Shock

-6-

I blinked. Once, twice. No light reached my eyes.
Confused, I tried to sit upright, causing my head to spin. Logical thinking was hard at the moment, but still I strained for an explanation. No way a complete knock out occurred after just one hit, but what had happened then?
Though I couldn't see anything, I felt someone was sitting by my side. My eyes darted around uselessly, searching for a spark of light.
"Who is that?" I asked once I realized there was no point in trying to identify the person sitting in the dark.
"Haley," spoke the softest voice I'd ever heard.
"Oh, hi," I responded. "Are... You okay? What happened?"
"Yeah, I'm okay... It's dark,"
I smiled.
"I noticed. How long has it been this way?"
"Uhm, a while."
As adorable as Haley was, I needed clarification. I struggled to my feet, ignoring my headache and sore back.
"Stay right here, okay?"
"No!" The little girl burst out. "You're not supposed to move, Nathan says you can't move!"
I stopped for a few seconds to look back at the spot where I assumed she was sitting.
"Who's Nathan?"
"My uncle. He works here."
I tried to visualize a list of Rhonda's employees. I knew a Neil, a Nigel, an Ethan, but no Nathan. I figured there was no reason for me to take orders from somebody I'd never met, so I just assured the girl it was okay, that I knew what I was doing, and walked towards the group of people.
Amidst the customers, Peter and DS were still standing across from muscle. Though Peter was mostly staring, DS seemed to be indulged in a heated conversation with the guy.
When I got within four feet of the trio, I spoke up.
"What do you think you're doing?"
They all looked my way. DS nodded.
"I was just asking him the same thing."
"Not him!" I turned my body so I was only facing DS.
"What are you doing?"
He looked surprised.
"I, uhm.." He eventually motioned to muscle, "He punched you!"
"By accident!" I yelled right back. Then, stepping closer, I hissed, "I don't need anyone fighting my battles for me."
"I was being helpful!"
"You were being annoying!"
DS didn't respond. He just backed away, a dazed look on his face.
When he was gone, I let my head drop to my hands and grunted.
I felt stares coming from everywhere within the diner.
Guess our little fight wasn't so little after all. Oh well, haters gonna hate. 
I looked over to where Peter had been standing, only to find him gone. I was about to go look for him when a voice sounded from behind me.
"Got a bit of a temper there?"
I didn't recognize the voice, so I glanced at its owner. A shortish guy, with mousy brown hair a ragged shirt. One of the poker players, if I recalled correctly.
"You heard that, huh?"
"I think everyone did,"
I turned away from him, scanning the crowd for brown curls indicating the location of my sibling, hoping Mousy'd get the hint I wanted to be left alone.
He didn't.
"You come here often?" He asked.
"I work here."
"Cool."
Unfortunately, the awkward silence didn't seem to be as awkward for Mousy, because he didn't move.
I just ignored him and kept examining the crowd. I silently cursed myself for steering my brother away from his original choice of clothing for the party, a Wolverine costume. At least that would have made it easier to find him in the crowd.
"Y'know, I used to work at a pub." Mousy said. "To save up for college, y'know? But I got kicked out after... Y'know what? That's not important. Why do you work here?"
No matter how badly I wanted to ignore the guy, my conscience told me to behave. He was just making friendly conversation. No need to be rude. Unfortunately, when it came to a one-on-one between my conscience and my insomnia enhanced stress, stress won out. Big time.
"Don't you ever shut up?" I snapped.
"Well, I uh... Didn't mean t'offend ya."
Just as he struggled for his apology, another costumer walked over.
It was a girl with coils like a telephone cord, dip-dyed blue with only a bit of black showing at the roots. She wore a neat outfit, contrasting her rebellious hair; a button up shirt and pin-stripe trousers, as if she was going to court.
"You'll have to excuse him, he's not used to talking to girls."
This earned her a stern glare from Mousy.
The girl appeared unfazed.
"He got dropped on the head as a baby. Never quite recovered."
"Hey, would ya put a sock in it already?"
The girl looked gave me a meaningful look.
"See? No social skills whatsoever." 
I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
"I'm Layla, by the way. And this imbecile over here is my brother Keith."
"Charlie," I said, shaking her hand.
"Nice to meet you Charlie."
"Nice to meet you."
Then, an idea struck me.
"You guys come here often?"
Keith grumbled. "Sure, when I say it it's a lame pick-up line, but when she says it-"
"Do you know the staff?" I interrupted.
"Yeah, partly," Layla said.
"Do you know a Nathan?"
Layla started to shake her head, but Keith said, "I, uh... Think that's the guy in the ninja turtles shirt. The one you were fighting with? I think he goes to my school."
If we'd been in an old loony toons cartoon, this is the exact moment when my jaw would have dropped to the floor.
DS was Nathan. He was Haley's uncle, which meant he was related to Mrs. Stratford. No wonder he'd been so upset.
"I have to go."
I turned on my heels and dashed away.

I found Nathan sitting on the floor next to mrs. Stratford.
"She's your sister isn't she?"
After the revelation, I had no interest in staying mad.
He wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve and kept his head down.
"Are you o-" I stopped mid-sentence. Of course he wasn't. I shut up and the silence spanned for minutes.
"Sister in law." He mumbled eventually.
"Oh."
I mentally smacked myself in the head.
Oh? His sister in law was dying and my response was oh? Then again, I had no idea what the right reaction would be. Somehow 'I'm sorry, I wish that large jukebox hadn't crushed your sister in law,' didn't sound right.
I put my hand on his the way he'd done earlier when I'd been upset. I wondered if it worked. He didn't do anything. After a while, he sighed and looked up.
I pretended not to notice his puffy eyes and wet cheeks. He expression wasn't exactly what you'd call sad. He just seemed... drained.
"Thanks." Was all he said, before he got up and left.