It was almost noon by the time I got back home. I walked in the front door of the blue house and yelled, "Mom! I'm home!"
My call was met by silence as I closed the door behind me. I walked into the kitchen on a mission for some of the soup from last night. As I walked in, I saw Ethan standing in just a towel, eating from a bowl. "Oh god, Ethan, I'm sorry," I said as I turned on my heel and prepared to walk out the door.
"No, it's fine Kelsey. I was just leaving with this soup."
My ears perked up. "Did you say soup?"
"Yeah, I just got out of the shower and grabbed the last that was in there." He shrugged, shoving another spoonful into his mouth.
I walked up to him and hit him. He yelped and gave me a look. "I was gonna eat that!" I said.
"Too late," he said as the spoon met his lips once again.
I gave him a pointed look. "Uh, hello. I'm the one who was in the hospital!" I said sassily. I didn't really mean for him to give me the soup, it was merely an excuse for being mad.
He looked sheepishly at the soup, mouthed "sorry" to it and handed me the bowl.
"Ethan, it's fine I can just make a grilled cheese or something, you don't have to-"
"Kelsey, it's fine." He moved closer to me and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear.
I gave him a glare; he was crossing the line. He smiled at me and I grabbed the bowl of soup and went into the living room to watch reruns until midnight.
I awoke the next morning curled up on the couch, the TV still on and the bowl still on the table in front of me. I stood up groaning and took my empty bowl and went into the kitchen to rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher. Jack shuffled into the kitchen from the front door with the newspaper in his hand. I waved at him and he grunted at me. I laughed a little to myself because Jack was most definitely not a morning person. As I was turning around, my mom practically skipped down the stairs, singing a song about sunshine or something of that nature.
Polar opposites.
I was about to escape their public displays of affection when my mom seemed to remember something.
"Kelsey!" She called.
I stopped in my tracks and put on a smile. "Yes?"
"I have to drive you to your physical therapy appointment at 11:30, so take a shower and get dressed and whatnot."
It was eleven exactly by the time I finished getting ready. There wasn't much 'getting ready' to do; I just threw some stretchy sweatpants on and a random sweatshirt from my closet. I found some athletic looking sandals in my bathroom and slid those onto my bare feet. I walked downstairs and told my mom I'd be in the car.
I tapped my leg anxiously in the waiting room of the place. It wasn't that crowded, only a few other people, all college aged; a muscular guy with a boot on his left leg, an athletic girl with crutches. My mom said to me, "You'll be fine if I come back ten minutes before it ends right?"
"I'll be here."
She seemed satisfied and walked out the door.
A man appeared and said "Kelsey?"
I stood up and shook his hand, taking in his appearance. He seemed middle aged, but his friendly smile and salt and pepper hair could be deceiving.
Like my dad. His charming smile could fool any government agency that happened to stop by the house. It was the smile my mom fell in love with, the smile I trusted.
The smile I now feared.
I walked into the room filled with equipment. Some things I could identify, like a simple blow up ball in the corner, sitting among other colorful ones, and other things looked like a medieval torture device. He gestured towards a stool and I sat, as he asked me questions about my accident, my state of health before the accident, my injuries.
After that, we did some weird exercises and stretches to test the limits of my body. I don't even know what the point of half of the stuff we did was, but he seemed to know what he was doing so I kept quiet.
While demonstrating an exercise, he pushed my leg towards my body and extended it out again.
"You wuss! Why are you running away!?"
I struggled to crawl away from the man terrorizing me. I heard his work boots clomping behind me and I looked over my shoulder: He was just a tall figure looming above me, the sun behind him making it hard to see his features.
I didn't need to see his features though. They were already permanently ingrained into my brain. There wasn't much else I could do except wriggle underneath the coffee table and hope for the best. He grabbed my left leg.
"I'm gonna make it so you can't go anywhere," he snarled.
He shoved my leg back into my body and I yelped. My eight year old limbs didn't like being yanked around. He repeated that action over and over until the pain was horrendous. He then stopped, all the life gone from his eyes, a blank expression overtaking his features. This was always the scary part because when his eyes went blank, he was either going to continue his beating, but even worse, or he was done. I never knew which one it would be.
He turned around after giving me one last kick. I sat there breathing heavily, sobs escaping my mouth and bruises littering my body.
I sat up suddenly and the physical therapy man looked at me, startled. The air became nonexistent and I struggled to draw a breath. Looking at the man, and then at the door, and then the man again, I made a split second decision: I ran out of the equipment room and through the front door. Sprinting down the sidewalk, I probably caught the eye of more than a few passerby.
I was never much of a runner, only running to use it as an excuse to get out of the house, but I kept going until I realized I didn't recognize where I was. I stopped on a deserted little street and leaned against the brick wall of a dilapidated apartment building. I put my head down and tried to catch my breath and think about where I might be. The physical therapy center was two towns over and I had never been in this area before.
I thought to myself, "I am so screwed. My mom is gonna kill me."
But I didn't really care. All I knew was that when the therapist moved my leg, my first instinct was to run as fast as I could.
A car pulled up to the curb.
"Kelsey?" A voice said in disbelief.
"Kieran," I half said, half breathed out. I was trying to calm down my shaky voice.
"What happened to you?" Kieran asked, an unsure look on his face.
"Oh..I just went for a run..."
"And you almost passed out?"
"I...had an asthma attack..."
He gave me the same skeptical look that Ethan gave me the night I saw the bright eyes outside. It didn't bother me before, but sitting here now, under Kieran's scrutinizing gaze, I felt like he could read my mind. I looked at the ground sheepishly.
I stood up and said, "I should get going now."
He nodded and walked to his car. I started walking back the way I came, resigning myself to a long walk home. It's funny how I came so far just running on adrenaline. Now, feeling drained, I trudged along.
I heard Kieran call my name and I turned around to see him next to his car with his hand on the back of his neck, rubbing it in what I presumed to be a nervous gesture. "Do you wanna...go get something to eat or something?"
I gave him a small smile. "Couldn't stay away, could you?"
He groaned. "Just get in the car."
I hesitated. Did I really want to get into a car with a stranger?
An undeniably attractive stranger.
A sudden moment of recklessness overcame me as I decided that this was probably the last time a cute guy would ask me out to eat, and I got into his car.
I shut the door and rubbed my now sweaty palms onto my pants. I watched Kieran get into the driver's seat. I continued to watch as he started the car and pulled away from the curb. The midday sun was streaming through the windshield, reflecting off his dark brown hair, making it look shiny. I had to repress the urge to run my hands through it to see how soft it was.
He looked over at me and said, "So, are you gonna tell me the real reason why you were so out of breath?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not sure if it's too soon to say this, but you're a terrible liar, Kelsey."
My heart jumped a tiny bit when he said my name. Before I could dwell on it however, he started the questions again. "Were you trying to make yourself pass out? Or were you doing this for fun? Were you running from something? Someone?"
I answered none of these and stayed still with my head facing the windshield, staring so hard that you'd think I was trying to break the glass with eye contact alone. Kieran stopped the questions and I let out a breath that I had been holding. I quickly realized that I preferred his annoying questions to this uncomfortable silence, because when someone was silent after asking questions, it almost always meant the wheels of their mind turning. I could almost hear the clicking of the cogs as they rotated. When they think, they come to scary conclusions about things that they have no knowledge of. It's not their business. And they're too polite to say it out loud, so they keep it in their head, just thinking, until they've thought about it so much that they've come to the conclusion that I'm no good, I'll only lead to bad things for myself and them included. That's when they leave.
He noticed my discomfort and focused on driving safely. We soon pulled into a little coffee shop with an Italian name I couldn't pronounce and parked. I vaguely heard his car door shutting, but the opening of mine didn't register, so I sat there, still staring out the windshield, my thoughts traveling between Kieran, my physical therapist and how to pronounce the name of the restaurant.
"Are you coming?" He asked somewhat impatiently. I didn't blame him. After all, I hadn't been the most exciting companion on this journey thus far.
I nodded and slid out of the black sedan. He opened the door and I chuckled a little before walking in. We ordered at the counter and took a seat near a Christmas tree draped with tinsel and warm white lights. I wrapped my hands around the snowman mug the restaurant provided and took in the warmth of the place. I looked around, loving the homey atmosphere it radiated. It made me want to bake gingerbread men. I looked over at Kieran to see that he was studying me.
"Can I help you?" I asked him curiously. He looked away and I looked down at my hot chocolate, inspecting the melting whipped cream. The thought occurred to me that I'm sitting in a coffee shop with a guy who is basically a stranger. "So, I kinda just realized that I'm sitting here with a stranger," I admitted somewhat sheepishly. I wasn't sure if that made me friendly, slutty, or utterly stupid.
"And?" He said casually.
I waved my arms around at him, indicating his presence.
He just laughed and said, "I'm guessing you're not really the kind of girl who accepts rides from strangers?"
I nodded and laughed.
Kieran sat back in his chair a little and said, "So what's your favorite color?"
"Blue," I said.
He nodded thoughtfully and said, "Somehow, I didn't take you for a pink girl."
"What's your favorite color then?" I inquired.
He seemed to think about this for a moment before saying, "The color of the sky in the middle of the night, when you're outside by yourself and it feels like you're the only person in the world."
I looked at him and his eyes stared into mine. I felt a little bit closer to Kieran, the guy who convinced me to get into his car after only knowing him for a day.
Kieran clapped his hands together. "Next question! Are you a morning or night person?"
I thought about this for a second and then said, "Maybe I'm an afternoon person."
He chose to ignore the question I'd thrown back at him and instead questioned me. "What do you mean by that?"
I sighed, knowing my explanation was very personal and not something I wished to share with strangers.
He opened his mouth to speak, but I wasn't in the mood for criticism, or being told how odd I was, so I spoke again, repeating my earlier question, "What about you?"
"Night person," he said easily.
"I figured," I murmured.
"And why is that?" He asked curiously.
"You have an aura..." More like you wear black T-shirts and your eyes have a hardened look that scares me shitless.
He nodded, but I could tell he didn't understand what I was saying. I took small sips from my hot chocolate, trying to make the awkwardness go away. It made me really uncomfortable. He drank his own hot chocolate as well, and I felt like I offended him.
Centuries later, I finished my beverage and set the mug on the table, cringing when the ceramic glass made a noise against the polished wooden tabletop. I stared at the table, inspecting the grain closely.
Kieran finally spoke. "Are you ready to go?"
I nodded and followed him back to his car. I went to open the car door but out of nowhere, Kieran opened it for me. I gave him a grateful smile in return and he nodded and got into the driver's seat. We backed out of the parking lot and he reached over to turn the radio on. Drums and bass guitar filled the small space. I started to nod my head.
He glanced at me. "You know them?"
I noticed, in the fading light of the afternoon, that his eyes were a peculiar shade of green. The center was green, but they sort of faded into gray that almost looked like a light gunmetal after that. "No," I said. "But it's good. Who's the band?"
"Silence London," he answered. "They're my favorite."
I made a mental note of the name; I would have to look them up later.
"You know, it just occurred to me that I have no idea where you live," He said, laughing to himself.
I gave him my address and after a ten minute drive of listening to music, we arrived at my house. He stopped in my driveway and I unbuckled and got out. He began to get out of his car. "You don't have to walk me up," I said pointedly.
I pulled the sleeves of my sweatshirt down to cover my hands and started to walk towards the walkway. He caught up with me and said, "Just to the walkway."
"Sure."
We walked side by side in silence up my driveway. The walk was considerably short and when we reached the edge of the walkway that led to my front door, I turned to him. "You wasted your time," I said, a small smirk on my face.
"I've got all the time in the world," he said, looking at me with an equal smirk on his face. He seemed to remember something and said, "Give me your phone."
I handed him my phone uncertainly and he handed it back a minute later.
"Well..." I trailed off. "Bye."
He smiled at me and turned around to walk back to his car. I continued to walk to my front door and pulled the key out of my pocket. As I pushed open the front door, I turned around and saw Kieran pulling out of my driveway. He beeped his horn once and I waved before shutting the door behind me.
Curiosity overtook me and I moved to the window next to the door and watched his car turn left and speed down my street. I watched his taillights until they turned the corner and Kieran was gone. I turned around and saw my mother and Ethan staring at me from their positions in the living room. My mom had one eyebrow raised and Ethan was giving me a hard stare.
"Kelsey Mathers what in the name of everything that is good happened to you?" My mother screeched the second I faced them.
I opened my mouth to speak but she barreled forward with her lecture regardless. "I went to the clinic to pick you up after your session only to find out that you had fled the building and not a single person saw which way you went! You could've been abducted! Killed! God only knows what might've happened. I want answers this second, young lady."
"There was...an issue with the way things went right from the get-go. I left." I felt extremely uncomfortable discussing my mental issues with Ethan in the room, so I held off. "A friend found me near the shops and picked me up and we went to a cafe." At least not everything I said was a complete lie.
She pursed her lips and looked at me. I looked at her and then glanced quickly at Ethan. My mom - thank God - took the hint and said, "Ethan, could you start cooking the rice for dinner tonight?"
He nodded and left the room. My mom looked at me again and said, "What really happened?"
"I had a flashback and bolted. It isn't a big deal; I'm fine now." I told her, playing with the laces on my sneakers.
I could tell she wanted to press the matter but she didn't. She stood up and patted my hair. "I'm glad you're okay."
Yeah, me too. I headed upstairs to put on my pajamas and heard a knock at my door. I opened it and Ethan stood there. "Hi," I said.
He put his hands on the top of the door frame and looked at me inquisitively. "I saw the guy that dropped you off."
I turned to put my hair up. "Oh really?"
"Yeah," he said. "And I've heard of him."
"Fascinating," I said in a tone that suggested otherwise.
"Kieran Connolly is bad news," he said.
"He gave me a ride home, Ethan. It's not like we're engaged."
He gave me a look and then left, shutting the door behind him. I climbed under the comforter and pulled it up to my chin.
That night, I dreamt of whipped cream and green eyes.
(A/N: so I hope y'all like this..oh dear did I really just say that *cringe* Comment and tell me what you think! Predictions for what's next? Observations?)