going through my head, knowing my mother had regrets shook me further.
“That’s something you’ll learn, honey. We all have regrets. The best you can do is take each day as it comes and try to make it the best you can. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s crappy, but then you know you tried.”
A Touch of Water (Touch of Magic Book 1) Page 12