Revenant Paul Lahote

Chapter 9

Everything was weird.

Caylee and Paul hadn't spent more than 3 days away from each other since the day they met. Even when they were sick or Caylee was going through one of her bad spells, even when Paul was slowly cracking because of his father's actions.

It had been a whole week since Paul claimed to be sick, retreating from Gran's house despite Caylee's concern. So when he came bursting through the door on an especially rainy afternoon, he threw her for a loop.

"Hey, are you okay?" Caylee asked as he began pacing around her kitchen.

"I'm fine thanks for your concern," he grumbled.

She stopped in her tracks, pulling her sleeves down over her tiny hands out of habit. He released a long breath, hands gripping the counter tightly.

"I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge. I think it's that bug I have."

Caylee shrugged, brushing it off and pushing a glass of water towards him which he accepted gratefully. "I tried dropping off some medicine and soup for you but nobody answered."

Paul's whole body stopped moving, his gaze hardening at her over the brim of his cup.

"You did what?" His tone was hard and cold, and Caylee could feel herself shrinking back at his question.

"Nobody answered and your dad's truck wasn't ther- "

"Goddamn it Caylee! How many times have I told you not to go to my house?" Paul's voice was rising almost as fast as anger.

Caylee was no stranger to her best friend's anger problems. She spent many nights attempting to play nurse without touching him, but she had never been the cause of any of his outbursts.

"I mean shit, what would've happened if I hadn't been there and he was?"

Paul was shaking, the glass in his hand shattering under his hard grip. It wasn't until seeing Caylee's frightened gaze that he finally realized that something else was wrong and he was taking things way too far.

"I- I have to go. I'm sorry Cay," he rushed out, ignoring her calls after him.

Gran's steps came down the stairs softly, peering around the corner to see Caylee knelt on the floor attempting to clean up the broken glass.

"G-gran not now please. I've gotta clean this up before either of us step on it," she sniffled.

"Oh darlin' he didn't mean any of that. Paul's got something stirring around inside of him, amping up all that anger he tries so hard to suppress when around you." Caylee nodded, barely listening, just worried about him.

"He'll be back soon. He never could stay away from you for too long."