Nothing in Between

13

When Clyde carefully opened her eyes this morning, everything in her surroundings was a complete blur. She blindly turned onto her back, swiftly sitting up with a groan. Her hands went up to her face to rub at her itchy eyes, feeling her head painfully pound.

It was slow, but eventually, Clyde finally became able to see. Still, her eyesight was a little blurry, so she began looking for her glasses. Clyde immediately found them placed on the nightstand, like somebody else had taken them off her face and put them there.

She reached for her glasses and put them on, watching the slight blobs of distant objects become the actual silhouettes of her personal belongings. Clyde loudly huffed. There was nothing in her room that seemed odd or suspicious, but something felt off.

Clyde easily dragged herself away from the comfort of her bed and went to her desk. The desk was as messy as she had left it yesterday, but there was a note placed on top of the clutter. She arched an eyebrow, taking the questionable note into her hand.

The note was written on a small, square sheet of yellow paper, which had obviously been taken from the stack Clyde kept on the side of her desk. The nine words on the note were beautifully written in black ink, in handwriting that seemed awfully familiar.

"Drink these. You're gonna need them for that headache."

Clyde looked up from the note. She frantically glanced at her desk and finally noticed the plastic dish that contained two gel capsules. Beside it, there was a glass filled with water that looked so damned refreshing. Clyde hesitated before grabbing the glass.

A grunt left her chest before quickly throwing the capsules into her mouth and swallowing them with water. Clyde sighed as she pulled the glass away from her lips, now completely empty. She lowered it onto her desk, carefully returning it to its original location.

Wiping her lips with the back of her arm, Clyde turned and quickly walked to her bedroom door. She stepped out of the room, hearing nothing but silence. At that moment, her heart dropped. It was never that silent, not unless people were incredibly angry at her.

Very slowly, Clyde easily made her way downstairs. Her eyes immediately found the four other pairs that stared and watched with a confusing mixture of pure anger and concern as she stepped foot into the living room. Clyde pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Okay," Clyde began, "How did I get here last night?"

Clyde immediately realized that she had made a horrible mistake by asking that question, or even speaking at all, based on the way her mother's face turned into a scowl. Her eyes instinctively directed her gaze onto the ground, avoiding everyone else's.

At the age of twenty-five, Clyde really knew she probably shouldn't have to deal with this anymore. But because she was the youngest in her family, everyone loved treating her as if she was still that completely naïve, idiotic teenager who made stupid choices.

Well, she still made stupid choices, but she wasn't a teenager anymore.

Not like they cared about that. But maybe they were right. She definitely couldn't seem to move on from certain experiences as a teenager, so that could truly be a probable reason as to why they still saw her as such. Clyde couldn't exactly blame them for that.

"Were you ever going to tell us about your drinking habits?" her mother asked.

Choosing to ignore the question, Clyde tutted, "Who took me here?"

When no one answered the question after a minute had passed, Clyde quickly glanced to her older brother and his wife on the couch. She raised an eyebrow at Royce, knowing his instincts would definitely make him answer, even when nobody else wanted him to.