Get Out Your Damn Umbrellas

Chapter 22

Thursday morning Louise sat at her kitchen table hunched over a cup of coffee as she was waiting for it to cool down. Through the window she could see the outside world tinged with a rosy orange glow cast by the rising sun against low hanging clouds. To say that the past forty-eight hours after Dan left on Tuesday morning were no picnic would have been an understatement. Truthfully, Louise was glad to be able to help out her friends and probably would have been more distressed if she hadn't currently been sheltering at least one of them. Still, having Phil here and watching him being tossed about between waves of restlessness and helplessness with a constant undercurrent of uncontrollable panic only served to amplify her own anxieties.

She understood Phil well enough to know how much his protective instincts had to have been absolutely driving him up the wall. This was the longest he and Dan had been apart since before the break-in happened. Phil had spent six months fighting tirelessly to keep him safe only to be separated from Dan again right after his abusers made another attempt to hurt him.

For now they were all stuck in a rather grim sort of limbo. They just had to wait for the police to catch the perpetrators, but there was no way of knowing when or if that was going to happen.

The coffee pot was still halfway full. Louise poured another cup and added a generous amount of cream and sugar just as Phil's heavy footsteps creaked from the stairwell. Shuffling sleepily into the kitchen, the raven haired boy mumbled a low morning greeting. Then he gulped down the entire mug of hot coffee the moment Louise set it down in front of him.

"How's your head feeling this morning?" Louise asked tentatively.

"A little, better, thanks." Phil was somewhat prone to getting headaches, and it was fairly predictable that all the stress and sleep deprivation would make them even worse. "The caffeine certainly helps."

"I'm about to pour myself some cereal if you want any."

"Thanks, but I, um," Phil rubbed his eyes. "I'd rather not steal any more food from you. I've packed up my duffel bag so I can go stay with Martyn for a bit. I really appreciate you letting me stay here and looking after me. I just..."

"It's fine. I understand."

"Sorry that I... haven't been much fun to be around for the last couple of days."

Louise waved a hand dismissively. "Don't be silly. Even in your foulest mood, you're still a more pleasant guest than a few others I've had."

"If you say so," Phil muttered with a weary half-smile.

"There is one thing I need you to do for me, though. If you don't mind, could you just wait here and have Martyn come by and pick you up? I'd rather you didn't go out there on your own."

Louise had multiple reasons for not wanting that. She'd kept her house's security system armed all night and all day mostly to protect them from the outside world, but also to make sure that Phil didn't try to sneak out and run off to Reading.

Obliging her request, Phil got out his phone and texted Martyn. Louise took the opportunity to glance at the Find My Friend app on her own phone. By that point she'd developed a nervous habit of constantly checking the app, always fearing it would show Dan in a different location than he was supposed to be.

However, today that's exactly what it showed.

"Oh fuck," Louise murmured without thinking.

Putting his phone away, Phil glanced up at her as soon as he heard the panic in her voice. "What is it?"

Wide-eyed, Louise shook her head and said in an unconvincing high-pitched voice, "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

Phil stepped around to her side of the counter, his radioactive gaze boring through her. "Louise. Tell. Me. What's. Wrong."