Between the Lines✔ [COMPLETED]

[7] The Cover-Up

Malory

A quick glimpse of a familiar pair of boots blesses my sight as I stumble backwards and I think I almost die from relief rather than from the panic of being held by someone dangerous. I send my unhurt elbow back to hit the idiot in his stomach and he lets go of me to stumble backwards with a groan and clutch his abdomen. I turn to him, furious.

"What are you!? A lunatic!?" I yell.

He hushes me immediately and his neck twists for him to look from one end of the house to the next, frantically. He becomes somewhat small for a mere moment, and then he turns to me and glares like I'd become an outlaw. He walks past me –gripping tightly to my wrist in the process- and pulling me hurriedly to a small cleaning closet at the side of the house. 

It's so small that barely two people could fit inside it –counting the number of utensils there were resting there- but he manages to fit us both anyway. He stands just a foot's distance in front of me in the crammed space. I fall into an uncomfortable sort of shock.

I open my mouth to yell at him but before I could, Kyle puts a finger over his lips to shut me up. I squint at him in disbelief. He keeps his index finger over his lips.

... Wait... are they swollen?
I can't quite tell... my eyes have gone blurry all of a sudden.

I can't quite tell... my eyes have gone blurry all of a sudden. 

He listens for any abrasive sounds. Hearing nothing, he moves his finger. He turns to stare me dead in the eyes. I could see the anger welling up. I could feel it.

I expected him to start yelling at me. 

I was planning to yell at him.

Instead, he whispers, and I guess it's because he's been trying to avoid the cameras around the house picking up any sounds. 

"Are you actually out of your mind?" He whisper-yells, "No, screw that, you are out of your mind! Malory Lloyd, what on God's green earth possessed you to come here? How did you even find me?"

"I'm the one who's out of my mind?" I defend. "You went M.I.A for a whole week! Do you actually not expect anyone to be worried about you? You've given Ron a mini heart attack for every single day that you've stayed away –especially right after standing him up. He's worried, you're not replying to him, you're not coming to school, and you've got an enormous purple bruise on your face that needs an explanation. I'm not leaving here without one, Kyle." I scoffed, observing the cleaning closet and suddenly feeling completely out of breath. "And why are we in a cleaning closet? Why are we whispering? What actual insanity is up with you?"

I blink a few times while trying to regain my sanity, posture, and to actually process everything that had just happened in the last two minutes.

I look up at Kyle and finally see what I was panicking too much to see before. His hair hangs messily over his face as always. His lips are swollen –and he's taken off those two black snakebites from his bottom lip. The purple bruise has gotten worse –spreading over slightly more skin than it had the first time I'd seen it... or maybe it's just that I hadn't seen how badly it had been the first time... 

He stares at me for two seconds before looking away. He refuses to meet my eyes. He inhales sharply and looks at the ceiling –the wall –the mop –anything but me.

He swallows, and with a shaky voice he says, "You need to leave. Now."

"Not until you tell me what's going on-"