Cassie

III

"You got me where you want me I ain't nothing but your fool You treated me mean Oh, you treated me cruel..."

I pinched my eyes shut tighter as I registered the sound of a knock at the door, over the hum of my music. My head pounded furiously like someone took a sledgehammer to my skull. The headache had come on quickly and with an ungodly amount of force. I should be used to them by now, after nearly six months of getting head-splitting migraines every few days, but the throbbing in my brain never got any more placid or familiar.

I had only been here for a little over two hours. Most of which I had spent staring at the ceiling of Kaia's bedroom, trying to ease the pounding feeling in my brain. Jamie and Kaia had left me up here nearly an hour ago, to give me time to 'unpack and settle in. I think they both realized that I had virtually nothing to unpack, but I guess it was the sentiment of being somewhere new. Another knock sounded through the white-walled bedroom.

I groaned but continued to ignore it, turning up my music two more decibels, despite the voice in the back of my mind that demanded that I get up and make a good impression. That can be done later when I didn't feel like I was at death's door for the third time this week.

"Every chain Has got a weak link. I might be weak, child But I'll give you strength, oh yeah..."

My eyes snapped open abruptly when I felt a hand gently brush against my shin. Beck stood over me with furrowed eyebrows, pointing to one ear, I assume to indicate that I should take my headphones out. I sat up, yanking the right one out of my head roughly.

"I knocked a few times, I didn't mean to sneak up on you, I'm sorry, I just wanted-"

"It's fine." I cut him off, tucking a strand of thin blonde hair behind my ear and sitting up against the wall behind the bed.

"Yeah, okay, um," Beck shifted uncomfortably, shoving one hand into the pocket of his jeans and sweeping the other through his brown hair. "Well, I was just coming to check on you. We're gonna have dinner in about 10 minutes if you wanna come down and join us. Clarke is here." He added the last part cautiously as if telling me something he didn't quite want me to know. I pressed my remaining earbud into my head a little further.

"You told me to leave you alone. My father said, "Come on home" My doctor said, "Take it easy" Oh, but your loving is much too strong..."

"He's the other one you didn't meet. Other than Eli, As I said before." He chuckled nervously. I pulled one knee against my chest as I looked up at him, trying to make sense of his overwhelming sense of discomfort towards me. It wasn't that I didn't understand why I made him uncomfortable. I made a lot of people feel like that. I just wondered which part of me it was that made him so uneasy. I could only begin to imagine which it may be.

"Well anyway, would you like to come down. You don't have to if you don't want to, I get it if you just need some time to yourself, and I won't force you to do anything but-"

"I'll come." I cut him off again, not able to stand listening to his nervy rambling anymore. I had too much of my anxiety to deal with anyone else's. "I'll come down. I should eat something anyway," I muttered the last part to myself as I slid off the peach-colored comforter and onto the soft carpet below. I shoved my iPod into my sweatshirt pocket, leaving one earbud hanging against my stomach.

"We're having chicken soup," Beck said, following me out of the bedroom. "Jamie said it was your favorite."

"It is," I muttered softly. Beck nodded and walked a little ahead of me when I hesitated on where to go. The house wasn't big, but still, having lived in a one-level house-it was the size of a trailer really-all my life, anything bigger seemed massive to me. Kaia's room was on the third floor, in a space that I assumed was once an unoccupied attic that they converted to a bedroom at some point before kid number seven was born.