CHAPTER ELEVEN
RECOVERY
IT TAKES ME about two days to recover from the exhaustion. In those two days I do a lot of sitting and lying on the bed and the couch, while either sleeping or watching TV. In comparison to me, Seth is much more active. He starts working on the robbery that he wants to pull in the town's bank and spends hours outside, studying the place. Sometimes he likes to spend time by himself, sitting outside of our room or staying awake while Kate and I are sleeping. I don't feel like I should let him be alone so much, but I also feel like I should give him his space.
Kate, on her side, is a good company and a useful one. She's always ready to help with whatever is needed and the two of us bond over going for groceries and lazily staying in our room. I act carefully around her and even though she doesn't open up to me about how she's handling with losing her family, when I catch her quietly crying once I make sure to silently comfort her.
Staring at my reflection in the mirror, I notice how these two days have helped me look better. The bags under my eyes are gone as well as the paleness of my skin, which is now back to its normal color. When we got to this motel, seeing myself in the mirror was unnerving since the lack of sleep and not eating made me look incredibly ill, not to mention that it made my bruised cheek more noticable. No wonder the lady at the reception looked at us suspiciously when we checked in.
The more I get back to myself, the more I think about my family and home. I doubt that they noticed I'm gone, but I don't know how long it will take for Seth to get enough money for fake passports, and it makes me wonder if they'll worry once they'll realize I disappeared.
When I get out of the bathroom, I see Kate sitting on the couch and reading a book that she found somewhere. It didn't seem like a very good book when I saw it earlier, but I guess it's enough to keep the teenager busy and somewhat entertained. It's only when I sit down on the edge of the bed, that I notice she is walking towards me with a look that makes me suspicious.
"What's up?" I ask.
Pushing her hesitance away, Kate replies, "I wanted to ask you for a favor. I want you to teach me how to fight."
My eyebrows raise at the request and it takes me several moments to come up with something to say because I'm so surprised. Even though Kate killed Culebras like I did, I still see her as a gentle girl-next-door because of her kind nature and her young age. However, after what we've been through I can understand that she might be traumatized and scared.
"Why?" I ask, deciding to test her through her answer.
She comes to sit next to me and sighs softly. "I don't want to be defenseless little Kate anymore. I want to be able to fight for myself and for the people who are important to me," she explains, her blue eyes meeting my brown ones. "Especially since we're still stuck away from home."
Her answer is the one that I was hoping to hear and I nod in understanding. "Okay, I'll teach what I know," I say and Kate smiles at me. "How much do you want to know?"
"As much as I can learn and do."
"When do you want to start?" I ask. Kate immediately stands up and says that now. Pushing myself up, I smile and say, "While Seth isn't here? That's a good idea."
It's unlikely that he will object to this, but I can imagine the look he will have once he'll find out about this and the comments he will make. However, I push him to the back of my mind and start instructing Kate. I show her how to stand in front of her opponent correctly with her strong leg at the front and her hands ready in front of her chest. She looks a little out of her element, yet she listens to me and does as I say.
The palms of my hands are the targets for her fists for a few minutes before her hits become rather strong and I hold a pillow in front of me. We laugh at Kate's bad hits and I feel myself loosening up, my mental walls coming down from the most laughing I have done in too long. As time passes by and Seth doesn't make an appearance, we progress with our training to the point where Kate tries to throw me over her shoulder. That takes her the longest to learn and we mostly end up either on top of each other in weird poses or with me landing on the bed in various ways. In her favor, I will say that for a girl who has enough disadvantages in a fight, like being short and not having very strong arms, Kate has a lot of willpower.
"Quickly and with as much energy as you can," I remind the teenager, who nods at me, her posture and expression showing she's already tired.
She holds my shirt with both hands for a moment and I simply stand there and wait. Then, I feel myself being lifted off the ground. The flip makes me go over her shoulder rather successfully, aside from the fact that Kate isn't standing as close as she was to the bed. My head hits the corner of the bed frame. Immediately, I curl into myself and hold my injured part as strong pain shoots through my entire body.
"—June? June, are you okay?" Kate's voice says and I feel a part of the bed sink next to me. "I'm so, so, so sorry."
Unable to say or think anything coherent, I just lie there, holding my head with one thing going through my mind — fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The pain doesn't pass as quickly as I wish it will and I stay in that position, feeling like the throbbing is endless.
"For God's sake," I hear someone says after a door slams. A small conversation follows between Seth and Kate but I can't focus on what's being said. Then, I feel hands on top of mine, trying to make me let go of my head. "June, just let me have a look. I won't hurt you, okay? I promise. I'll just look."
Without too much choice, I let him move my hands away. At the same time, I can feel a tear roll down the side of my face, soon disappearing into the blanket I'm lying on top of. A few seconds later, the mattress sinks next to me as Seth moves. He does something I can't see before carefully lifting my head and putting a pillow under it. It doesn't lessen the ache in my head, but it is more comfortable this way. He continues to talk with Kate, but their words have zero meaning to me and I simply lie there, helpless, waiting for the pain to fade.
It becomes quiet by the time my pain decreases. The only sounds that I hear are someone's footsteps around the room — probably Kate's since Seth is still beside me. My skull still throbs as I sit up and I close my eyes for a moment. I plan to see what Kate is doing when a question distracts me.
"Hey, you okay?" Seth asks next to me and I turn to face him. His frown is deeper than I expected it to be and he quickly studies my face.
After swallowing, I decide against mentioning that it still hurts, even though it's probably very visible in my expression, and say, "It's better. I'm not bleeding or anything, right?"
"No, but it's pure luck, Charlie's Angels," he says with a scolding look.
Feeling stupid that my attempt to help Kate ended this way, I look for the girl around the room. She's standing next to the coffee table with a bag with fast food that Seth must have brought while her gaze is set on me. She looks relieved and guilty. I try to smile at her, which ends with the corners of my mouth barely turning upwards.
Under two watchful gazes, I stand up as the smell of food fills the room, reminding me I'm hungry. The room spins, yet it's gone after a few blinks. I follow Seth to the coffee table that looks even smaller than it is with so much food on it.
"She hasn't been seen in over four days and her car has been found abandoned—" a voice says from the TV. However, Seth hurries to shut it down and I only see a black screen instead of details of whatever that happened and was being reported.
"Why did you turn it off? I want to hear what they were saying," I complain and glare at him when he puts the remote controller away.
Seth doesn't seem to care too much about my displeasure. "I can't think with all that noise. When I'm gone, you can watch whatever you want instead of helping her play princess warrior."
His reply makes me slightly glare at him and to my surprise, Kate says nothing. She looks tense and focuses on putting some food on one of the plastic plates she had set.
"Very funny, Seth. Are you done making fun of something that is important to Kate?" I ask grumpily and sit down on the floor.
With the two of them sitting on the couch in front of me, it's easy for me to notice that they exchange a weird glance. I don't know what it means and I spend another second looking at the two while they look away from each other, trying to figure out what I might be missing here. It seems almost impossible to me that they are hiding something from me because I think they have been barely spending time alone with each other, yet I'm sure that I saw something.
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Twenty minutes later, we're done eating and all of our garbage is collected into the plastic bag that Seth brought the food in. The three of us are still sitting in the same places, with nothing special to do next. I want to turn on the news and see what I've missed in these past four days, but Seth has the controller next to him and I don't feel like arguing with him.
"I have an idea for something nice we could do," Kate breaks the silence.
My earlier painful landing made her feel guilty, it's easy to see with how uncomfortable she seemed until now. My bad land was a mistake and it's enough for me to not get angry. I even tried to tell her that we can practice again but it made Seth cut me off that moment the word 'practice' left my mouth — how surprising — and the subject was dropped.
"Nothing that includes trying to murder July again, hopefully," Seth comments, earning himself two glares.
Moving my gaze from him, I relax my expression as I look at Kate and ask, "What is it?"
"I was thinking that we could get to know each other better. I can ask questions and then we all will answer them," Kate explains and the innocence of the idea makes me smile.
Out of the three of us, she belongs the least in this kind of life, even if it's temporary. Kate should be at school, having silly crushes, worrying about exams and having a good time with her friends. Instead, she's stuck with a thief and a witch in Mexico, without any family. So, when I see Seth rolling his eyes, I kick him under the table. He looks at me, irritated and I title my head to the side, silently asking him to do this one thing for Kate.
Unfortunately, Seth doesn't understand what I want from him. "Let's do it," I say and give him a pointed look.
Even though he doesn't look very satisfied, Seth purses his lips and stays quiet. Then, Kate starts asking away and I suspect that she has been thinking about these questions for a while. She asks where we're from and how old we are — Seth is the oldest between us with a three years gap between him and I. It takes time for Seth's expression to relax but I'm glad to see that he plays along, if you can call it that.
"Okay..." Kate says after a while and pushes a string of hair behind her ear. "What about hobbies?"
A snort escapes Seth and I lift my eyebrows at him, daring him to ruin this for Kate. "I'll go first," I volunteer and it's enough to make him go quiet again. "I... like dancing, though I'm not good at it. I like sports, mostly basketball and soccer, and I would kill to see a good match or an actual good movie on that ancient TV."
Kate talks about how she likes reading and singing in the church choir before the attention moves to the man that is sitting between us. He looks unimpressed with his hands crossed over his chest, putting the muscles of his arm on display. Seth hasn't been giving us an easy time, though we did manage to squeeze some answers out of him. However, hobbies seem too casual and too personal for Seth Gecko.
"What about you? Watching any movie with guns in it, preferably not from the last ten years, right?" I ask him. He raises his eyebrows at me.
"Never calling people by their real names. I mean, you do that all the time," Kate adds and I smile at her, satisfied that she joined my attempt to make him talk.
My gaze sets on Seth again as I look at him with determination and try to figure out what else he might like. "You love winning, so you probably like some kind of sports... basketball?" I guess and notice the hint of amusement in his expression.
After a long moment of staring at each other, he gives up and replies, "Football."
"Ah, of course," I smirk triumphantly. "You also got a thing for nice cars, so that's already three hobbies... kind of."
While Kate asks something else, he continues to hold my gaze and I feel the butterflies in my stomach. There's a little smirk playing on his lips and I need to fight my own grin. Then, he stands up and goes to the bathroom. The sound of the door closing behind him echoes through the room and I return my attention to Kate, slightly embarrassed that I ignored her new question.
"Sorry. What did you ask?"
"Actually, now that Seth's out of hearing range, I wanted to ask if you really would train me again," she says and studies my reaction.
Even though I was the first to suggest it earlier, I hesitate for obvious reasons. My head still hurts, even if it's nothing compared to how much it hurt at first. Then, I remind myself that it's my fault because I should have made sure she was flipping me over correctly. Also, Kate's determination can easily be seen in her expression and I like the fact that she isn't giving up so quickly, not to mention that, again, I was the one who offered.
Nodding, I say, "Okay, but not today. My head needs to recover."
The girl's face lights up as she grins. I smile back and she repeats the question that I didn't hear earlier about how I was in high school. My answer isn't too long, but by the time I finish talking, Seth is back and he sits down on the couch again. However, I think it's mainly because it's the most normal sitting place in the room, rather than because he enjoys conversing with us.
Two questions that were only answered by me later, Kate is out of questions. Seth has been ignoring the questions and is focusing on the TV screen that is turned on again. He doesn't seem very invested in the series that he's watching, but I assume it's a good distraction from us.
"So, how is your plan of robbing that place coming along?" I ask Seth, who finally tears his gaze away from the TV screen.
"I'm going to do it tomorrow," he replies casually and leans his feet on the edge of the coffee table.
On the other side of the couch, Kate frowns and asks, "So quickly? Don't you need more time?"
Unsurprisingly, Seth doesn't like the doubt in her voice and he sits up, glaring at her. "If you think that you can a better job, go ahead, Little Miss Sunshine. Oh, right, I'm the professional thief around here."
She clenches her jaw and looks away from him angrily. The tension between them and sitting on the floor for too long makes me tired. Without saying anything, I stand up and since there isn't much to do in the motel room, I decide to head outside for some fresh air.
When I pass next to Seth, he catches my wrist and asks, "Are you okay?"
His concern is appreciated but I'm starting to feel less and less comfortable in our room. "Yeah," I nod. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
His expression doesn't relax but he doesn't protest either. He releases me from his loose hold and I walk outside. I feel better the moment the door closes behind me and I can feel the fresh air. My feet carry me to walk around the motel and I stop down the hall from our room.
For a while, I simply stand there, watching the parking lot of the small motel and the street next to it. There is more movement than in the morning and people can be heard in their rooms either listening to music, talking, watching TV or laughing. The only sound coming from our room is the TV and I recall the weird glance that passed between my two roommates. I'm almost certain that there is something going on between the two of them that I don't know about, but I have no idea what it might be.
Fortunately, no one comes out from the rooms I'm standing next to, so no questions my presence there. I stand with my arms crossed over my chest, protecting myself from the air that is starting to get closer now that the sun has set down. I busy myself with looking at strangers who are passing by and trying to guess their story. A few times I even look into other rooms of the motel. It can be easily spotted where there are people by the lights that shine brightly into the night and it helps times pass by. It's when I look at the motel's windows, that I see a pair of snake eyes in a room that is only partly illuminated. The eyes aren't looking at me but are enough for my heartbeat to fasten and for me to hurry back into my motel room, without telling Kate nor Seth what I saw.
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Hmmmm I wonder what Kate and Seth are hiding... (it's not a love triangle, I'm NOT going there. Seth and Kate have a friendship in this story).
These chapters aren't as action packed as the ones that follow the episodes of the series, but there are some fights coming and June is going to meet some people who aren't all friendly, so you have what to look forward to ;)