From Me to You [Complete]

48

Running up the Lyons' street, headed to the cottage, we are suddenly stopped by the abrupt appearance of a very solid body right in front of us.

As I pick myself up from the ground, rubbing my backside, I make out who it is. "Andy!" I hiss, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," he says nonchalantly, like it's an everyday thing to run into each other in the dead of night.

"For us, you mean?" I reply, feeling a little sour at being knocked over. I reach over and help a confused Michael to his feet. "And why are you looking for us?" I ask, turning back to my brother while keeping a hand on Michael's arm. Suddenly, I remember my suspicions from a couple days ago, like Andy might know something. "Are you following us?" I feel a bit betrayed –aren't siblings supposed to cover for you? I take a deep breath, feeling frustrated and confused by my brother's behaviour.

"Following you?" he asks, his voice low, clearly aware of the night and the proximity of the cottages. "Obviously not, or I would have found you already. As it is I've spent a good deal of time out here waiting for you two to come back. Don't know why you would leave without a key..." he trails off, running a hand through his hair, and making it stick up in odd angles in the moonlight.

"But...how did you know...?" Michael asks quietly, as if he is talking to himself.

"You aren't the quietest teenagers in the world," Andy says pointedly. I swallow and hope that my parents aren't going to kill me when I get back.

"Crap." I say, glancing at Michael with concern.

"Okay, we better go," Michael says firmly, gripping my hand and taking a step forward.

Andy stops us by moving in front for a second. "Just to let you know, Alice got up a little while ago, and it was lucky that she didn't see you were gone," he says to me. On one hand I have a great appreciation for my brother's detective skills and concern, but I'm also a little sad that I've never been privy to any of this information before.

"Dang it, really?" Michael asks, and I can hear the worry in his voice. He turns to continue walking, pulling me with him as I can't seem to move my legs on my own. Michael turns back, his voice suddenly higher, "So wait, how come she didn't notice Amanda was gone?" Seems like he was acting earlier when he mentioned the shed out back.

"I distracted her," Andy says. "Told her I needed a blanket."

"It's hot for a blanket," I say absently. Why was Andy around to see Alice get up anyway?

Andy stares at me. "Uh, anyway," he continues, "while I got a glass of water for her, she got me a blanket, and headed back to bed. That was a while ago, though." Before Michael and I can start moving Andy has taken us both by an arm and steered us toward the driveway. "The backdoor is open. Don't make so much noise when you go inside this time. Get inside before anyone else wakes up." Michael and I shake off his hands and begin walking toward the cottage.

Andy turns away once he sees us heading up the driveway. "Hey, wait a minute," I say. He turns around. "Where are you going?"

"Now that you guys are back I can go do what I wanted to do. No one's gonna check the attic and notice me gone!" he says.

I pout, wondering what on earth my brother is up to. Before I can say anything, Andy disappears in the dark, and I spin around in annoyance. "Men," I mutter under my breath.

"Hey, I take offense to that," Michael says pointedly. I think about sticking out my tongue at him. "Let's hurry," Michael adds, pulling me along beside him.

"Okay," I reply, feeling that butterfly unfurl its wings in my stomach.

We avoid noise as much as possible up the driveway and around, except when Michael manages to run into the exact same rock as he did a couple nights ago. We still don't know what the circumstances will be like inside. As we pass by the front of the cottage, I look inside to see if I can tell if anything is happening, but the lights are off and the cottage looks dark and quiet. Michael is walking a little funny, trying to keep the pressure off of his right foot, so it takes us a few more seconds to get to the backdoor than normal. When we get to the bottom of the stairs, I start to ascend but Michael puts a hand on my arm to stop me. I turn toward him, and he brushes a loose piece of hair out of my eyes. Slowly he leans in to kiss me, and my hands go up around him in response.

"Sorry," he says, breaking apart. His voice is soft. "I wanted to do that now in case something bad is waiting in there." He nods at the cottage.

"Well thank you," I say with a small smile, although I am feeling pretty nervous all things considered.

Michael turns me to walk beside him up the stairs. The door slides open easily, and I steal one last look at the dark backyard, hoping it won't end up being the last time I see it like this. I quickly slip into the dining room behind Michael and he shuts the door softly.

We pause for a minute, looking around and listening intently. I realize that I am not an excellent person to sneak out with at night: my face is easy to read so I make a terrible liar, I have no idea how to do things quietly in this cottage which I don't know very well, and I definitely don't have any practice being rebellious. Michael nods at me, which I take as his signal that we are in the clear. We both quickly remove our shoes and I slip off his sweater to hand it back to him.

We press our lips together in the briefest, quietest goodnight. Then I tiptoe down across the floor and down the stairs to the couch. I watch Michael cross to his room as I pull out the cushions and my pyjamas from under the sheet. I shuffle into my pyjamas, hoping I don't boil wearing two sets of clothing all night, then slip under the covers. Even though I am nervous about being found out, my body is exhausted, so it doesn't take me long to fall asleep.

I wake up momentarily when someone crosses the floor above me, but I lie still. Maybe Andy returning from whatever he was doing? The footsteps start to fade away onto the carpeted hallway, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Whether it was Andy, Alice, one of the Lyon brothers, or anyone else, doing who knows what, I'm just glad I was asleep on this couch. No one is the wiser about Michael and I's adventure earlier. Never thought I'd be thanking my brother for being on the lookout for Michael and I, but this trip has made it clear there are many things I didn't know before. In relief, I sink back into sleep.