Verge of Insanity

Chapter Five

Mara Leigh

I finished hiding knives in every room and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Beau. He stared at me quietly. He hadn't said much of anything in the past two hours. 

Even though I understood where he was coming from, I just couldn't call the cops. I refused. I was sick of people laughing at me. And I knew this would turn out to be just another chance for people to talk about me.

Beau continued to stare at me and it was making me uncomfortable. I leaned forward on the couch and stared back. Two could play at that game. He realized what I was doing and leaned forward too.

"You're not going to win," I teased.

"Wanna bet?" he asked, grinning.

I was concentrating so hard on not blinking that I wasn't expecting what he did next.

"QUACK!" he hollered. "QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!"

It sounded so unbelievably like a duck that I couldn't hold back my laughter. I leaned back and covered my face with both hands trying to smother it out.

"I do believe, ma'am, that this means I won," he drawled out in a thick southern accent.

Laughter morphed into a coughing fit as me and my dorky self got choked on spit. 

Beau got up and went to the kitchen to get me some water. I was happy to accept it when he came back with it. He was smirking at me, still happy with his victory, and I memorized his smirk as I drank down what he brought me. 

The kitty lay in the recliner beside the couch, a place she seemed to have claimed as her own. She was already a big cat, and I couldn't imagine her any bigger. She glanced back and forth at Beau and I, as if waiting for one of us to go back to talking.

"So," Beau broke the silence. "What do you do for fun around here."

I thought about it. "Well. I sketch things. I do homework and study. And I bake and cook."

"That's all you do? That ain't even fun."

"I like to go for walks in the woods too."

He seemed to consider it. "That actually does sound cool. But I don't know if it would be the smartest thing to do at a time like this. Or the safest thing to do." 

A shudder ran through me as I remembered my dream of being chased through the woods. I knew he was right.

I racked my brain for something to do. I didn't want to be boring to him. "I may have a game of Checkers around here somewhere."

I sound so lame.

"I love Checkers," he smiled. I went and found the box and brought it back downstairs. He sat on the floor at the coffee table on the side opposite of the couch. I sat on the couch and took out the board while he divided the red and white chips.

He played a mean game, too. By the time the clock struck five o'clock, we'd played four super long games, and I had only won one of the four. As I cleared off the board I heard his stomach growl.

"Want to fix supper?" I grinned, feeling hungry myself.

"Loser has to cook for the winner," he said.

I stuck my tongue out and walked to the kitchen, Beau right behind me. Despite the fact he'd said the loser had to cook, he did most of it by throwing some chicken in the oven and putting noodles to boil for macaroni and cheese. He seemed to be really good at cooking. And one bite of the finished product proved that he was.