From the Backseat | ON INDEFINITE HOLD

vii | Rhys

R H Y S 

She's beautiful, even with sweat covering her face and her hair plastered to her forehead. Her eyes are a light blue instead of her usual bright blue. She can keep liquids down now, so she's been eating a lot of soup. I know she wants to talk to her mom about what I overheard last night but standing makes her dizzy and her mom had suddenly disappeared. Instead of taking Holland to her mom, I was going to bring her mom to Holland, but it was like she knew because she was nowhere to be found. I had however found a note an hour later. It had been placed on the counter and simply said, be back later. Her father was nowhere to be seen either but Holland assured me that he would be at the restaurant all day.

"Is it always like this?" I asked. I'm sitting next to her on the bed, our arms are at our sides barely touching each other but I can feel the heat coming off her skin. Her fever hasn't gone down at all in the last few hours and if it stays like this for even one more, I'm taking her to the hospital. "Are your parents always gone?"

"We're all pretty much gone all day. There's nothing really here to do." She said. Her voice is raspy and she coughs before taking a sip of her water. "Dad's always at the restaurant and when mom's not there with him she's usually either here and I'm not, or she goes out to eat with friends of hers."

"So you rarely ever see both of your parents together?"

"I see them; we have a mandatory family dinner every other week. My brother comes home and my dad puts one of the managers in charge and we're forced to actually talk to each other. My brother's coming home this weekend for one actually." She doesn't seem thrilled about the thought of a family dinner but I know, just from the look in her eyes, that she kind of happy that her brother is coming home.

I don't understand why her brother doesn't visit more often. Maybe it's none of my business, but when I move out I will always be coming home. Not for my parents but for my little brother. He's a lot younger than me, and not entirely planned, but was loved anyway. The gap between us is what, surprisingly, makes us so close.

Holland closes her eyes and rests her head on the wooden headboard behind her and kicks the blankets off her body. I place the back of my hand to her forehead, still feeling quite warm, and then let my thumb trace her jawline. She turns her head slightly and her eyes open, when she looks me in the eyes she gives me a slight smile. "Thanks for taking care of me. I know it's not the most fun way to spend your day."

"I don't mind."

"Where did Jax go?" Elliot and Shannon had both left a few hours ago; they both had a shift at Ray's. They were reluctant to go, not wanting to leave Holland, but they had to. Jax on the other hand was somewhere around. He had left to find himself something to eat and I could hear the television on in the living room.

"He's here, I think he might be watching TV. He was helping himself for food, I don't know if he found anything."

"He seems to make himself at home no matter where he goes. Is he always like that?"

"Always."

As if he heard us talking about him and his ears were burning, Jax makes himself comfortable at the foot of the bed. His head is on Holland's bare legs and he curls himself into a ball so he's looking at both of us. Holland just smiles at him and he smiles back. "I could literally feel you two talking about me." He said. "Well that and the fact that the walls in this house are like paper thin. You can hear every word that is said throughout the entire place."

"Another reason why we barely spend any time in this place, there's no privacy." Holland said.

"Shannon said she's on her way here. Someone switched her shifts. Rhys and I have to leave when she gets here but we'll come see you tomorrow."