Rayston Point Road || Editing

Chapter Five

"She's not worried about Isaac. She's worried about you." Dan's hands hovered for a moment until he was convinced I was steady on my feet again and then he retracted them, running a hand back and forth over his buzzed hair and then down his face, wiping at the tired that was etched into his expression.

"She has quite the unusual way of showing it," I muttered, glancing up the stairwell at their closed bedroom door. A moment of silence passed between us while I stared up at where she was sleeping, catching from the corner of my eye that Dan was doing the same.

"Go to bed, kid. You're going to need rest to talk to her tomorrow." I looked back over at Dan, finding his dark brown eyes on me again.

"'Night," I smiled slightly, watching the way Dan's dark skin crinkled around his eyes the way it always did when he smiled, even a little bit, something that made even the slightest of grins from him seem warm and genuine.

"'Night, Loren." I turned and started walking up the stairs, stopping after only a few steps when Dan softly called my name again. I turned to him, finding that he hadn't moved. "Are you okay?" My body stiffened at his question, forgetting that Dan's knowledge of the Lancaster women, combined with his skills as an officer, made him nearly as successful at deciphering my body language and facial expressions as Leighton was. That reminder made a slightly feeling of dread rise at the prospect of how difficult it would be to hide this summer.

"Yeah," I responded quietly, hoping my pause hadn't been too much of a giveaway. "I'm just tired, it's been a long day."

"That's not what I meant." Dan's words stopped me again as I was mid-turn in trying to continue ascending the stairs. I looked down at him over my shoulder, carefully contemplating my next words.

"I'm okay, Dan. Goodnight." I turned away from him quickly, finishing my climb of the stairs, knowing in the back of my mind that my words likely weren't as convincing as I had wanted them to be, but it didn't matter. Leighton and Dan had known what I had been going through when they agreed to host me this summer, and my actions since I had arrived in town barely twelve hours ago should not be surprising to them.

I tried to push their concern, and my impending conversation with Leighton, out of my mind as I crept back into my room as quietly as possible, desperate not to wake the boys across the hall, a weight lifting off my chest as the door clicked shut behind me.

I kicked off my shoes as I walked and used my toes to step out of my socks, the cool wood floor beneath my feet a relief from the sneakers, and stripped myself of my shorts before collapsing onto my bed. The nauseous feeling that had been growing as I stood on the stairs swelled for a moment before the crushing exhaustion I felt started to take over, and the churning in my stomach finally stopped as I slipped into a heavy sleep.

When my eyes flew open the next morning, my body startled by the sound of high-pitched wailing, I felt as if I had hardly slept. The combination of my heart pounding in my chest from my alarming wake-up call, the sun streaming through the thin curtains covering the window, and the taste of cheap beer stuck in the back of my throat when I closed my eyes and exhaled again made me want to go back to sleep, but as the wailing downstairs doubled and the sound of Dan and Leighton's voices trying to sooth the boys carried up the hall, I knew it was useless.

Groaning deeply as I pushed my face into my pillow, I let my body lie dormant for a few more moments before I pushed myself out of the mattress and shuffled across the floor into the bathroom. Stripping myself of the clothes I had fallen asleep in, which smelt like a combination of ocean air and bonfire, I ran the warm water of the shower as I brushed the stale beer taste out of my mouth. After tying my hair up and washing my skin just enough to try to rejuvenate it from the night before, I wandered back into my room and pulled on the same jean shorts I had worn the night before along with a clean white t-shirt. Taking my shoes in my hand to drop them by the front door and finding my phone and keys from where they had fallen on the floor the night before, I slowly emerged from my room, cautiously walking down the stairs and listening. The wailing had begun to recede into soft whimpering, and as I dropped my shoes by the door and started down the hallway, I caught the quiet voices of Dan and Leighton talking to each other.