Repairing the Hurt

Chapter 41

Leaving the hospital I feel a guilty sense of relief. I'm sad that the only mother I knew had died, but I'm okay, as awful as that is to feel. There's no longer that voice in the back of my head that warned me about ever having to see her again.

The warm summer air sweeps through my hair as I step outside, tangling it in the wind. I breathe in the fresh summer scents, trying to clear my head of my guilt and my closure.

I stop mid breath. Something isn't right.

I inhale slowly, looking out through the parking lot. My spidey senses are tingling. I feel like I'm being watched. I look around and see some people milling about, but nobody looking at me in the parking lot. I continue to turn, catching a figure dressed in dark clothes and wearing a hat at the bus stop across the parking lot on the other side of the street. He's too far away for me to see anything about him, but I can't help but feel his eyes on me.

He doesn't move, just continues to stand there, facing me. The hairs on my arms and neck stand up. There's something very wrong about that individual.

The bus pulls up, blocking my view. I wait until the bus drives away, the man no longer there.

Goosebumps are still on my arms. 

"Baby?" North asks, coming up beside me. "What's wrong?"

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I'm still staring at the bus stop.

North touches my arm and I flinch away from him.

"Sang," he says forcefully.

I drag my eyes up to his. "Nothing," I say, dismissing it.

He reaches out to me and slowly touches my arm, afraid I might flinch, but I don't. "Whatever it was, it wasn't nothing," he disagrees, looking intently at my face.

"Just got a bad feeling," I shake my head, thinking I'm just being paranoid. "There was someone waiting at the bus stop. I thought he was watching me."

North looks towards the now empty bus stop.

"It was probably nothing," I say.

North shakes his head, "You've always had pretty good instincts. They've only gotten better. If you were rattled by it, it wasn't nothing." He's so convinced. What if I made a mistake and it really was nothing?

He takes my hand and leads me to his Jeep parked next to Victor's car.

"I'm moving back into my house on Sunnyvale," I blurt, not knowing how else to approach the topic.

He stops. "What?"

"I'm moving back. My father's going to sign over title to Sean, and I'm going back." I wait for him to respond.

North looks around, his eyes going back to the now empty bus stop. "Let's talk on the road."

I turn towards Victor's car, the keys in my hand, when I see Marie walking out of the hospital, her arms around herself.

Instead of unlocking the door, I pocket the keys, making my way over to her.

"Marie?" I call.

She looks at me, a weird expression on her face as she hesitates, almost like she's contemplating turning away.

I jog to move around her, stopping in front of her preemptively, "Are you okay?"

She stops. "Can I have a ride?" she seems nervous for some reason.

"Of course, I'm heading over to Nathan's anyway." Not really, but her eyes are cold and hard. I can't imagine what she's feeling because she got along with our mother better than I ever did, even if she was ignored. I've been wanting to stop by and check on Nathan in person anyway.