Just a Scratch

Chapter Ten

I woke up to the faint sound of a lawnmower and a hand in my face. I gently moved Alexa's arm so it wasn't smothering me and fumbled around for my phone. The screen lit up with a text from my dad and then another text from a number I didn't recognize. The unknown number had sent an address and time with Will's name at the bottom of the text. My mind was scrambled as I realized it was Saturday which meant I had to work on the English project at Will's house. He said to be there at 11:30 and it was already 10 and I was in desperate need of a shower.

"See ya later losers," I whispered to my friends who were knocked out on the floor. I took one step out of the living room and froze.

I came here with Alexa. I don't have a car.

Mrs. Carlyle must've seen me standing motionless in her hallway because she approached me, "are you all right Lilah?"

"Oh! Yeah, I just realized I don't have a way home," I laughed awkwardly.

"Well that's no good," she said much too cheerily for the morning. She quickly grabbed a set of keys from a small dish under a wooden sign with a bible verse on it and led me to the front door.

"I didn't mean to sound like I needed a ride home," I hurried to tell her, "I can totally walk home, it's no problem."

"Lilah," Mrs. Carlyle turned to me and with the slight southern accent in her voice she said, "darling, it's no problem at all. Consider it a thank you for taking care of my baby."

I gave her a small smile and nodded. That woman was too sweet for this earth.

When we reached my house I thanked her again before climbing out of the car and entering my house. As soon as I opened the door I saw Caroline frantically grabbing some of her books before pushing past me to leave the house. I tried to ask her where she was going but she moved too fast.

I was getting a little worried about her. Med school was hard enough as it is but adding this new internship into the mix made her schedule even more tightly packed than before. I trusted that she could do it though. Caroline was always the master of multitasking, especially after our mom left.

My dad popped up from around the corner and came to give me a hug, "what's up sweet pea?"

I let out a looooong drawn out sigh and planted my face into his shoulder, "Emilee didn't will school president."

"Yeah, I heard."

"Oh, and I have to work on a project with someone from school in like an hour."

"Sounds like a plan. We never got to talk in depth about Abi shadowing you at school, by the way. I know I haven't been around much this past week but the project I was working on had some complications that needed to be fixed."

I looked up at my dad and saw dark circles from behind his glasses. I could tell there was more grey in his hair and a few more stress wrinkles had appeared on his forehead.

"It's no biggie," I said, "I was planning on taking her again this coming week. I figured I'd give her a week in between classes right now and then maybe have her go more often once she gets more used to the place."

"Alright," he said, "make sure to give me a paper or something with how it went because I need to talk to Dr. Richardson about how it went."

Dr. Richardson was Abi's therapist who had really helped to improve Abi's social skills. It may be hard to believe but at one point Abi was even less communicative than she is now.

With a little less than an hour before I had to meet Will at his house, I took a shower in record time and got everything I needed shoved into my book bag. I paused before rushing out of the house like Caroline had only moments earlier to give Abi a hug. She sat at her desk, methodically drawing a geometric pattern, so I gave her a squeeze before leaving.

"BE BACK AROUND 1!" I yelled to my dad and hopped into our old Volkswagen, the second car which was usually used for emergencies. Or whenever someone was using our main car.

I inputted Will's address into my phone and quickly went on my way. The drive wasn't too bad, but I started to get nervous when the lawns started getting wider and the houses bigger. Every cell in my body told me to just go back home and screw this project but my mind won out.

The address took me to a large house at the end of a cul-de-sac and I was thoroughly intimidated by the pillars that looked like they were guarding the already massive house.

"Hot damn."

I parked on the curb and my early 2000s car looked way out of place. After I turned off my car I had to pause for a second and compose myself.

Let's do this thing.

My back pack was slung over one of my shoulders as I walked up the massive driveway (to match the massive house) and I took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. I could hear it echo throughout the house and I held my breath until Will finally opened the door.

"Oh, you're here."

Uh, yeah I'm here dumba-

"Yup. Here and ready to finish this project."

He didn't say anything as he led me through his maze of a house and into a library looking room.

"We can finish it and then print it out from here," he gestured towards what I assumed was his laptop and a printer.

"Cool."

We got down to work and things were coming along. I tried my absolute very best not to get distracted by the walls of bookshelves that lined the room and focused on the task at hand. There was a period of silence in which we were both working on our part, but it was interrupted by someone entering the room.

I looked and saw a girl, or should I say woman, with gorgeous black hair that looked a little like...

My head snapped from Will to the girl and back again.

"What do you want Sonya?" Will's voice was firm and lacking any sort of patience.

"Geez, can't I see my little brother without being questioned?" She moved over towards us and I was actually stunned by her beauty.

"No."

"So who are you?" Sonya asked me, completely ignoring Will.

"Oh, uh, I'm doing an English project with him." I probably sounded like an idiot but there was something in the way that she moved that captured me.

There was a shift in her face and it made me take a step back. "Well that has to be hard," she looked at Will not like he was her brother, but he was a target. He glared at his sister with more hatred than he had at me when I scratched his car. "You know, considering he's dyslexic."

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A/N

Ten chapters! I finished ten whole chapters! Woo!

Thank you to every single person who's reading!