Paper Cuts | Luke Hemmings ✔

14. scared

Corrine poured herself her nineteenth cup of coffee as seven o'clock the next morning. Since the incident, Owen has been in constant paranoia, and had trouble sleeping. So Corrine took it upon herself to watch over him. However, it proved tougher than she thought. If she were gone when Owen woke up, the boy went into a panic mode, and it took her some time to calm him back down. It also made him go into an apologetic state in which he would apologize for being this way. And every time, Corrine would tell him that it was okay. This happened all through the night, and come morning, the girl was absolutely exhausted.

She drank half the cup in one long sip, and sighed. She heard light footsteps and turned around. Owen came in, and leaned against the counter top next to her. "Hi." he said weakly. Corrine set down her cup, and pulled Owen in for a hug. He wrapped his arms around his sister's waist tightly.

"Morning." Corrine said. "How do you feel?"

"I'm tired. But that's nothing to how tired you probably are." he said.

"It's fine. I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"Cory." Owen said softly, but she could hear the cracking in his voice.

"Yeah?"

"Do I have to go to school today?" he asked.

"If you don't want to, no. Why?" Owen looked up at her with terrified eyes.

"Because I'm scared." he said. Corrine pulled back a bit, and looked at her brother.

"Y-You're scared?"

"I don't want to go back." he said, starting to cry. "Please don't make me go Cory, please." he sobbed. Corrine pulled him in for another hug.

"Shh. You're not going to school. Okay, you're going to stay home."

"Stay with me." he said.

"I can't. I have to go."

"NO! Please, don't." he cried.

"Owen, look at me." She lifted his chin so he could face her. "You're safe here okay. Nothing is going to happened. I'm going to go to school, and I promise you, that I will be here for lunch okay. And if by then, being home alone is too much for you, then I will call in sick, and we will binge watch all the sappy romance movies we own." she said. Owen smiled a little. "Can you manage that?" Owen nodded. "Okay. I'm going to go, or I'll be late."

"Cory?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you make sure Lauren's okay? I saw that Ashton pushed her."

"Yeah, I'll make sure she's okay. I gotta go bud."

"Okay. See you at lunch."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Corrine arrived at school, angry, upset, and very tired. She got out of her car, and turned around, only to be met by Lauren and Mali. She screamed. "It's just you two. You guys scared me." she said. Lauren looked at her with teary eyes. "Hey, you okay?" Corrine asked her. Lauren shook her head, and started to cry. Corrine pulled her in for a hug.

"It's my fault he's hurt." she cried. "I didn't know Ashton was going to do that. I'm sorry!" Corrine pulled out, and lifted Lauren's chin so she could get a better look at her face.

"Hey, listen to me. Owen is not mad at you. He hasn't said a single bad thing about you. In fact, this morning her wanted to know if you were alright."

"M-Me?" she asked.

"Yeah. He saw that Ashton pushed you, and wanted to know how you were."

"I'm okay." Lauren said. "Is he here?" she asked suddenly.