The sound of feet shuffling here and there woke me up, scaring me at the same time. 'Where am I?' I wondered as I took a glimpse around the room. It felt different, I wasn't surrounded by the same four walls that I used to wake up to every day. It took me a few seconds to recollect my memories and remember what had happened. I was at Chris's place, everything happened too fast that it feels odd for me. I took my phone out from under my pillow to check the time, only to realise that I'm up really early and that I also have over 30 messages from my dad. I did not even dare to open my messages, I just kept it unread hoping for some miracle to happen and my text messages would disappear out of nowhere.
It was about 5.45am, I finally managed to get myself out from the bed and took out all the essentials I needed for me from the luggage that I brought over yesterday and slowly walked out of the room. I went straight to the hall, wondering if Liza was there cause I heard someone walking around earlier. Sadly she wasn't there.
"Liza?" I called out as softly as I could, knowing that Chris was still asleep and I didn't want to bother his beauty sleep.
"Yea, at the dining table" she replied me back. I made my way over to the dining table where Liza was sitting and she was eating her breakfast while reading a book.
"You're up so early? I thought you were out all night?" I asked her curiously, as I took a sit in front of her.
"I was back before 1, and the situation back at the hospital was ok so they sent most of us back. But I had a morning shift today, so I have to go back again" Liza explained to me.
"Ohh. Okay, hope you are well rested" I said to her, slightly worried that she has been overworking.
"I'm ok, as long as there's coffee" she said as she raised her cup to show it to me, causing me to chuckle. "Anyways, do you wanna go and get ready for school?" she asked.
"Yea I'll go and get ready" I said as I got off from the seat.
"Go straight and turn right, the bathroom is there. Get there before Chris wakes up, he showers for a very long time" Liza warned me before I took off.
I managed to find the bathroom, I stripped off my clothes from last night and let the cold water hit me directly, hoping that it would make me feel more awake. I quickly did all of my morning essentials. As I was about to find my clothes to wear, I realised that I forgot to bring my clothes along. I mentally stabbed myself for being so forgetful. I wrapped the towel around my body like a burrito and gave myself a prep talk. 'Run Rhea Run' I said to myself. I finally opened the door and ran as fast as I could back to my room and shutting the room door close as soon as I got in. I gave myself a pat on my back for escaping an awkward situation that could have happened.
I then put on my jeggings, an oversized black shirt and finally slipping on my converse shoes, finally ready for the day. I walked over to the mirror in my room to see the scar on my face and slightly rejoicing as its not that visible anymore. I then applied some Chapstick and toss it back into my bag that I was carrying to school. I looked over to check if my phone has been charged and grabbed it, as well as my hoodie and stuffing it into my bag before walking out of the room.
"Hey Liza!" I said cheerfully as I took a seat on the table, placing my bag on the floor.
"So you were the one running frantically?" she asked, causing me to hide my face in my hands in embarrassment.
"Yea, I kinda left my clothes inside my room" I mumbled.
"Silly" she said.
I got of my seat and walked over to where Liza was. "Let me help" I told her. But sadly, she chased me out from the stove area and asked me to seat down and not do anything. I took her words and walked back to where I was sitting previously. That's when I saw my phone buzzing and the moment I saw my phone, my heart sunk. It was my dad. "Liza" I called out frantically.
"What happened?" Liza asked as she walked towards the table.
"My dad" I said to her as I showed her my phone. She grabbed the phone from my grip and pressed the answer button and answered the call.
"It's Liza" she said. "Yea she's here, safe with me" she continued. "Well, we'll see what you can do. A complain has already been lodged" she said, anger dripped in her voice. "Do what you can, but she's not coming back to you!" she said before ending the call.
"Done" she said as she passed the phone back to me.
"I know I've been saying this a lot but , thank you so much Liza" I told her, meaning each and every word. She simply smiled at me.
"No worries Rhea. By the way , want some eggs and toast?" She asked and I nodded. I followed her behind me as she grabbed a plate, placing the eggs and buttered toast and passing it to me.
"Eat, I'll go and get ready" she said before leaving the kitchen and I walked back to my seat and eating my food silently.
"Mummmm" Chris groaned as he dragged his way to the kitchen.
"She's getting ready" I informed him and he stopped walking and looked over to where I was sitting. It took him by surprise and for a moment he just stared at me confusingly.
"Oh gosh sorry, I totally forgot about you" he said, causing me to shake my head at how forgetful he was. He then came to sit by the table, quickly taking out his folders and papers.
"Homework not done huh?" I questioned him.
"Nope" he replied hurriedly, while scribbling as much as he could on the worksheet. I then took out my folder and passed him my homework.
"Here, will get your work done faster" I said as he took the folder away from my hands.
"Thank you! You know that you're a life saviour all the damn time" he said while writing and looking over at my papers.
"Saving lives since always" I told him while stuffing eggs into my mouth. "So what's the plan today ?" I asked him.
"Well, I don't know. Maybe we could just hang out, ya know maybe catch some movie or something like that?" He suggested.
"Approved" I said as I gave him a thumbs up.
"Did you find him?" Liza said as she entered the kitchen, phone in her hand. I heard Chris groan as soon he heard his mum talking on the phone. 'Not this again' I heard Chris mumbled to himself.
"He ok?" Liza asked, while still on the phone. I looked over to Chris, and he was pissed as hell. At this moment, i felt extremely uncomfortable. I continued to sipping my cup of coffee as I zoned out for a while. Only to be pulled back by Chris's protest.
"Chris, it's dad's weekend and he has a say in it" Liza said to Chris, trying to convince him to go visit his dad.
"No! I'm not going" Chris said through his gritted teeth. The tension in the room was rising and I felt awkward in that position. I looked over to the window beside me, trying to admire the beauty the morning sun offered and trying to block out the voices that were coming out from Chris and Liza. But that did not last long, as the conversation kept on going. I looked at Chris while he was talking to his dad, anger dripped in every word he spat. For a moment, his eyes were fixed on me. 'Calm down' I mouthed the words, he simply nodded his head.
"He's not my friend and he's not my brother" Chris said as he slammed the pen on the table and stood up, walking towards the counter, where Liza was standing.
"He wouldn't have to be there for me, not like that. No!" he continued before passing back the phone to Liza angrily and walking back to the table and continuing to finish up his work.
"Hey! Calm down alright" I whispered to him, while Liza was still on the phone with Travis.
"I'm sorry you had to see this" Chris said softly to me, while looking at me briefly before continuing to write on the last piece of paper. Soon he declared he was done and passed the folder back to me.
"Thank you" he said as he stood up from his seat, and going over to grab something to eat. He looked slightly better, as he does not need to spend the weekend with his dad and his girlfriend's family.
Once we were done with breakfast, Liza rushed us as we were going to be late for school and if we don't leave by now, it going to be difficult due to the heavy traffic. I quickly grabbed my bag and was about to walk out of the house, only to be stopped by Chris. "Hey, uhm go in for a while and don't come out till I tell you so" he said while blocking me from opening the door to go out.
"Why?" I asked him curiously. I was confused as Liza already told us to hurry cause we were running late and now he wants me to go back into the house.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" I heard someone scream and the voice belonged to my dad. Frightening thoughts ran through my mind as soon I heard my dad's voice.
"No" I said silently as I slowly took a step back and soon hitting against the wall. I brought my hands up to my face covering myself and trying to convince myself to control my emotions.
"Go hide" Chris said as he held onto me. "We'll get through this" he said before pushing me back into the house as he stood there looking at me as I entered a room and locking myself in.
I heard my dad continuously screaming at Liza outside, I felt extremely bad that she had to go through all these problems because of me. I was trembling in fear whenever I heard my dad's voice. I held onto my bag as tight as I could, as it somehow calmed me. Slowly my dad's voice grew faint and that was when I heard the door knock. I was rooted to the ground the moment I heard the door knock, I stayed as silent as I could.
"Rhea!" I heard Chris's voice. "It's me" as soon as I heard his voice I quickly stood up and opened the door as fast as I could.
Chris engulfed me in a hug as I held onto him as tightly as I could. "He's gone, probably forever" he said as he tried to break the hug, but I continued to hold onto him, not willing to break the hug. "We're going to be late" he said jokingly as I chuckled and finally breaking the hug.
"Come on" he said as he lazily draped his arms over my shoulders as we walked out of the house together, side by side. We quickly made our way to Liza's car and, she speeded her way to school, driving and dodging every speed bump. After 15 minutes of driving, we finally reached school. Chris got off the car as fast as he could.
"It meant a lot Liza, thank you" I said to Liza before getting out of the car. She smiled as I shut the car door close.
"Have a great day!" Liza said before driving out of school. As soon as we stepped into the school, the school bell rang. We heaved a sigh of relied as were just in time, only to find an empty hallway. There was an handful amount of student scattered here and there and it was unusually quiet.
Chris and I rushed over to our lockers and grabbed all the books we needed. We quickly ran to the first class together, only to to see that there were only ten people in the class. I finally settled down on my seat and wished today would go by smoothly. The emptiness in the class made me uncomfortable, as Mrs. Carter's voice was the only thing that was ringing around the room and there were no one making fun of her. I then took my phone out of my bag and decided to text Chris discreetly, hoping that Mrs. Carter doesn't catch me using the phone, as she wrote on the board.
'Class is unusually empty, are you sure we're supposed to come to school today?' I sent a text to Chris.
'I just realised it too. And shhh! Stop texting and concentrate' I received a text back from Chris.
'Kk fine -_-' I replied back, and locking my phone and placing it back into my bag.
__
Time flew by extremely fast today and without us knowing, it was already end of the day by the time I realised. The final bell rang, and everyone exited the room swiftly as it was finally the start of the much awaited weekend. I took my time to pack my bag and walked over to Chris's seat as he was still packing up his bag.
"You're really slow" I said softly to him, as the teacher was still in the class and I did not want him to listen to our conversation. He glared at me and I just giggled.
"Lets go!" Chris said as soon as finished packing.
"Finally it's the weekends" I groaned, as I was dragging my way over to the bus stop along with Chris.
"Now who's the slow one?" he called out, causing me to roll my eyes at him. He stopped walking and waited for me, when I reached where he was standing, I looked at him confusingly.
"See, I'm so thoughtful of you that I waited for you so that we could walk together" he said as we continued walking together.
"Ya ya, whatever you say Christopher" I said to him, rolling my eyes at the same time.
He then poked my side as soon as I replied him, causing me to slap his arms in return. He groaned and held onto his arms. "I'm sorry" I said as soon as I realised what I did, I massaged and rubbed him arm as he looked over at me worriedly.
"I'm so sorry, this was how I usually defend myself whenever my dad tried to hit me" I reasoned out with him.
"He's not going to do anything anymore" he said to me soothingly, as we stood in the middle of the pathway. He grabbed my hand and held them closely. "Everything is alright now" he added, as I looked down not knowing what to reply him.
"Well, i hope it is" I finally managed to reply, slowly looking up at him.
"Good" he replied causing me to smile in return. He poked my cheeks, making me giggle.
"Than-" before I could say anything, Chris cut me off.
"No more thank you this and that, I'm glad that we could be here for you" he said to me.
"Now let's get going, we have a movie to watch and a stomach to feed" he added and I simply nodded my head and followed him, his hand still holding onto mine as we continued walking towards the bus stop.
We were just in time for the bus to arrive, the bus stop crowded with students. When we entered the bus, it was fairly crowded, with people scattered here and there. The front row was being occupied by some students who boarded the bus earlier than us. They looked extremely familiar to me, as the group of boys were the ones who used to pick on me occasionally, but Chris has always protected me all the time, that they stopped harassing me after some time.
We were making our way to the seat at the back, trying our best to ignore the group. But bullies will always be bullies, they started bothering Chris the moment they saw me with him, making it impossible for us to move forward. I nervously looked down, not knowing what to do further. "Stop" he hissed.
"Ooh, we've got a badass here" one of the boys said. They were laughing loudly, making me cringe a little due to the noise. Chris ignored them and continued his efforts of trying to walking into the bus. He held onto my hands tightly so that the boys will not try to harass me. We ignored the boys voices and insults and made our way to the back seat. I went to seat near the window and Chris took a seat beside me. Once we were settled down, I laid my head on Chris's shoulder as I looked out of the window, letting my thoughts take me away.
Chris's phone started ringing, he had the annoyed face the moment he saw the call from his dad. Chris looked at his phone, he was confused if he should take the phone or not.
"Take, it might be important" I told him. As soon as i said it, he declined the call.
"Which part of take means declining?" I asked him worriedly.
"I'm not in the mood" he retorted.
"Ok ok" I said back, trying to push off the argument. Chris shut me off by taking his earphone out and listening to his music. I was slightly pissed off with how he was reacting, so I brought my bag closer, opening the front pouch and grabbing my phone as well as my earphones. Slowly letting the music to soothe and calm me down.
Shortly, the sound of ambulance blared away, causing me to take the earphone away from my ears and looking out of the window to see what the commotion was all about. There were ambulances speeding down the road dangerously. 'What is happening?' I wondered. I heard gun shots and people screaming, automatically reminding me of the same incident that happened yesterday. I looked over to Chris to see that he had the same expression as me plastered on his face.
"What is happening?" Chris asked me.
"It reminded me of the same incident that happened yesterday when Liza and I was on the way to the station!" I told him. "There was a traffic jam due to some accident and then suddenly we heard gun shots, it was just bloody" I added.
"Cops shot some homeless dude, shot him like 20 times" I heard someone shout loudly, I looked over to see a man at the front of the bus telling everyone what happened. Everyone on the bus stood up to see what the issue was all about and well some were just curious to know what was happening. They all abandoned the bus, Chris and I only left in the bus.
"Let's just go and see what is happening" I told him as I started walking towards the entrance of the bus.
"Wait!" Chris called out. "Stay close to me alright, don't go off anywhere without me" he added. I nodded my head in approval and we got down from the bus together.
There was a huge crowd that was going over to where everyone was standing and looking at the accident. Helicopters were going around everywhere, I was stunned and worried. Then there was a cop who's hand was being injured, like it was being bitten off and an ambulance officer tending to his wound. The wound looked extremely disgusting. It looked extremely serious.
Everyone was not in school today, there's just have been too many shootings for the past few days, people have been in the hospital being reported as sick and now this? 'What the actual hell is even helping?' I spoke to myself.
"Don't leave my sight" Chris said to me as he was digging into his bag.
"Ok" I replied him. He the pull out his video camera and started recording the who incident as well as the huge protest that was going on, the civilians against the cops.
"Uh Chris, don't you think it's not the right time for your videographer skills to resurface?" I asked him worriedly.
"I'm doing what is right!" He said back. As I was looking around to see if I could catch a glimpse of the incident, I saw a body being covered with a white sheet and a lady officer jotting down something on her book. I gasped the moment I saw the body, it was the same exact thing that I witnessed yesterday, but today it was some homeless dude.
"Follow me" He said as he continued to walk down further, and closer to where the police have cordoned off the area. His concentration was on the video camera as he to pushed pass people and me trying to keep up with him so that I do not loose him in the crowd.
"We're gonna need to clear this area now" I heard the asian officer spoke as he tried to calm down the people surrounding the area. Chris finally reached the front and was recording the whole chaos, not bothering what everyone was saying beside him.
"Chris. This isn't a good idea" I whispered loudly to him. But as usual, he ignored everything that I always say and continued what he's been doing.
"Kid! Put the camera down" The asian officer said as calmly as he could to Chris. I slapped Chris's other free hand to grab his attention, and again I've been ignored.
"No no no!! Keep that camera on" someone beside Chris spoke loudly, trying to argue with the other officer. I was beyond terrified at this moment as I was stuck in this mess. Everyone beside us were supporting Chris to continue recording the crime scene. The officers were trying their best to calm down the situation but the crowd were making it tough for them to do their work. I stayed as silent as I could, not protesting or shouting at the officers. I held onto Chris's hands as tight as I could. Afraid that I might loose him.
"Want to go to jail son?!" The officer asked Chris again and everyone started shouting and screaming at the officer. It was just nothing but chaos. As time went by everyone surrounded around the crime scene started chanting "Hell no we won't go" and Chris joined them.
This is going to be a long day.
**
A/N:
Mid season finale of FTWD, am I crying? Yes. But I'm also really excited. Chris is literally a cinnamon roll that needs to be protected (and yes Lorenzo replied saying he loved Cinnamon roll 😂). But seriously, WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Every episode is just way too intense.
Anyways, feedbacks would be appreciated. Would love to hear from you guys. <3
Lastly, thank you each and everyone of ya'll reading this.