Now that everything was good between me and Justin, I could focus on Michael and Bella. I tried to tell myself that it wasn't up to me, and I wasn't a part of that, but I wasn't as convincing as I hoped. By lunch, I decided I needed someone else to tell me this...again, so I found Vince. Not that finding him was fairly difficult; he sat at the lunch table across from Justin and me.
"Vince?" I asked quite aware of Justin by my side. He said it didn't bother him anymore, I guess I'd find out if that was true. "Are you free tonight?"
"Uh, yeah," he didn't even ask what for. "I'm driving Ally home, but do you want to come by around four? You should bring Nana, I've been dying for some of the chicken Nana and Charlie make."
"What do I make?" Charlotte asked grabbing the seat next to Ally.
"Apparently you and Nana make really good chicken," I shrugged pushing the green beans on my plate.
"Yes we do!" She exclaimed, immediately cheering up. "Are you guys coming to dinner?"
"Um," I looked at Vince who looked intently back at me. "I guess. I'll ask Grandma."
After I finished eating, Justin and I went to the hallway so I could call Grandma. I expected him to say something, but instead, he sat on the bench next to me and grabbed my hand, tracing shapes into my skin while I dialed. I smiled at the way his fingers tickled my skin
"Hello?" Grandma refused to read the caller ID on the home phone.
"Hey Grandma, it's me."
"What's up sweet pea?" She didn't seem remotely worried that I had called her during school.
"Vince and Charlotte invited us over to their house for dinner tonight, something about fried chicken?" I tried not to move as the shivers ran up my spine from Justin's fingers moving up my arm.
"Oh that sounds wonderful! Why don't you invite Justin?" Mine and Justin's change in attitude towards each other the last few days was definitely caught by Grandma.
"I'll ask him," I turned to Justin. He quit tracing shapes on my skin and looked up at me at my words. "Do you want to go to dinner tonight at Vince's?"
He smiled and grabbed the phone from my hand. "No thanks Nana, I have some homework to catch up on and I'm a bit tired from staying up to study last night." Nana said something to Justin that made him laugh. I couldn't help but smile at his laugh. His eyes caught mine and for a moment I couldn't breathe. "Alright, bye Nana," he handed me the phone back.
"Grandma?" I asked in the phone, having to turn away from Justin to think clearly.
"Still here sweetie"
"I have to go, the bell's gonna ring."
"Alright, love you!"
"Love you too, bye," I hung up just as Justin snuck a kiss on my cheek. His lips had touched my skin and were gone before I even noticed, but that didn't stop the blush from creeping up my cheeks. He pulled me up by my hand still in his. Instinctively, our fingers intertwined as we walked down the hall. As the bell rang, he squeezed my hand before letting it go.
After school, I went straight home where Justin and I worked on our homework until Grandma told me we had to go. Considering we had no idea what or how much food was at Vince's house, we were going to the grocery store before heading over to their house. I had gotten into the habit of going to the grocery store every week. We used to go together, but recently it had been just me.
At Vince's I parked at the top of the hill where I always did. Both Charlotte and Vince came out to the car. Charlotte took the bags from my hand and, after saying a quick hello to Grandma, Vince led me away toward the barn.
He took a seat on the couch and looked at me expectedly. I sighed. "I know you don't agree with me, but I can't just let Michael die without at least trying."
"I know Emma, but you can't do anything." He leaned forward putting his head in his hands. He obviously thought we were past this.
"Actually, I can." He looked up with confusion written on his face. "I'm kinda rich." I bit my lip.
"Emma, I don't think you understand how expensive chemo is."
"I don't, but I have enough. I'm sure of it."
"Michael's not going to accept your money."
"I know, I thought of that." I took a seat next to Vince. "I could donate it anonymously."
"Do hospitals actually do that? I thought it was something people only did in movies."
"I assume they do. I don't think Hollywood would just make it all up."
"Do you know where he would get his treatment at?"
"Yeah, I think so." He would probably get chemo at the same hospital he went to after the accident.
"Then what do you need me for?" Vince didn't sound angry, just curious.
"For someone to tell me I'm not crazy." I leaned my head on his shoulder.
His arm wrapped around me. "You have the money?"
"Almost, my parents left everything to me and my brother. I have more than enough with my half, but since we haven't figured everything out yet, the money's not in my account."
"Where is it?"
"In my parents' account"
"Can you access it?"
"Not directly," I bit my lip again knowing he had found the flaw in my plan.
"I have to talk to Riley...and probably Alex."
"Riley's not going to be easily convinced. What are you going to tell him?"
"I-I don't know." A tear slipped down my cheek.
"Shh, it's okay." Vince's other arm wrapped around me. "We'll figure something out." He kissed the top of my head and stroked my back until I calmed down.
"Vince?" my voice was rough.
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for being a great friend to me."
"Anytime," I smiled up at him as he smiled back at me. "Are you ready to go inside?"
I wiped at the tears on my cheeks, "yeah." He grabbed my hand and led me back up to the house. Inside we found Charlotte and Grandma in the kitchen frying up chicken. "Need some help?" It looked like the same recipe my dad used to make.
"Sure, you can have this job," Charlotte said putting her cracker covered fingers up, "it's too messy!"
With both Vince and I doing Charlotte's job, it wasn't too messy, until we started to mess around that is. "You got the cleaner job," Vince complained pulling the last piece of chicken out of the eggs.
"Oh yeah real clean!" I flicked some flour at him.
"Hey!" he dropped the chicken in the flour causing a cloud of flour to come at me.
I shrieked, jumping back. "Oh you didn't!" I grabbed a handful of flour and cracker crumbs throwing them at Vince. In retaliation, he took the bag of flour and threw some in my direction, but most of it hit Charlotte. She in return grabbed the mixture of eggs and tossed it at Vince who then decided to tackle her in a hug. Grandma and I got out on the kitchen in time to avoid getting any messier.
When Charlotte ran to the bathroom, we decided it was clear to go back in the kitchen. Grandma fried up the last of the chicken while I made some potatoes and pulled the casserole out of the oven. Just as the last plate was placed on the table, Justin came out throwing a shirt at me. "You're covered in flour, change into this." I nodded and went to the bathroom to change.
My hair was speckled with flour, so I pulled it up into a ponytail and then rinsed my face before changing my shirt. Justin's shirt was big on me, but at least it was clean. When I went back out to the table, Charlotte was there, scooping potatoes onto her plate. We had all sat down, leaving an empty plate for Vince's dad.
"Mmm, this is delicious!" I said while chewing a bite of chicken. I'm sure Grandma disapproved of me speaking with my mouth full. I had missed this. It was one of mine and Alex's favorite foods. As I scooped another forkful of casserole, Vince's dad came through the door.
"What's this?" his words slurred into one.
"Nana and Emma came over for dinner," Charlotte said in a small voice. She couldn't tell he was drunk. "We set you a place."
"Look at this mess!" His eyes had moved past the table to the kitchen, which we had left covered in flour with a puddle of eggs. "I work all day to provide for you guys and how do you repay me? You make a mess for me to come home to!" He yelled at us. He seemed bigger than ever. Charlotte seemed smaller as she cowered in her chair at his voice.
"Calm down Chad," Grandma spoke quietly.
"Calm down?" he turned on Grandma. "You come into my home and make a mess then ask me to calm down?"
Charlotte ran away to her room. "Chad," Grandma said again. He seemed to recognize that he was doing something wrong, because he pushed past the chair set for him and into his bedroom. Vince seemed to be stuck in his chair, so I followed his sister.
"Charlotte?" I pushed her door open. She was curled up in a ball on the floor. I went and took a seat next to her, placing a hand on her arm. When she felt my touch, she moved to wrap her arms around my waist and cry into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her too letting her cry.
"I'm sorry," she spoke after a while with a sniffle.
"You have nothing to apologize for." She nodded. "He does this a lot, doesn't he?" She nodded again. "He doesn't hurt you, does he?"
"No! Of course not!" I hadn't meant to upset her. I stroked her hair only to realize the egg was still in her hair. "I'm sorry," she was the one to apologize when really it should have been me. Charlotte then got up and said she was going to take a shower. I think she really just wanted to be locked in a room by herself for a while.
"Umph," I sat down on the ground next to Vince. He had moved to sit against the cabinets in the corner of the kitchen. My feet slipped on the flour that covered the tiles. Vince turned to look at me. His eyes were red and tears streaked down his face. "Oh Vince," I threw my arms around him in a hug.
"I tried so hard to keep this from everyone. I failed to keep it from Charlie and now you and Nana!"
"Vince, why in the world would you think you couldn't tell me this?" I tried to get him to look me in the eyes, but he wouldn't.
"I couldn't tell anyone, not even Ali. If anyone found out, they'd take us away and I couldn't do that to dad or Charlie, they've already lost too much."
This time I forced him to look me in the eye by holding his chin. "You can tell me anything. And you and Ali tell each other everything. She would understand; she's been part of this from the beginning. And she would never do anything to hurt you." His head fell onto my shoulder. For once, I was the one comforting him.
"Thanks Emma," we sat like that for a while. We heard Vince's dad yell at grandma. She didn't yell back, but I could hear her angry voice coming from inside his room. After about twenty minutes, she came back out, slamming the door on her way.
"Emma, why don't you take Vince and Charlotte over to our house for the night?"
"Yeah, sure," I got up and walked over pulling grandma into the mudroom. "What about you? How are you going to get home?
"Don't worry about me, sweetie."
"Grandma, I can't let you drive."
"That's your orders, not the doctor's." I looked at her until she spoke again. "Okay, I'll have him drive me home in the morning. I'll spend the night here, making sure he doesn't get in any trouble and have him or someone else drive me home."
"Okay," I went out to get Vince in the kitchen, but he wasn't there. I could see that his door was closed, so I figured I'd go find Charlotte. The shower was still running, but I knocked anyways. "Charlotte?"
"Yeah?" it didn't sound like she was crying.
I pushed the door open to find out I was right, she hadn't taken a shower, but sat in the bathroom thinking. The tears on her face were dry along with a smear of egg. I grabbed the towel by the sink and wet a corner before kneeling next to her. I cleared away the mascara stains, and then the bit of egg before saying anything. "It's not a very good shower, but it will have to do until we get to my house." She smiled. "Why don't you go pack a bag for tomorrow?"
"Thanks Emma," she hugged me then went to her room.
The ride home was silent besides the soft hum of music coming from the radio. At home, Vince said he was going to call Ally so he shut himself away in the guest room to do that. I gave Charlotte a towel and she went to take a shower, a real one this time. Once I was alone in my room, I sent a text message to Justin. 'SOS'
He was at the back door in less than a minute. Justin pulled me into a hug. "What's wrong?" He only let me go enough to look at me.
"I think that's something you're best friend should tell you. He and Charlotte are staying here tonight. Dinner didn't go quite as planned."
"I'm sorry," Justin didn't really know what to say.
"Will you stay here tonight?"
He nodded, "yeah," and pulled me close again. We went out into the living room and sat on the couch. "Emma?" he asked putting an arm around me and pulling me against his side. "What is in your hair?"
I laughed. "Flour"
"Flour?" Justin looked at me skeptically. I nodded, pressing my lips against his.
"Get a room," Charlotte came out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped up. Justin jumped across the couch and tried to pretend he wasn't just kissing me. I looked over at Charlotte, a little red. We both burst out laughing.
"Shut up!" Justin said defensively moving back over next to me.
"Sorry," I kissed his cheek and went to tell Charlotte we could share my room. Vince was still on the phone, so I decided to take a shower and finally get the flour out of my hair. I spent a bit longer in the shower than normal. Everything that happened ran through my head before I even thought about Michael. Then I tried to figure out what I would do and say and whether or not it would work.
When I finally got out of the shower, I found Justin on the couch reading something. "This is such a great book," he said not looking up. The sarcasm was clear in his voice.
"Oh yeah?" I played along. "Whatcha reading?" I walked over, lifting the book so I could read it's cover. It was in German.
"Yeah it's-" Justin looked up at me and stopped in the middle of his sentence.
"What?"
"You," he sat up looping his arm around my waist and pulling me to stand between his legs "look beautiful." I blushed and let his hands pull me down to kiss him.
I pulled back and jumped out of his reach. I gave him a quick wink before going to my room to check on Charlotte. She was already asleep, so I went back out to sit with Justin.
I snuggled up next to him, which he didn't seem to protest to. "You know you are the longest showerer?"
"Am not!" I said a bit too loud considering Charlotte was sleeping.
"Yes you are," Justin kissed the top of my head. "Vince was able to tell me what happened and took a shower in the time you did."
"So you know?" He nodded. "Did you have any idea?"
"No"
"Yeah, same"
Author's Note:
Hiya Guys!
Happy day lights savings day? Sure, we can celebrate that...right? I dont really have much to say, but I hope you enjoyed.
You guys are the most awesomest people in the world!
Devin4862
Full copyright 2014
Edited 2/26/15