The Ghosts

Chapter Nine, Part Two

It was one of those mornings where you dreaded to open your eyes. In all fairness, today should be a happy day not a ho-hum-I-can-get-through-this type of day. My brother, Sophie, and Luke were all getting in at various times and after last night, I was starting to think having them all here would be bad.

I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, trying to ignore just how tight the bandage around my wrist felt. Thank god it was long sleeve season or I would be answering questions I didn’t want to. My brother was nosey as hell and Sophie would probably ask what happened followed with asking if they sutured it right. I would have to give them the lame excuse I gave to everyone else of “I nicked myself during knife practice”.

The bathroom door opened and Gregori stepped out, steam billowing out above his head. Sadly, that stunning image was lost on me as I didn’t look over at him. He’d spent the night on the couch to keep an eye on me and he just happened to be the one driving me to the airport to pick up my brother and Sophie.

My eyes slanted over to him as he smoothed down his still damp hair.

“Hey,” I said quietly, feeling the need to say something.

He dropped his hand and looked me over. Every time he did that, I thought he was literally checking to make sure I wasn’t about to break into a million pieces.

“Good morning. I didn’t think you’d be awake yet. How are you feeling?”

I sat up slowly as he walked over. It literally felt like I’d aged years overnight. Everything was stiff and I actually still had my blood staining my right hand fingertips.

“I’m fine,” I finally managed to say.

“Thankfully I can see through the bullshit. I started the coffee before I jumped into the shower and your brother’s flight is arriving in an hour.”

“Is that your way of telling me to get my ass out of bed?”

“It’s my way of reminding you that life goes on and so do you. Don’t let this set you back.”

This was one of those moments where I was supposed to tell him that it had set me back. Tell the truth, always. That’s what I’d agreed but it had crossed my mind that keeping the truth by omission was the same. And the truth I didn’t want to admit to was I felt like I was back to where I was when I first got here.

I hated that girl. In my mind she was weak and I didn’t want to be weak. But there I was, feeling like I was looking at the world through sludge. Worst of all, I was dreading seeing my brother and Sophie because of the possible things their visit might bring up.

I couldn’t understand why I had to remember everything the way I did and why there was such an emotional response to it. In my mind, afterwards, I could rationalize it. There were good parts as well as bad parts and there was no reason to freak out over it every single time I thought too much about it.

But I did. Every. Single. Time.

“Yeah. If you say so.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.

I got out of the bed and headed straight to the bathroom. Gregori was putting off that cautious vibe I hated. He tended to walk on egg shells for days when I got like this and I didn’t want him to.

“Geo…”

“Yeah.” I slammed the door closed, not wanting to talk about it. Thankfully the mirror was still clouded over from Gregori’s shower that I didn’t have to look at the complete mess I was. “Yeah,” I repeated mostly to myself.

It was another day in hell.

I got my wrist wrapped up in plastic and my shower done. By that time I was anxious to go get my brother but when I finally left the bathroom, Gregori was nowhere in sight. There was a note propped up on my kitchen table, a steaming cup of black coffee keeping it upright.