Invisible String

Chapter 5: Moving On

"Hey there!" Lizzie greeted, struggling with the bags of groceries as the front door of her dad's house shut behind her. She felt really stupid now for telling Jay she could handle the bags alone.

Her dad was sitting on his chair in the living room and grunted something that seemed like a hello. Pat seemed like his usual grumpy, annoyed self, but it was better than the grumpy and sick Pat they had been dealing with.

"I brought some things." Lizzie started to lay down the groceries on the kitchen table while Pat followed her. "Remember what Will said. No more greasy stuff or that disgusting thing you call it beer."

He looked at the food she was now putting away into the fridge or the cupboards. Will was utterly obsessed with taking better care of their dad, and that included filling the fridge with vegetables, fruits and other healthy options so he wouldn't turn to junk food again.

"Is that even food?" he asked, frowning at a package of kale.

"Yes, dad." Lizzie tried not to laugh, because she absolutely hated kale. He opened his mouth to complain once again, but seemed to change his mind.

Inside her pocket, her phone buzzed. This time, only once, meaning it wasn't another call or angry voicemail. It actually had been quiet after she had told him to stop calling, so maybe he had finally given up. Curious, Lizzie reached for the phone to see what it was.

On the screen, a single text message from another unknown number stared back at her. Only six words that grouped together felt like a punch on the stomach, a reminder of what she had been trying so hard to leave behind.

"You okay, kid?" Pat asked. She had held onto the kitchen table so hard her knuckles were white.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." Lizzie lied. It seemed enough for him to knock away any worry, so he turned to look in the fridge, probably looking for something that wasn't green.

Her hands were shaking when she took the phone to look at the screen again.

"You can't run from me forever."

The words kept echoing in her head as she said goodbye to her father and stepped out of the house. All she wanted was to go home and crawl under a blanket, but Jay was waiting for her in his car. Will and Nina were already waiting for them at Molly's and if she suddenly tried to ditch them, they would notice something was wrong and wouldn't just leave her alone.

"You look like you've just seen a ghost." was the first thing Jay said to her when she got in the car.

"I kind of did." she mumbled, too low for him to hear. He shot her a worried look. "I'm fine, let's go."

The cold beers, terrible jokes and crazy stories were almost enough to get her mind off that text message. She still couldn't figure out if it was some sort of desperate plea... or a threat. Lizzie refused to believe he would go that far.

Elizabeth was trying her best to keep the anxiety at bay so she wouldn't disturb anyone's fun. Erin had some family thing to attend, but Nina was nice and even got impressed when Lizzie told how she used to tutor in pathology, earning her an invitation to go down to the Pathology lab some time and see their work.

Jay had just finished the worst joke she had ever heard, which obviously he had learned with their father, when Natalie arrived. Will was ridiculously staring at her as she displayed a new haircut that suited her very well.

"It looks really great, Natalie." she offered the compliment while kicking Will under the table. If Nina was jealous of a possible thing he had with Natalie, she supposed the longing stares wouldn't help his case.