Down The Train Tracks *Jason McCann*

Down The Train Tracks. ~Ch.8 ["She makes me insane."]

It’s been two days since Jason told me about Johnson coming. Since then, he’s explained to me a little more about him. Now, I almost know as much as Jason. But, I know that I don’t want to know as much as he does. I can see it kills him when he remembers it; he’s not telling me for a reason.

I don’t plan on forcing it out of him either.

Jason’s been taking care of me all this time, too. My legs are pretty bruised up, as is everywhere else on my body. My head is still hurting, but that was expected; I don’t know how many times my head has been hit or pushed into a wall since I got here.

We’ve basically just been lying in Jason’s bed the whole time, talking about random things. He’d carry me to the bathroom when I needed to go, every once in a while forcing me to eat the food he bought after he bombed some place that day. He also hasn’t hurt me or raised his voice at me, so I’m enjoying this while I can.

“Melani?” Jason asked. I turned my head on the pillow to face him.

“Yes?” He gulped, looking down. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as to why he looked worried.

“Why do you do it?” He questioned, looking back up at me.

“Do what?” I asked, already having an idea of what he was talking about. I knew he had seen them, I just didn’t expect him to care enough to say anything. Although, he has taken care of me these past few days, not leaving my side for a second.

“Come on, you know what,” I looked down.

“No, no I really don’t,” he put his fingers under my chin, moving my head back so I was facing him again.

“Melani,” he looked deeply into my eyes. I hated when he did that, I never seemed to be able to look away when he does this.

“It was my cat,” I sighed.

“You don’t have a cat!”

“How would you know?” I narrowed my eyes.

“You told me! You told me two nights ago that you’ve never had any pet before –not even a fish! Even though you’ve always asked, your mother never allowed it.”

“Dammit. I forgot I told you that,” I said, half to myself, half to Jason.

“Well, you did. Now, are you also going to tell me why you do this to yourself?”

“No,” I said with no emotion, slouching down from my sitting position, turning away from him.

Now lying down with my back toward Jason, I felt him lean over towards me, his hand resting on my arm just below my shoulder.

“Melani,” I heard the sadness in his voice.  I don’t understand why he was even sad about this.

“No, Jason,” I sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.” No one had ever found out about this, so I never had to talk about it before. I don’t want to start now.

“You have to talk about it sometime.”

“It’s not like there’s anything to talk about. I told you it was a cat.”

“And you also told me you didn’t have a cat,” he replied in the same bored tone as me.

“It was a stray cat.”

“You honestly expect me to believe that?”

A nod was my only response.

“Melani, I mean, I’ve heard of cat fights, but come on. No one gets cuts on their thighs, arms, hips, shoulders, and ribs from a cat fight. Besides, those are all way too deep to be from a cat scratching you.”