Society Killed The Teenager

Chapter Twenty-One/We Just Pay Attention To The Love

I don't sleep through the night. 

I just lay on the couch and pretend to be watching t.v, just in case Caitlin comes downstairs and needs something, I have a glass of water right beside me if she gets thirsty and some crackers if her stomach hurts. 

My phone is turned upside down with her mother's phone number ready to call just in case she misses her mother, but surprisingly she doesn't come downstairs. 

Maybe I knew that she wouldn't I just had that stuff out for me. 

Juts in case I was thirsty and needed a drink, or if I was hungry and needed some crackers, or I had my phone out just in case I got homesick and needed to call my mom. 

I rub my temples and lean back on the couch, The Walking Dead marathon stopping me from actually thinking. 

Their playing the whole series from season one episode one to the season finale of season five. 

It's season three already. 

I check the clock on the television and it tells me that it's a quarter to 5, which makes my head spin and my mind whirl with thoughts of how bad I'm going to feel tomorrow but I don't dwell on it too much. 

The show goes to a commercial and I get up from the couch to check on Caitlin and see if she's actually sleeping. 

I walk up the stairs, the creaks in the steps making a permanent indent in my brain, making me hear just the stairs and nothing else. 

I reach Caitlin's room and press my ear against her door, straining them to hear anything and everything on the other side. 

But I can't hear anything so I crack open the door a tiny bit more and stick my head inside seeing that her bed is empty and her teddy bear that she was clutching on too so tight was thrown on the floor and evidently forgotten. 

I take my head out of her door and whisper her name through the house, opening every door to see if she's there. 

My first thought is that she's in the bathroom but upon opening the door I see that no one is inside. 

I start to get frantic now, thinking how there have been stories about kidnapper that stole children when they were sleeping. 

"Caitlin!" I say in my normal voice. 

I hear some movement in Hunter's room so I burst through the door and see Caitlin by the side of his bed, his hand clasped around hers. 

I let out a sigh of relief and drop to my knees beside her, petting her hair down and gently taking her hand out of Hunter's. 

"What are you doing here, sweetie?" 

She looks at me with utter amazement in her eyes and crosses her legs. 

"I had to go potty and when I was walking back to my room I heard Hunter crying so I came in here and held his hand until he fell asleep but every time I took my hand away he woke up, so I just sat here." 

I look at Hunter now and see his eyes twitch, he's not sleeping now. 

"He's okay now, honey. Why don't you go to bed, okay? Get some sleep maybe we'll go to the zoo tomorrow." 

She sleepily nods her head and walks out of his room, closing the door behind her, probably out of habit. 

I sit on the floor for a while, just looking at Hunter, deciding what to do. 

He opens his eyes after a while and looks at me, a tiny apologetic smile on his face. 

"What's wrong with you, Hunter?"