DEAD INSIDE

(20)

I walked back to the sofa and plopped myself down on it. I reached for my messenger bag and got my phone out. I had forgotten to turn it back on after school and I grimaced when I saw that I had four missed calls from an unknown number and five text messages.

The first one was from the same unknown number who'd tried to call me.

I'm a friend of your mother's, call me. It said.

My initial panic was soon replaced by bewilderment.

Surely if something bad had happened to her, he or she would have already come here or at least called the landline, right?

Besides, Officer Jenkins would have told me about it.

So what did that friend want?

Just call him and you'll know, I thought before selecting the number and pressing CALL.

It rang twice before a deep voice answered.

"Alison." He must have recognized my number. "Hi, my name's Charles, I don't know whether your mom's talked to you about me..." He paused, probably waiting for my answer.

"She hasn't..." I muttered timidly.

"I kind of thought so..." He mumbled under his breath. "So yeah, I'm her...friend..." He hesitated far too long before saying the word, which could only mean one thing, he was more than a friend.

I suddenly felt dizzy at the idea of my mom with another man than my Dad. Although now that I thought about it, he'd been gone for two years so it shouldn't surprise me really.

What didn't make sense was why she hadn't told me anything about what had really happened with my father or the fact that she'd met somebody else.

Charles must have read my thoughts because he added,

"We used to work together..." That made sense. Wait! Used to? "And I like your mother very much."

Those six words were what snapped me out of my haze. I had no desire to discuss my mother's love life with a man I didn't know.

"So you wanted to talk to me..." I went back to the initial topic, silently wishing I was still asleep and this was a nightmare.

"Well, yeah..." He sounded so uncomfortable all of a sudden, that I braced myself for the worst. "As you know, your mother hasn't been feeling so good within the last two years..." Well, I wonder why?! I thought sarcastically. "... and last night she..." He paused. "She did something that forced me to drive her to a quiet ranch so she could get some much needed rest..."

I tried to swallow the huge lump in my throat but it didn't make it disappear. My mouth was suddenly so dry, my tongue, like sandpaper.

I couldn't speak.

"I've promised her I'd keep an eye on you..." He added a couple of minutes later. "So I wanted to talk to you to see how you wanted to proceed..."

"To proceed?" I all but croaked.

"Do you want me to come and stay at yours? Would you prefer staying at mine?" He explained and my eyes grew wide.

"Hmm... No offence but I'm kind of used to being on my own anyway so I'd rather stay alone here..." My voice was back, unsurprisingly. No way would I live with a stranger.

"I'm afraid, that's not going to be possible..." He answered determinedly.

"Well, that's tough, then because you're not moving in and I'm certainly not coming to live at some stranger's place..." I replied just as determinedly.