Gone

Chapter 10

When the days are cold, and the cards all fold...

     I took the food out of the oven and made sure everyone sat down to eat, even Cody, before I slowly walked back into the living room looking around at all of the glass. I didn't want to follow my mom's orders and clean it up but she wasn't going to do it and I couldn't have anyone else getting hurt with an injury  already in the past.

     Shaking out the heavy duty trast bag I brought with me, I knelt down and started cleaning up the big and obvious pieces of glass like you're supposed to do before I would later bring out the vaccum and clean up the pieces I couldn't see. At least a half hour passed when my stomach clenched and I pressed a hand to it trying not to wince, I hadn't eatten anything since that morning and now was the only time I could actually fill up but this had to be cleaned now before I had work.

     A hand tapped me on my shoulder and I looked up at Cody who smiled and handed me a plate filled with casserole. With an exhausted sigh I took the plate and collapsed onto the couch saying, "Thanks."

     "My pleasure," Cody replied sitting down next to me so our legs were touching just a little. I stared at them for a second before scooching a little farther away from him ignoring the hurt look that quickly flashed through his eyes. No offense to the boy, he was cute and everything, but I really had too much on my plate right now to have a relationship going on.

     We sat in silence while I finished eating and when I moved Cody took my plate and walked back into the kitchen with it. I stared after him for a few seconds before getting back down on the floor and pushing some more glass into the bag, it finally started to look like I was making a dent in the mess.

     What happened next was a series of unfortunate events. Tess and Tommy both screamed which caused me to go shooting up but my hand was in the bag of glass so pain beyond anything imaginable shot up my arm as a huge gash was made in my skin. Without a second thought though I ran into the kitchen cradling my arm to my stomach asking, "What's wrong?"

     "There was a spider but Cody killed it," Tommy said and I sighed in relief leaning back against the door frame feeling a little dizzy and out of it. "What happened to your arm," the twins asked in unison but it sounded a little foggy.

     Cody appeared in front of me touching my arm in concern as he observed it. "Let's get that taken care of," he said leading me out of the kitchen and into the hallway bathroom away from the twins. After sitting me down on the edge of the toilet, Cody rifled through the medicine cabinet and took out the first aid kit. "Are you okay," he asked running water over my arm while I winced.

     "Yeah, I just thought something happened and moved too quickly with my arm in the bag," I sighed resting my head against the cool ceramic sink. Gentle fingers ran across my arm and hand washing away the blood while I stared down at Cody's shoes, they were old basketball playing shoes.

     "Um Cathy," he said after a minute, his voice quiet.

     "Yes," I asked turning my head to look up at him sideways. He didn't look happy so I sat up and stared at my arm which was still bleeding. Even I knew that was a bad sign and I probably needed stitches, which I so couldn't afford.

     "I should-" Cody started to say but I held up my hand to stop him.

     "I think we both know here that I do not have enough money to get stitches or deal with any medical expense," I said while he shut his mouth and looked at my arm biting the inside of his cheek, "I just can't do it Cody, I already am not eating enough as it is, I would have to cut back on even more things and I can't do that to the twins, it's not their faults if I get behind on payments and stuff."

     "What about the money in your car," he asked looking me straight in the eye.

     It got dead quiet between the two of us as we stared at each other. "Take it back," I said and he looked at me in confusion. "The money Cody, take it back."

     "But Cathy you need it," he said while I narrowed my eyes angrily at him. Grabbing a towel off of the rack I wrapped my arm up and stormed out of the bathroom and outside into the chilly night. I knew Cody was following me by the sound of footsteps and he stopped when I reached my car and opened up the back door. Rifling with one hand through some papers I finally found the envelope and took it out.

     "Here," I stated handing it out to him and he backed up a little narrowing his eyes in return. "Cody I cannot live with myself knowing that this is yours, just take it. I can't be in debt to anyone especially someone who didn't even know my name a few weeks ago."

     "Fine," he snapped grabbing it out of my hands. With one last glare he hopped into his car and revved the engine before pulling out of the driveway as fast as legally possible and driving away leaving me alone and bleeding on my driveway. Tears pricked the corner of my eyes but I blinked them away and walked slowly inside shutting the door behind me and going back into the bathroom.

     Unwrapping the towel slowly, I stared at my arm wondering what the heck I should do. Putting it back under the sink to clean it, I found the cleaning alcohol and some wraps that I could use. I popped the top off of the bottle and dumped some on my arm wincing as fiery hot pain flew up my arm and I quickly wrapped the ace bandages around it until the cut was completely covered and bounded up nicely.

     "Hopefully this works," I muttered to myself clipping it all in place and putting everything back in the cabinet. Once the bathroom was clean, I grabbed the towels and went upstairs to change into a new shirt so I could throw everything in the wash.

     "Are you okay Cathy," Tess asked when I walked back into the kitchen twenty minutes later. She saw my arm and said, "Look we're twins." She held out her arm next to mine with the band aids next to my ace bandage and I laughed and ruffled her hair.

     "Where did Cody go," Tom asked bringing over his plate so I could wash it and put it away.

     "He had to go home," I said taking the plate from him and scraping the rest of the food he didn't finish into the trash while Tess did the same thing with hers. I took her plate as well and put them both in the sink turning the water on and squeezing in some soap. The twins went up to their room to go play since I still didn't finish cleaning up the living room and once I was all alone again I sighed sadly.

     Why on earth would Cody think putting money in my car be a good idea? If he heard everything in the hall then he would know that I don't want to be in debt to anyone no matter what the consequences are.

     After the dishes were clean and the rest of the casserole was in the freezer for leftovers or a snack, I went back to work in the living room and managed to clean up the rest of the glass with an hour to spar before work that would be spent getting the twins cleaned up and in bed.

     As I walked upstairs I paused at my mom's door and opened it up quietly. She was fast asleep on the bed looking like all was right in the world and she didn't just explode an hour ago. After a few more minutes of silently wishing she would get up and take her job over, I couldn't hate her even now for yelling at me, I closed the door again and went back to work.