I fall to the gravel road hard and try to regain my vision. When I look to my right I see Calix has caught up with me and is helping me off the ground. As my two feet stand straight, I look forward to see a Guard glaring down at me. I don’t want to end up like my parents; I still have Athinia to take care of! I think to myself. I can’t hear much of anything, and I’m still pretty dizzy, but I can hear a lot of yelling. I try to help with the situation, but soon everything goes silent. I don’t feel Calixs arms around me anymore, but I can stand. My vision slowly comes back too and so does my hearing. I take a step back and notice Calix has been punched by the Guard! His face bleeds badly and he doesn’t look too good…
“Why did you run into me,” the Guard yells holding me up by my shirt collar.
“I was just going home,” I say shakily. My feet don’t touch the ground, and I feel like I’m going to die right here. Which most likely will happen.
“Well you violated one of the laws, you know that right.” he says throwing me back onto the ground next to Calix. I stutter at the blood which now comes from me as well.
“I didn’t mean to…” my voice slurs off as I realize I need to stick up for Calix; he was the one who helped me. “Why did you hit him,” I yell, but soon regret saying it. The Guard gets a small slip of paper out and writes down something. I ignore that and look back at Calix. I touch his head and notice the amount of blood-from him hitting the concrete ground.
“Are you ok,” I say to Calix in a whisper. His eyes flit open almost as if he had passed out and just regained his second wind -which most likely happened.
“Yeah...I-I’ll be alright, a-are you ok,” Calix says in a slur choppy voice.
“Yes, but I’m not the one bleeding as much as you are,” I say to him. Calix touches his cheek and then draws his hand back to him.
“Oh I am,” he says to me frantically. There is no pause at all before the Guard starts yelling again.
“Get up both of you,” I help Calix and we both stand -as ordered hoping we don’t get killed on the spot.
“I’ll let you two off with a perfectly good warning, since you are bellow 18. But if either of you do anything violated within the law again, I will have to arrest you. Understand?”
“Understand…,” Calix and I both say shyly. It makes sense now, why my parents didn’t get a warning like we did. They were over 18 years of age. And so they got arrested right away.
The Guard walks off harshly; leaving us to treat ourselves. I face Calic immediately and try to help with his bleeding; but there's not much I can do. I'm not a good doctor...or patient.
“I’m sorry…..” Calix drifts off. “About what I said to you; about having no place to go to. I didn’t mean it”
“I’m sure you meant it Calix; everyone does, because no one considers my old house as a home… Do you even know why I came to you in the first place?” I ask too loudly. He shakes his head and then I continue. “I needed dry wood for a fire. Thats all I wanted.” I end giving him a snide look.
“Well how come you didn’t just say that?’ Calix says impatiently, touching the spot in which his head bleeds.
“Because your parents were holding me up,” I say defending myself.
“Yeah they are known to do that…” he says quietly, so no one hears. He holds out his hand and the blood which lays there is plenty much. “Let’s go back to my house quick, my mother can bandage us up.” I follow him as he leads the way back to his house -though I know the way already. Once we get there just the first footstep in releases a sudden frantic mood. His mother aids to both Calix and I at the same time. I’m not nearly as hurt as Calix, but she treats me like I'm going to die within seconds.
“What had happened?” she asks us both. I look toward Calix who sits on the counter next to me, and notice his eyes spacing out completely.
“Just ran too fast.” I tell her calmly; otherwise she would be freaking out. A sigh comes from her clamped teeth as she takes it all in. I feel a little bad for lying; but I know I couldn’t tell her the real reason. Once Mrs. Rateno cleans us both up I thank her and then immediately start back for Athinia. She must be so worried right now; I have been gone for a long while.
Once I get home, I remember the stupid wood in which I was meaning to get; so I head out again and look under old houses for some. What truly frightens me though is when Calix runs up from behind me; I wasn’t expecting it so I fell back and tripped over a log.
"Really!" I yell over to him, standing up and dusting myself over.
“Sorry Cattlin.” he says apologetically. I nod sluggishly and start heading back for the house but of course Calix follows me.
"I'll tag along too." Calix says from behind my narrow back.
When we get back Athinia hugs me tightly at the door and I feel quite bad again.
"Where were you? Why are you hurt?" Athinia asks letting me hug go free. I sigh and then say the first thing in which came to mind.
"Just...a prank...boo." my voice is only one tone, but Athinia believed it anyway and with a nod she was outside.
Calix starts a fire placing the pot of meat inside the coals. It’s a long waiting time and soon Athinia looks utterly bored staring back at the gleaming embers.
“Why don’t you go play with Keri?” I say pushing her a little toward the next door house -which is literally five feet away. She trots on over and knocks on the back door. Keri is a girl a little younger than Athinia, but the same height. She’s usually very nice, but sometimes she’ll make big lies up and make them sound right.
Calix and I sit next to each other on the ground watching the flames eat at the pot. It's not long at all before I hear Keri in my ear.
“Hi!” I sigh and then answer back with a complete lie.
“Keri, how nice is it to see you!” she nods and then sits down beside Calix. I know she has a crush on him, but she won’t admit it. Her glittering little eyes don’t leave Calix’s face...ever!
“What’s wrong with you?” Calix asks Keri rudely pushing her back into me. I groan and then crawl over Calix and sit between him and Keri. Her eyes go back to the fire immediately, and she says no words. Athinia sits on the other side of the fire watching everything in which is happening right now. After Keri leaves and we all eat it starts to get quite late out. I tuck Athinia in for bed and come back out to say goodnight to Calix when I notice him leaned up against the door sound asleep. This isnt rare though and in the ten years I've known him he's always the first one to fall asleep. Always.
“Calix!” I say suddenly kneeling down next to his limp body. Without warning he flings up grabbing a hold of my arm tightly.
“Oh my gosh; sorry!” he looks like he’s in great chagrin and I feel bad for waking him.
“It’s late do your parents worry?”
“No, they don’t care where I am.” he says with a strong animosity. I giggle and then sit down at the kitchen table. The house is freezing and I only have one blanket -so it would be rude for me to just use.
I stick my hands in-between my legs and try to hold in my shivers. The house is so cold at night I swear it's snowing outside.
Calix sits down too, and fumbles with his hands.
“Are you cold?” I ask truthfully. He looks at me and nods sharply. I smile and then head into my bedroom to get the blanket. I know there’s only one but he can use it… When I come back into the kitchen Calix is almost shivering and it’s weird to see him like this. Usually he's Mr. tough guy and never gets like this.
I throw the blanket at him and he catches it fast, not even wondering about my being. I sit back down on my chair and talk to Calix for a while longer. The conversations are always the same now. He talks about his life, I talk about mine; sometimes we'll bring up something totally random, like if we want to get married and where we would live... but like we had a choice.
Soon I get a sudden blast of dizziness and tiredness all in the same movement. This is a regular thing for me though, it's just some weird way of telling my brain I need sleep.
I close my eyes and slowly dirft off but I’m still awake a bit, and so I notice when I’m lifted up and placed back onto a soft bed, covered with warm blankets.