Kai
"Get yo ass up" I hear Darrel yell from the other room. I open my eyes and there's a light from one side of the room. I look over and the monitor of Darrel's computer is on. There's a random forest background on it. The time reads 4:30.
I get up and open the door to see Darrel standing there.
"Good morning miss Kailey." He reaches out his hand. "I know it's Saturday but we have a lot to do today."
I slowly blink at him with a confused look on my face. What are we doing? I sign.
He smiles and slowly puts his hand in his pocket, "One thing at a time, currently you are going to help me make breakfast."
Great I sign trying to show sarcasm. He ignores it and walks towards the kitchen.
"Come on Kai!" He yells. I roll my eyes and walk into the kitchen.
"What do you want," he asks pointing at the fridge.
I shrug my shoulders, then reach for the fridge door. I open the door and I see eggs and bacon. I point at the food and stare at Darrel. He looks at me and smirks. He grabs the eggs and bacon and places them on the counter.
"We will start with the bacon, I have grease in the cupboard. Can you grab it for me?"
I nod and reach for the handle to the cupboard. I grasp the handle and open the door. Instantly there's a mason jar with the words grease sloppily written on it. I grab the jar and put it on the countertop.
"Pour about half of that in the pan," Darrel says.
I do a double-take. Half? I sign. He shakes his head yes. I look at the jar and twist the lid off. I poured half of the grease into the pan on the stovetop.
Darrel rips open the package of bacon and starts laying them in the pan. Instantly they sizzle and make a popping noise. Once he lays five strips in the pan, he closes the package back up and sticks it in the fridge.
"Kai give them a few more seconds then flip them over," he says.
I reach for the tongs and get ready to flip the bacon. Darrel has the heat up almost all the way which is cooking them fast. I stand there staring at the pan. Darrel elbows me to signal me to flip the bacon. I grab one end and then flip a single strip over.
"Good job miss Kailey" he pauses "Shit sorry."
I don't even have time to sign it's okay before I flip the next strip. It makes a loud sizzle which makes me jump.
"Haha calm down it's okay it won't hurt you. I mean I can flip them if you want me to," he asks.
I shake my head no. I slowly flip over the net strip and it again makes a sizzling noise. I flip the next two with no complications.
"Kai you did amazing! What do you want to make with the eggs?"
I shrug, I don't recall the different types of eggs you can make.
"Hm how about scrambled?" asks Darrel.
Again I shrug, I don't care. I'll eat whatever he makes. Darrel opens the carton of eggs and stares at them. He takes another minute then grabs two of them and sets them in a bowl. He walks over to the pan with bacon in it and starts putting the strips on a plate. Once all of the bacon is out of the pan, he pours the grease back into the mason jar labeled 'grease'. He puts the pan the bacon was in back on the stovetop. He then moves on to the eggs. He starts cracking them in the bowl while looking for any shells that could have fallen in. Then he mixes the egg yolk together. Afterward, he throws the fork in the sink and he hands the bowl to me.
"Pour this into the pan," he says.
I stand still with the bowl in my hands and look up at him with a pleading look.
He looks at me and smiles, "Arent you a teenager? You need to learn how to cook."
I put the bowl down and sign, I know how to cook I just haven't cooked eggs in ages!
"Well, you need to learn again. Oh and be more confident. I promise you won't do anything wrong."
I glare at him then grab the bowl. I pour the eggs in and again a sizzle. Darrel grabs a spatula and flips it upside down so that the backside of the flat part is backward.
"Watch and learn," he says. He pushes the spatula against the eggs and they start to scramble. Within one minute they are done and he puts them on a plate with the bacon.
"Kai can you set the table?" he asks.
I grab two plates and sit them across from each other at his table. Darrel places the plate of food in the middle and sits down. I get us forks and napkins then I follow Darrel's actions of sitting down.
"Dig in," he says with his fork already in his hand.
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I lay on my floor in front of the door. I lift my head and look over at the computer monitor on Darrel's desk. The time reads 6:30 am. I put my head back down and lay staring at the ceiling. I hear my phone buzzing on the bed. I shrug it off as the floor is way too comfortable. I let myself drown in my sweatshirt. Breakfast was good and I was surprised at how well it turned out.
"Kai it's time for....what the hell are you doing on the floor?" Darrel says as he hit's my head with the door.
I look at him and just smile hoping he won't question it too much.
"Okay, whatever. It's time for our next thing of today. Get your shoes on."
I get up and walk towards my shoes. I slip them on without tieing them. I stare at them because they are my favorite pair of shoes. They are rainbow-colored and I love them. I turn around after a while and look at the bed. My phone is lying face-up on the bed. I wonder who texted me, but at the same time, I don't want it to be someone I don't want to talk to. I walk towards my phone keeping eye contact with it. I stick my hand out and tap the screen. It lights up and I read the screen. One new text message from: Mother. Fuck I pull away from my phone. She must be so mad at me. She probably has no clue where I am and is pissed.
"Kai come on get your ass out here!"
I reluctantly leave my phone on my bed and walk out of my room. I walk towards the door and follow Darrel out of it.
"Oh, what a coincidence." I hear a familiar voice say. I look up to see a girl standing there.
"Do you know who this is Kai?" Darrel asks.
I stare at the girl and nod my head. Her name is Taylor. I have her phone number cause I stole it from a group chat I was thrown into.
"I didn't know you lived her Kai," says Taylor.
"Actually I'm her brother and she's just staying with me for a bit," Darrel says.
I look at him knowing that he isn't my brother, I look over at Taylor to see if she believed him.
"Oh cool." She smiles and walks into her apartment.
Taylor is a freshman. She is in the band too just I don't talk to her as often as I would like to.
Darrel walks forward and I follow him to his car. There's no one at the parking lot station today.
"Hm that's weird there's always some woman here, yesterday we had that old guy. I've never seen him before yesterday. Oh well, the woman must have gotten fired. The old guy though, I have no clue where he is." Darrel says while ripping the red colored paper off his dash and shoving it in his pocket.
Darrel puts his foot on the break and puts the truck in reverse. A backup camera shows up on his screen but there's a problem with it. There seems to be clear tape on the camera.
"God damnit!" yells Darrel "Who the hell put that on my camera."
He reaches for his door handle to open it. I quickly grab his arm and shake my head no.
Darrel turns his head towards me and says "Kai let go. I need to remove the tape."
I don't let go of his arm and I keep shaking my head no.
"Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?"
I tighten my grip on his arm.
"Kai want to explain to me why you won't let go?"
I stick out my other hand with my pinky extended. Darrel looks at it then makes a pinky promise not to leave while I sign what I think is wrong.
I let go and sign Darrel I think someone is trying to do something very bad. I think if you get out of your truck someone is going to come up behind you and hurt you.
"Pfft- that's the dumbest thing ever. I literally work for the government Kai. If someone were to try and take me I would fight back and you know I'm strong enough to win."
I grab his arm again and shake my head no.
"Kai let go....Kai....let. Go."
I aggressively shake my head no.
"Kai, I said let go!" yells Darrel as he rips his arm out of my grip.
Darrel gets out of his truck and walks back towards the camera. I stare at it in the truck, hoping everything goes fine. He reaches for the tap and rips it off. As he rips it off a round while circle falls off onto the ground. Darrel scratches his head and looks down at it. He bends over and a person in all black jumps onto him.
Darrel shoves the man off him and goes for a punch but misses. The bandit punches Darrel in the gut and he falls backward onto his ass. Darrel quickly gets up and tackles the guy to the ground. The guy shoves Darrel off and pulls out a knife. I swing the truck door open and yell "Darrel watch out knife."
The man swings the knife at Darrel but he moves out of the way just in time. Darrel grabs the man's wrists and twists them making him drop the knife. The man elbows Darrel in the face and Darrel does it back. I know what I must do. I run toward the knife. Darrel sees me and knows what I'm doing and punches the bandit in the face to distract him.
"Fuck" yells the man in all black and he reaches out for the knife. I lunge towards the knife and I grab it before the man. He grabs my arm and swings at me. Darrel blocks his punch and his nose starts to bleed. I scramble to get away and manage to do so. Both the bandit and Darrel stand up and start beating the shit out of each other. Eventually, the man overtakes Darrel and starts to beat him up. Darrel tries to shove the man off of him while also trying to protect his face.
I look at the knife in my hand then I look at the man sitting on top of Darrel beating him up. I stand up and run at the man stabbing him in the shoulder.
"Bitch!" he screams and rolls off of Darrel while holding his shoulder. I run at him and rip the knife out of his shoulder and stab him again but this time in the chest. I pull the knife out again and he sputters in pain.
"Fuck you!" He sputters out while laying on the ground holding his chest. Darrel gets up off the blacktop and walks towards the man.
"I hope you burn in hell," Darrel says while spitting on the ground beside the man.
Darrel gets down on his knees and grimaces in pain. He reaches towards the ski mask the bandit was wearing and pulls it off. The bandit was none other than the old man.
"You? I thought you were like sixty?" Darrel states.
"You dumbass, I'm only 34." the man replies.
"Why do you have grey hair then?" asks Darrel.
" It runs in...." was all the man was able to reply with before he bled out.
I stare at the man then I look down at the knife that's still in my hands. I throw it away from me and look at Darrel in horror. He looks at me then looks at the knife I just thrown. He looks back at me opens his mouth then quickly closes it. He starts to cough and some blood comes out of his mouth.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just a little blood." He pauses wiping his mouth. I tap him and he looks at me. "It will be okay Kai, I can easily explain this to the government and the police. We won't get in trouble at all. You saved my life so I must thank you."
I shake my head, yes while he gets up and walks towards his truck. He leans in, grabs his phone, and returns with it. I stare at him and he's covered in blood. He looks down at me and frowns.
"I'm sorry, I should have listened to you," he pauses "Wait Kai did you use your last words?"
I look up at him and shake my head yes.
"So you have zero words?"
I answer with yes again.
"I know you hate this but since you saved my life I think you deserve five more words."
What? I sign. I don't take words from people it makes me feel greedy.
"I know that Kai but you've had a rough couple of days and you literally just stabbed a man. Please it's the least I could do."
I reluctantly sign Fine, give me the words. Only five no more than that. He smiles and transfers me the words. I only received the five words I asked for. Don't do this ever again I sign. He nods his head in agreement and then calls the cops on the phone.
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Twenty minutes later the cops arrive in the parking lot. They asked a bunch of questions and eventually took the body and left. Darrel and I were forced to change into different clothes so the cops could take our bloody ones as evidence. Before we could leave we had to wait for the clean-up crew to show up to clean up the parking lot. Eventually, they showed up and Darrel and I got into his truck. I looked at the clock and it read 12:30.
"Well, I guess we should find something to do," Darrel says.
I look at him and sign What about what you woke me up at 4 for?
"Well, I was going to go to the store then bring you to a movie at 10. Then we were going to go home and decorate for Halloween. It's a little late for the movie, I mean we can still go to the store and get groceries and Halloween decorations but I kinda don't feel like it, and it's only October 1st."
I look at him and shrug, I don't care what we do. I sign. We sit there and think for a couple of minutes. As we are sitting there my stomach growls.
"Ooh, what if we go out to lunch then get ice cream afterward?"
I quickly shake my head, yes and he starts to back up. We pull away from the parking lot and start to drive towards the dine-in restaurants when it hits me. I tug on Darrel's arm.
"Ow, shit that hurts don't do that Kai. What do you want?"
What do you think happened to that woman you were talking about?
"Oh, I don't know. Let's just hope she quit and nothing bad has happened to her."
I nod along with what he's saying. I look back out the window at the sidewalk. A lot of people were walking and talking today. Friends laughing and having good times. Families trying to find a place to look at toys and random people riding bikes.
"Ugh, it's too silent for me. Here pick a song." Darrel says while shoving his blood-covered phone into my hands. I open the music app and pick a random playlist of his.
He looks at me and says "Not going to play one of your songs?"
I shake my head no and start to listen to his song. He shakes his head in disapproval then starts to sing along.
After some time we turn into a parking lot for a diner. We get out and go in to eat. It's 1:30 when we go in and when we leave it's 2:45. We then go across the street and get ice cream. In both the restaurant and the ice cream shop we both kept getting stared at. You can tell we are injured just by looking at us and people clearly liked to stare.
Darrel seemed to squirm with all the attention but didn't want to rush the fun. When we were done eating our ice cream we got back into Darrel's truck.
"Did you have fun? I know today didn't go very well..." He trailed off.
Yeah, it was pretty nice, I enjoyed dinner. I signed
"Good," he said and drove us home.
When we walked into his house it was 4:17. We watched a few movies together until it was 9:00 pm.
"Well, we should both go to bed. Today was a day." He chuckled. "Good night."
I nodded in agreement. I went into my room, brushed my phone onto the floor without even looking at it. I stopped myself, shrugged then climbed into my bed and fell asleep.
*End of Chapter Six*