Waiting outside the lines

Chapter 2

I try to listen even more as I stand by my door.
"I don't know. Maybe a little bit but I don't think she could make out what it said. "
"You did a good job in hiding it. Even though it hurt like crazy. And sorry. You know that was the only way."
"I know. Thank you. It was all Jakes fault. You let him do that." He says kind of sadly. There was a pause.
"You were wrong. Would you rather go to jail for life?"
"Actually, I probably would've. It ruined my childhood, mom! I could've been a normal boy but no. Jake took my childhood away from me."
"That tattoo is so you remember how wrong you were. You couldn't have been a normal boy. You could've been a normal boy in jail if you'd rather."
He sighs and then he finally says,
"I guess we're both wrong. I guess, thank you. And, don't worry about it. Even if she does see what it says she'll never figure out what it means." I grab the key and walk in kind of upset. What is it that I would never figure out? And why was whatever she did "the only way"? This was getting weird and I had to figure out what 4485 meant. I think about it some more and realize that its kinda rude to get into people's business so I try to forget it and get my brother. I call his name. No answer. I call him again and still no answer. I begin to panic and look around for him. I call him again. Still no response. My mind starts racing. How was the door locked if he wasn't in here? Did someone take him? Where did they take him? Why did they take him? So many thoughts fill my head and I run out the door to look for him.
I kept frantically calling his name. It was about 9:00pm and it was moderately dark. My heart started racing and it became harder and harder to breath. I couldn't think straight and I started tripping over things. I knew I wouldn't be able to look for my little brother. At least not like this. I ran to Wayne's door and knocked on it very hard. I must have scared his mom because she opened the door and looked at me with wide eyes. "Janet? What are you doing? You can't just..." She looked at me more closely and said, "What's wrong, sweetie? You look like you've seen a ghost. You're face is so white. Come in. Let me ma-"
"I can't find my little brother!" I say interrupting her. She looks at me with wide eyes. "Please help me find him! I need to find him! Please help me!"
"Okay, okay. Calm. You're okay. I will help you find him. We will find him." Her voice was so soothing like waves crashing on the shore or the sound of rain. It calmed my anxieties a bit. "You know he's probably here close by. Now where does he like to play during the day?" Her voice was so calm. I was jealous I couldn't be as calm as she was right now at times like this.
"Um... I... I can't..." I still couldn't think straight. No matter how soothing her voice was, my heart was still beating 100 miles an hour.
"Shh. Shh. It's ok. I said we will find him soo- we will find him. It will be okay. Just breathe. We will look for him." I nod and manage to give her a small smile. "Would you like to sit down for a second?" I hesitate, because I can't find my brother! But I think it was a good idea. Considering the condition I'm in. I don't want my brother to see me like this either. He would start worrying about me. He's just that kind of brother. I nod at her and we sit on the steps of her house.
"So how old is your brother?" she asks, probably trying to calm me down a bit.
"He's 7." I say still breathing heavily.
"What's he like."
"He's amazing. He's really energetic and so creative. Once for my birthday, I was sad because my parents promised me a party but then never gave me one. So what he did was he got all this paper and cut and colored it to make decorations and threw me a "party". It was really sweet." I smile at the memory. She smiles too. Then she asks, "So.. Where are your parents?" My smile slowly fades.
"My parents are really busy people. There life is work. Work is their life." I shrug. "That's it really. They're not home much so I usually take care of us." I start breathing heavy again and she notices. She rubs my back and says, "Okay enough sitting. Let's go find your brother."
As we get up, I hear someone inside the house (his mother's name is Rose by the way) I see a figure coming toward us and realize that it's Wayne. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt which totally exposed his arm. I look at his arm and so does Rose. "Wayne Michael," So I guess his middle name is Michael. "Get back in there and put on a jacket!" He realizes what he's wearing and puts his arms behind his back. "Okay. I'm sorry. I just heard you guys out here and something seemed wrong. Is everything okay?" He looks at me with worried eyes. I feel myself about to blush but then realize why I'm here.
"Well, not really. I can't find my brother. We were about to go look for him." I try not to stare at him. Not because the thing on his arm that he was trying to hide. But because he looked really good in a sleeveless shirt. And his hair was all messed up in a cute way. And his eyes looked so nice under the moon.
I feel guilty because I keep forgetting why I'm out here. We need to find my brother then I will feel better.
"Let me help you look for him. I'll get a flashlight." I start breathing hard. Why would we need a flashlight? It's not like we're gonna look at the ground for him. Why do we need a flashlight? Wayne must have sensed my anxiety because he says,
"I'll go get the flashlights so we can see where we're going and don't trip over anything." Of course. That makes perfect sense. What was I thinking? He smiles at me and goes inside. Then Rose yells,
"Get a jacket while you're in there." She looks down at me and yells again, "And get one for Janet."
"No, no I'm fine, thank you."
"No, you need a jacket. I don't want you to get sick." I smile at the ground. An adult hasn't told me something like that in a long time it. It felt kind of good. Finally, Wayne comes out with a jacket on and another one for me. I put my hand out to grab it but he holds it up to help me put it on. I smile as he helps me put it on. He gives us our flashlights and we start walking. He puts his hand on my arm and I immediately feel something go through my body. I couldn't tell if it was a chill or warmth. Or both. I didn't know, but I liked it. We smile at each other and he puts his arm around me.
"It'll be okay." He whispers into my ear and I touch his hand that's on my shoulder. His mom turns around and he pulls his arm back which I thought was kind of weird but, oh well. We turn on the flashlights and start walking.
"So where does your brother like to play during the day?" Rose asks, stopping. We stop too and I say,
"Well he usually likes playing in the park close by here but I don't think he'd go that far. He knows better. Um..." I think for a moment. "He does have a friend at that house," I say pointing to a near by house, "but their lights are off and they would probably tell me if he was with them." I shrug. "That's all I can really think of right now." I hate that that's all the ideas I can think of.
"It's ok. Don't worry about it." Wayne says touching my arm. I feel the chill/warmth feeling again and we smile at each other. "Well.. Okay then.. Yeah.." Rose says. Annoyed? I don't know, but I feel bad though because she's helping me right now and I'm making her feel uncomfortable. "So how about... does he ever go behind the houses?" I try to think.
"Actually yeah he has. That would make a lot of sense." Rose smiles at me and we start walking. It's not too far from us. It's right over the houses, of course, but there were some houses on the side of ours so we had to go around those. As we walked around, I saw a small light coming from behind the houses. I walk a little faster trying to see what it's coming from. Wayne tries to go in front of me, as if to protect me I'm guessing, but I don't let him. And Wayne says,
"Oh no. Janet, you probably shouldn't be going back there so..." I don't even let him finish as I go around the house and something hard hits me in the head...
When I finally come to, I see a really bright light and hear Rose's voice. She seems upset. I also see a figure over me. I blink a few times to make my vision clearer and see that it's Wayne. He smiles and says,
"Guys, her eyes are opening. I think she's fine." Guys? I only heard Rose's voice. Who else is here?
I try to get up but then I get dizzy and almost fall. Thank goodness Wayne grabs me before I do. He helps regain my balance and I look around. I grab my head and feel a bump. My sight is a little blurry but I see Rose and Wayne and, my little brother! I yell his name and try to run to hug him but Wayne stops me and says I shouldn't move a lot. So my little brother comes to me and I hug him really hard and pick him up. As I pick him up I feel a sharp pain in my neck but I don't care because my brother's here and he seems okay. Wayne touches me shoulder and says something about not using so much of my strength right now because I was weak so I put my brother down. I felt pretty good though but then I look up from looking at my brother and see a man. My smile fades and I try to look at the man closer. He had brown hair like Wayne's. He is very tall and very built! I glare at him and start at him,
"Who are you and why did you take my brother! He didn't do anything to you! He's just a little boy! How could yo-" Before I could finish my sentence, Wayne steps in front of me and says,
"Janet, this is Jake."
I look at him confused. "You mean you know this guy?!"
"Yea. He's.. my mom's son."
Rose steps in,"He's Wayne's brother..."
The way Wayne said 'My mom's son.' made it obvious that they weren't really on good terms. I look at Jake and see the resemblance between them. I'm still upset but try to stay calm.
"So you didn't take my little brother?"
"No I would never do something like that. He came back here and said he heard something fun and wanted to see what it was." Jake said. Then my little brother tapped me arm.
"It was really fun! Jakey showed me his throwy thing and let me play with it." He said it in such a happy voice and with the biggest smile on his face I couldn't help but laugh.
"Okay, but don't ever do that again! You scared me to death!" My little brother hugged me hard an kept saying I'm sorry.
"I don't want you to die!! I'm so sorry please don't leave again!" he says very loud. Oh, no. I can't believe he just said that! I look up at Rose, Wayne, and Jake and they're all looking at me kinda weird. I try to break the silence and say,"So what's this throwy thing of yours?"
"Oh it's just his toy that he's making." Wayne says moving his hand as if blowing it off. (Phew! that was easily forgotten) He also rolls his eyes which surprises me because he didn't seem like the guy to do that. I notice Rose shoot him a 'behave yourself' look and she says,
"Jake is an inventor. He has a lot of talent!" She says it with so much pride in her voice I'm starting to guess why Wayne doesn't like him that much.
"So this throws things?" I ask a little confused. Why would you want to randomly throw things?
"Yes. It's like for sports. Like if you want to play tennis or baseball but don't have a partner you can use this. The different thing about it is you don't have to plug it in or anything. So if you ever want to play tennis or baseball, you can borrow this. Or you can call me and we can play together." Jake winks at me and I can't help but laugh a little bit. I look at Wayne and see him glaring at him.
"Well, I should probably go. We both have school tomorrow it's already past your bed time." I say looking down at my little brother. Wayne takes a quick step towards me.
"You sure you can get to your house? Do you need help?"
"Yeah. It's not like its all the way around the world. Its just a few steps over there. Ill be fine. Thanks though." I smile at him. "Okay, well, see you soon, Rose. And thanks so much! And thanks, Wayne. It was nice meeting you Jake." He puts put his hand to shake and I go to shake his hand but instead he takes my hand and takes a while kissing it. Like what they do in cheesy movies. I can't help but blush because no one has ever done anything like that to me. Wayne glares at Jake some more and says,
"Okay you should probably get going. Goodnight."
"Yeah okay. See you guys!" I say as I walk away. They all say goodbye, and Jake winks at me. It's obvious he's trying to piss his little brother off and I'm pretty sure it working. But I'm too tired to think about that so I'm just going to go to sleep.
After I get my little brother in bed and I'm about to get in bed too, I hear Wayne talking. (My room is on the side of the house where Jake was) I try to listen more and I hear Wayne and Jake fighting, yelling at each other.