Rebel Yell

Chapter 55

"What in the hell happened to you two?" Julia asked as she came down the stairs.

Bria and I were just getting home, totally forgetting that Julia is on night shift for one more night before she has a few days off of work. Bria and I both had sweat along our foreheads and our hair was a mess. Our clothes were dirty, the knees in my jeans were ripped and soaked with blood from glass shards wedged in my knees. I could only imagine the hand print around my throat considering my skin bruises easily.

My eyes landed on the hall mirror noticing that luckily there was no hand mark on my neck. Julia slowly walked towards us and Bria clicked her jaw dully as she stormed past Julia and headed up the stairs to her room. Julia folded her arms and popped her hip, pursing her lips as she waited to hear my explanation.

"What's with her? What happened?" Julia questioned suspiciously.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I tried to think of a good excuse to give her. Julia narrowed her eyes into a cold, hard glare at me. She was on to me and yet I couldn't think of a God damn thing to say to her to ease her suspicions.

"We got suckered into helping my mom go through her storage unit and Bria dropped a vase and me being an idiot... I knelt down right in the glass trying to clean it up." I lied poorly.

Julia huffed/gave a faint laugh, "Typical Amber."

"Yeah... typical me." I shrugged.

Julia smirked before running her fingers through her long and curly hair. She bit her lip as she turned and examined herself out in the mirror. She was wearing black hospital scrubs and white sneakers. She turned and looked at me nervously, making me extremely uncomfortable. She sighed loudly as she walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me.

"You're so strong." She soothed. "How are you holding up...? Sofie called, she wanted to see how you've been doing... said she hasn't heard from you in awhile... her and the boys are growing concerned."

Julia mentioning the Mercer's made my heart instantly ache. I miss them uncontrollably and I feel lost and incomplete without all of them. Hell... I've been trying my hardest to hold myself together but it seems like I'm doing a terrible job at that considering everything seems to be falling. I came back here for answers and of course the 'plan of revenge' not thinking in a million years that I'd actually kill Joe. I mean come on... How do I go from who I was just a few months ago to widow with murder under her belt.

Now things are going to only get worse and I still have to break it to Julia that Bria and I are actually going back to Detroit to live with the Mercers for protection... because of what I did.

"I'll go call her back." I replied shortly, hoping to get out of this conversation.

Julia nodded as she pulled away and placed a hand on my shoulder, grinning widely at me, "I fed your bunny... little asshole shit on me today too."

I giggled, "He'll do that."

Julia huffed as she dug her car keys out of her pocket and headed for the door, "Yeah. Well... I've had worse than rabbit shit on me. But.... I best be getting to the hospital now."

"One more night shift and then I'm off tomorrow for a few days..." Julia groaned as she opened the door. "Pizza and movies better be in order tomorrow."

I smiled weakly knowing that it wouldn't be happening and instead Bria and I will be on a plane tomorrow night or the morning after, "Yeah, you know it. See you tomorrow morning." I lied anyway as I turned on my heel and slowly walked towards the staircase.

"Do you miss him?" Julia asked from behind me, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. "I mean.. obviously but... I've never lost someone close to me before... I'm sorry if this is a touchy subject... I just was curious if he's always on your mind... you don't really talk about him..." Julia trailed off.