The Darkest Days

47. Conflicts

"I-I.." Natalie stuttered a little but then cleared her throat and lifted her chin up. She smoothened her hair with her fingers and looked straight at his green eyes, which were darkening with fury.

"Audrey had to leave so I'm taking care of Vanessa."

He kept a steady glare at her and walked towards her. "I don't see you near her. I see you going through their things in secret."

She backed up against the wall and maintained eye contact. "And so you concluded that I was stealing?"

"Probable."

"Expected from you." She moved past him. "I don't want other's things, I already have what I want, Caleb. You-"

"You get what you want, Natalie." He cut her off and raised his voice. "By using your petty tricks, especially on Shawn."

"Believe what you want." She turned around to look at him. "Nothing I say will change your opinion, and not that it matters anyway."

She turned on her heel and closed her eyes as a tear fell down.

"I give you five seconds to get the hell out of this room." He announced, loud and clear.

She paused, and breathed deep to muster up her voice. "I already was-"

"What's going on?"

Caleb looked ahead of Natalie, as she also looked up to find Vanessa walking slowly with the wall's support.

He quickly leaped over the pile of clothes to be by her side. "What are you doing, you should stay in the bed."

"Why are yelling so loud, then?"

Natalie wiped the moisture away from her eyes and smiled. "How are you feeling now?"

"Better than you are." Vanessa replied with a frown. "Why are you crying?"

"Me? No. I'm not."

Caleb grabbed Vanessa's shoulders and turned her around. "She was leaving, and you're going back to bed."

"Audrey will be back soon." Natalie said and then nodded.

Caleb looked over his shoulder. "Good, go."

Vanessa couldn't respond and just reached out to sit back down. She sighed deeply and when she looked back up, Natalie was gone.

....

Mason parked the car and Audrey looked outside.

"There's people.." She thought out loud.

"Huh?" Mason looked at her for the first time.

"So you do speak." Audrey commented. "The whole way, I thought I was alone in the car, talking to myself."

He smiled forcefully. "Of course not."

She gave him a knowing look.

"What?"

"What do you mean, what?" She scoffed. "Why are you so quiet?"

"Let's talk about that later."

....

"Later when?" Vanessa questioned as Caleb covered her feet with a blanket.

"When you're not sick." He replied.

"When I'm not sick, we won't have the time to talk about this."

"Why do you want to talk about Natalie?"

"Because I've seen you get agitated by the mere mention of her name all these months. Now that we're at the end, I found the courage to ask."