The Dark Ones

Chapter Fifteen: Loved

The rest of the weekend passed by in a depressing blur. Georgia spent the remainder of Saturday night desperately trying to connect to Hayden. She sensed the anger and rage in him as he drove away that night. She managed to keep it bay during the fight but knew as he left that it wouldn't stay that way. Just as she was getting better at tapping into his mind, he was getting better at blocking her from it. He shut her out completely after that and she was forced to spend the entire night wondering if he was safe. Sleep evaded her completely until eventually, she heard the birds chirping and saw lines of sunlight creeping in through cracks in her curtains. That morning was a drag.

She got through it on autopilot, a painful migraine shadowing her every move, and making her feel like the walking dead. Her parents were oblivious. Her mom kept going on about how great Hayden was. It irritated her since she was annoyed with him but played along to not arouse her parents' suspicions that things weren't well. By midday, she started trying to call and text him. He never answered, which infuriated her.

In the end, all she got out of him was a solitary text saying, "I'm fine."

She replied incessantly, sending text after text saying things like, "Please don't shut me out", "I'm worried

about you", "Please answer your phone".

She hated having to grovel this way. It felt like having to beg for scraps of normalcy. Hayden just didn't seem to get it. His entrance into her life and the effect it had on her was irrevocable. Whether he pushed her away or not, she could no longer simply ignore him, walk away, or stop caring, even if every sign pointed to the fact that she should. Benny and Lisa called and texted. They were worried about her, both still a little rocked by the craziness of the night before. Benny kept fussing over her safety while Lisa was somber and a little distant. By that evening, Georgia's non-stop fretting over Hayden, his stubborn refusal to talk to her, and her exhaustion from lack of sleep took its toll. She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, and only awoke the next morning feeling groggy and irritable.

She showered, changed, got her stuff ready for school, and waited expectantly in the lounge. Hayden told her parents that he'd be her ride to school from now on to make sure she reached there safely. She hoped he would keep to this. She'd have no way to explain what was wrong if he didn't show up. She found herself wondering if this was what her life was going to be like now, no certainty from day to day—a constant seesaw of extreme highs and lows. Her mom had left for work already but her dad was still in the kitchen, wolfing down a bowl of cereal. The slurping noises he made as the milk sloshed about in his mouth annoyed Georgia.

She knew it had more to do with her mood than her father. He always ate that way and it never bothered her before. Anxiously glancing at her watch, she checked the time. In a few minutes, it would be too late to get to school on time and she'd have to make a decision and ask her dad to take her.

She was in the middle of typing out a text asking, "Are you coming or not?" when she heard the now familiar horn outside.

Grabbing her bag, she kissed James on his cheek and left in a haste. She got in and looked at Hayden anxiously. He seemed fine aside from dark circles under his eyes and the scowling expression that was his default when they first met.

Now that she could finally see that he was okay and safe, her worry could move on to anger, without fear and guilt holding it back anymore. She kept quiet as he backed out of their driveway. Once on the road, Georgia was determined to remain stubborn and stony. The problem was that Hayden stayed cold and distant himself. Instead of wanting to keep things icy so he'd know she was angry with him, she ended up feeling angrier that he was behaving this way.

She tried to reach his mind but it remained tightly closed. She couldn't hear his thoughts but could still sense his mood and emotions. It was like seeing a big picture without all the small details that went together to create it. She could tell there were still remnants of his rage inside him. He was also conflicted, angry, and fearful of the consequences of feeling this way. It was a complex mix of things to feel.