SUNGLASSES

Chapter Five

When I opened my eyes, I was in a room I didn't recognize. It's walls were a deep blue, and there were shelves full of pictures that showed people I've never seen before. I sat up carefully, pain scorching my body. The bedsheets were black and white, and the pillows matched.

"Like my room?"

I shot my eyes toward the door, where a smirking Daniel stood.

Why does he always smirk?

"What are you--wait, this is your room?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Last night I brought you here, remember?"

I thought back to last night, and all the traumatic events came back to me. The look in Joe's face, the knife grazing my body, blood coming out of Joe's mouth.

"Are you okay, sunglasses? You're shaking."

Daniel's words broke me out of my remembrance, and I looked over at the concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm...fine."

"Sure you are." He walked over to the bed and sat down next to me. "Now, can you explain in more detail what happened last night? You said something about an uncle."

I shrugged. "He was going crazy. He must've just cracked."

Daniel eyed me suspiciously. "I don't think you're telling the truth."

"Why wouldn't I be?" I put on my best poker face and let him search my blank eyes.

"I don't know...but you can be sure as hell I'll find out." He left the room and returned with a first aid kit. "Okay, you're obviously injured, so just show me where he hit you and I'll clean it up."

I shook my head. "I'm not injured too bad. Just a few bruises."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm no rocket scientologist, but I'm not that stupid. C'mon, show me."

I shook my head. "They're really nothing. I can take care of them."

"Then let me see."

I scooted away from him. "No."

"Seriously? You want to do this the hard way? Fine. Let's start with your arms." I tried to push farther away from him, but he grabbed my hand and yanked up my sleeve, revealing multiple bruises and cuts. His eyes widened when he saw the deep one around my wrist.
"What the hell...did he use a knife on you?"

I looked away from him and out the window. "Like I said, he's going crazy."

I heard him rustle through the box, and a cold liquid flowed into my wrist. I hissed in pain and yanked my arm away from him. "Stop."

"Look, it's either here or the hospital, so you stop complaining."

He took my wrist again and carefully bandaged it, doing the same to the rest of my arm.

That morning, he slowly found all the gashes and cuts across my body, and bandaged them up.

"Here," he said, handing me a white bowl, "Drink this."

"What is it?" I asked, suspiciously observing the liquid inside it.

"Soup."

"Is it poisoned?"

He chuckled. "You're a very cautious person, sunglasses."

I stared at him, my face not moving a muscle. "I'm quite aware. Now--is it poisoned?" I said again. He chuckled, running a hand through his hair.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would've let your crazy uncle do the honors. I'm a nice person," he smiled sweetly.

I mimicked his little grin before gulping down all of the contents of the bowl.

"Wow. Hungry, are we?" He laughed, grabbing the bowl back and placing it on the nightstand. He sat down on the bed, his face growing serious. "Okay, what's the truth behind your lie?"

I furrowed my brow. "I'm not lying."

"You say that, but I know there's a lie. And you want to know how I know?" He tapped my leg, and I pulled it away. "You're eye contact sucks, you keep playing with your hands, and your jaw is set like a table from 1849."

I narrowed my eyes at his analogy, and he shrugged. "I have a very special relationship with lies."

I stared at him for a long time, debating whether or not to tell him. "How can I trust you?" I finally said, "How do I know you'll keep a secret?"

He sighed, looking intently around the room. He finally brought his gaze back to me and cleared his throat. "When I was six, I sneaked into a strip club and spent fifty dollars of my mom's money there."

"What?"

"When I was eight, I purposely broke my Mom's boyfriend's most prized trophy just to ruin their relationship. And, when I was eleven, I stole a bottle of liquor from a super market and drank it all in one night. Which leads me to when I was sixteen, where I got drunk and had sex with a woman that worked at Dollar General."

"What are you doing?" I put my hand up to signal him to stop, and he smiled.

"I'm telling you some of my secrets so you can tell me yours."

"And what makes you think that I've gained your trust?"

"Well, now that I've proven that I can trust you, you can trust me."

I sighed. "I might be stubborn, but you're persistent."

He shrugged. "I am when I really have my eye on something..."

I took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll tell you the truth. But you have to promise never to tell anyone."

He gave me a thumbs-up.

"And that we can move on after this."

Another thumbs-up.

"Okay." I shifted uncomfortably. "Here we go. Alright. I'll try to make this short."

He looked at me with his eyebrows raised, nodding me on.

"When I was five, both my parents got into a car wreck. They stayed alive for a few hours, but they died before I could say goodbye. Unfortunately, the only option for a guardian at the time was my uncle, considering all of my grandparents are dead and my mom had no siblings. So, I went and stayed with my uncle, who was actually a pretty nice guy. But he started drinking, as all the horror stories go, and saw me as a punching bag to release all of his pain. So I've lived with him all my life, and I probably could've gotten out of that house at eighteen, but yesterday our house was robbed. I don't know who did it or why, but my uncle seemed to think it was me. Although, why would I rob my own house? His sanity must've gone out with all the stuff, I guess. And that's when he made those deep cuts, and that's when we ran into you. Thanks for that, by the way."

He sat staring at me, seemingly unsure of what to say.

"Oh," was all he could muster.

"Yeah. Look, I just need to get back to that house and work on getting my stuff back, and--"

He lunged forward and wrapped me in his arms, his hand cradling the back of my head and his other hand wrapped around my waist. "I'm sorry." He whispered. I sat stiff for a moment, but then I slowly hugged him back; it had been a long time since someone hugged me with so much care.