Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 44 {R}

~ ☾~

✦ RILEY ✦

"Do your parents know?"

I looked away from the car window when Zach finally broke the silence. I knew it was because he realised we were getting close to my house.

I saw Carrie's eyes glance towards the back through the mirror above her head, the question gathering her attention briefly.

I couldn't get over how much she was doing for us, in between the energy-draining, busy workhours of a full-time doctor, and I wondered if we weren't getting her in trouble with her work. Because even now, during her shift, she had come to pick us up, lying to Zach's family that she needed to take him to the hospital for an extra checkup, to drive us to my house.

I glanced at Zach and nodded. "They came to see you, in the hospital."

"Really?"

I smiled softly, confirmed it with another nod. The idea stunned him, surprised him to the point where he went silent again.

Carrie stopped the car in front of my house. She looked back at the both of us as we unbuckled our seatbelts. "Are you two going to be okay?"

I forced myself to be confident, feeling both of them look at me; one for confirmation, the other for reassurance. I tried to hide how nervous I was, praying neither of them would see through me. Hoping Zach didn't sense it.

"Yeah, we are," I said. "Thank you, so much, for helping us out, again."

"Of course, just stay in touch, okay?"

I nodded, felt the need to promise it to her so I did.

"And Zach?" She called, making him wait with closing the car door after him. She smiled at him. "You're in good hands, you've got nothing to worry about."

He smiled back, genuinely thanked her, but there was a strain in his smile and it never fully reached his eyes.

I think we both knew we had enough to worry about it.

~ ☾~

The hardest part about coming home was having to tell my mom she couldn't, under any circumstance, let anyone — and especially not Jack — in, as long as Zach was here.

I knew how unfair it was, to make her pick one child over the other, and the hardest part about it was that she didn't believe what I told her.

That Jack had threatened him, multiple times, and had played a part in his near-death experience.

And to be honest, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't been there to watch it happen.

Zach sat down on the ground, in the farthest corner, as I closed the steel door after me, locking us both in the 'werewolf-proof' basement of my house.

I had been down here, many times, with many people, but I had never expected to be here with him. For him. And somehow that made everything about this foreign.

He released the air from his lungs, closing his eyes in a split moment of relief. "It's quiet in here," he muttered.

"Sound proof walls," I said, rubbing my clammy hands off on my jeans, and I cursed myself for being this nervous when I knew he needed me to be calm, more than ever.