Boy Charming

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Tattletale

I awake in darkness. I have no idea where I am or what time it is. There is a strange line of light running up and down on the wall in front of me. I have no idea what it could be. I put my hand out and the wall suddenly caves inward, letting in more light. It's not a wall but a door, a closet door. Then I remember, I'm in Morgan's closet. I'm on a foam mattress, my back pack and shoes are neatly stored at my feet. I have a pillow under my head that has no pillow case and a small princess blanket laid over me.

My legs are stiff from being cramped in the small closet space but otherwise I feel a hundred times better than I felt yesterday. I open the closet doors all the way and look into the bright bedroom. Morgan's not here. I climb out of the closet and step on a piece of paper. It's a note:

Alanna, my mom leaves the house at noon and comes home at five with my little sister. I will be home around four, but you should probably leave as soon as you can.

My shoulders sink down. I close my eyes and rewrite the note in my head,

Alanna, sorry you had to sleep in the closet. If it were up to me I would let you have my bed, and if you'd let me hold you all night I would, even though I know it wouldn't fix anything, but I'd hope you'd feel less alone. I left you some breakfast on my desk. It may be cold by the time you wake up. I'll try and help you however I can but my parents are jerks and they'd send you away to some social services if they knew you had no parents right now. Let's meet at the library after school and talk some more, xoxox Morgan

No, he wouldn't sign with an xoxox. Who am I kidding, he wouldn’t write any of it like that. There's no point in daydreaming anymore, it isn't going to help me any. A noise disrupts my thoughts and I tense up, looking around for a place to hide. There's another noise and I realize, looking out the window, that it's just the neighbours outside getting into their car and slamming the doors. The clock on Morgan's bedside table reads 1:00PM, which means his Mom should be gone.

1:00PM! Wow, I sure slept in. I look at Morgan's letter, reading it again to remind myself what it actually says, so I don't confuse it with the one I made up in my head. He wants me out, he didn't say anything about helping me further. Don't confuse reality with your imagination, I tell myself.

I grab Annie from my back pack and go downstairs. It's silly but she makes me feel a little less alone. The kitchen is super clean and the sun shines in through the windows. It even smells clean like lemon scented cleaner. I'm hungry and want to eat but I’m scared to touch anything. I'll just have to put everything back exactly where I found it, except for maybe some snacks that I'm going to borrow for later.

As I open the cupboards and the fridge I can hardly believe the amount of food they have! Cookies, muffins, bagels, croissants, apples, cereal, peaches, pears, juice boxes, crackers, cans of everything in the world, pasta, peanut butter, cheese, yogurt, chocolate milk, lunch meat, a drawer full of vegetables, half a watermelon... There are also Tupperware containers full of what looks like a recent thanksgiving dinner. I grab a plate from the cupboard and fill it with food from each container. Perfect. Two minutes in the microwaves and I'll be feasting.

15 minutes later I'm in the bathtub upstairs, surrounded by bubbles. I was just going to take a quick shower but then I noticed all the nice smelling stuff, bubble bath and bath salts and bath balls and bath toys. I'm not sure how old Morgan's sister is but she still plays with toys in the bath. There is a Tupperware container full of Pet Shops, little plastic toy animals with big heads and big eyes. I grab a hamster and look at it. My mom never bought me toys for Christmas. 

I throw the little toy hamster into the bubbles and it leaves a hole in the mountain of white foam, like a tunnel to the water. I throw another Pet Shop.

"Wait for me!" I say, pretending to be the voice of an ostrich-looking Pet Shop. Before long I've got a story worked out and am playing with the toys... they must rescue the Islanders trapped in the massive foam...

"Alanna?" Morgan's voice comes from the other side of the bathroom door, startling me. I jump up into sitting position and splash water all over the bathroom floor. "Are you in there?"

"What are you doing back so early?" I say, scrambling to gather the Pet Shops at the bottom of the tub. I'm more concerned that I'll be found out for playing with toys than for being seen undressed in the tub. But Morgan doesn't come in.

"It's already three-thirty," he says. "I left early..."

"It is?" I slip and slide everywhere in the bathtub trying to unplug the drain. I used too much bubble bath.

"It's okay," Morgan says from outside the door, "you still have time before my Mom comes home."

After that I don't hear any more from Morgan so I turn on the shower and rinse off all the soap from my body, then shampoo and condition my long hair. I try and hurry but I don't have anything clean to change into once I'm out of the water. I wrap a large fluffy towel around me and step out into the hallway. It's chilly but not as cold as my place would have been after a shower.

I walk into Morgan's room and see him sitting at his computer desk. He stands up when he sees me at the door.

"Uh... you want to get changed in here?"

"I don't have a change of clothes."

"Oh." Morgan's face flushes a little and I smile. I don't want to make him uncomfortable but he is quite cute when he's nervous. "Do you want to borrow something of mine?"

"Sure." I hold tight to the towel around me.

"I'll just..." Morgan goes to the door, "let you pick something out." With that he leaves the room.

I look through the dresser drawers, picking out a black t-shirt and the only pair of jeans I can find. All his other pants are the ones that look like the kind adults wear. I quickly get dressed, grabbing a pair of underwear from the package of them in my back pack, which I had enough sense to buy with my money.

Once I'm dressed I open the bedroom door.

"Morgan?" I call out.

"Yeah?" He calls back from downstairs.

"Do you have a belt I could borrow?"

Morgan appears at the bottom of the stairs, a brownie in hand. He runs up and passes by me as he goes into his room.

"Here." He returns with a belt and hands it to me, finishing off his brownie in one bite. I can't believe I didn't notice the brownies. Where were they hiding? As I put on the belt I notice that Morgan looks like he wants to say something but isn't sure how.

"I'll be leaving soon, don't worry," I say. "Is someone coming home soon?"

"No." Morgan sighs and sits down on his bed. "I'm sorry I made you sleep in the closet."

I finish pulling the belt through the belt loops and look at him. His eyes meet mine.

"It's okay," I smile. "I was actually pretty comfortable."

"I told Mr. Gregory about your ... about everything."

"What?" I yell. Suddenly I feel dizzy and nauseous. "How could you tell him?" I'm so mad that I feel tears coming to my eyes. I won't be able to go to school now I won't be able to go anywhere. The police will be looking for me...

"Just go talk to him. He's a really nice teacher..."

"I hate you!" I yell. I grab my heavy backpack full of borrowed food and storm out of the room.