A Family Perfected

Caitlyn

Chapter 4: Caitlyn

I woke with a jolt. I had dreamt I was falling or that I had jumped off of something; all I knew was it really felt like I was falling. I barely opened my eyes before I grabbed my quilt and tucked it tightly into my arms. The smell was so familiar to me; it smelled like white linen and fresh laundry—like home. I tossed over onto my other side and when I moved my ankle seized up and began throbbing. I braced the pain and buried my face into my pillow. I was so scared of the nightmare I had had last night; I dreamt I had been grabbed and yanked away from my own bed and dragged down into a fiery furnace. I tried my best to shake off the nightmare.

I reached my arm out of the warmth of my blankets and began searching my nightstand for my cell phone, but when I couldn't grab it I groaned and sat up to try and see if it had fallen to the floor. When I sat up the memories of yesterday flooded back to me. This wasn't my room. This was my prison.

It was my blankets, they tricked me. I started to really convince myself this was a dream, funny. I turned off the edge of the bed and tried to stand, but was brought back down by the shooting pain in my ankle. I sat there trying to figure a way to get out of the bed. I didn't have anything to tie around the ankle to keep it in place, or a way to contact anyone to help me out. I moaned and fell back on the bed. It was only a few minutes later the door to my room opened. Easton popped his head in.

"Good morning," he spoke walking towards me. I groaned and spat my tongue out. He rolled his eyes making his way over to me with his arms full of various items. He stood in front of me while I sat up.

"So I thought you might like some pain killers," he said holding up a bottle of aspirin. I took the bottle and popped the lid off and swallowed two pills. He looked at me like I had done something beyond disgusting.

"What?"

"Who swallows pills dry? That's disgusting,"

I shrugged, "I always used to get headaches so I'm used to just knocking pills back," he shook his head and fell down onto one knee.

He had what looked like a brace for my ankle and carefully slipped it over my foot and fastened it, "Does this so often happen you have one of these just lying around"?

"You aren't the first to try and do what you did," he said standing. The brace had two metal splints inside of it that held my ankle in place, but when I tried to stand on it, it still hurt.

"Don't worry I got one more thing for you downstairs to help you walk today, I just couldn't carry it all up here. Oh before I forget," he tossed a black object at me. It was a black dress with a small black belt with it.

"Thought you might like to change," it wasn't till that moment I realized he was wearing a black button up shirt and pants.

"Why are we dressing up?" I asked looking down at the dress. "It's Caitlyn's birthday, and if you don't hurry up we won't get anything ready before she wakes up," he began walking out of the room. I groaned and lifted my shirt up and above my head and slipped off my pants as carefully as I could over my ankle.

I slipped the dress over and adjusted it. It was knee length and it had a silky texture to it, the sleeves only stopped at the top of my shoulders. I buckled the belt and tried to use the nightstand next to me to stand. I took all the pressure off my right foot and started walking over to the door the best I could.