Guardian

Chapter Seven

I quickly made my way after Feather quickly. I almost didn't want to leave the boy on the floor, wanting to throw him out of the house, get rid of him. But I knew that Feather needed someone right now.

I found her in the bathroom, furiously rinsing her mouth out with mouthwash, while tears gathered in her eyes. I could hear from downstairs, Paige gasping and crying over Malcolm, him telling her that he walked into something. I scoffed a little bit. Feather spat out the blue wash into the sink and then grabbed a cup of water, using that to rinse her mouth one more time and spitting it out before she let out a shaky breath, lowering herself to the floor.

I knelt in front of her as she rubbed her hands over her face viciously. She rubbed and scratched at her eyes, her hands coming back wet with tears, which only seemed to anger Feather more.

"Dammit" She mumbled "get a hold of yourself! Big girls don't cry."

I felt my heart break a little bit. She was the youngest of her family, the most fragile is some peoples opinion. A lot of people thought that she needed protecting and she was always trying to prove to people that she wasn't. And it was in times like this when we see the part of her that she hides.

My poor Feather.

I reached over and grabbed her hands in my warm ones, taking them away from her face before she hurt herself. There were red lines down her face, different colors of pink and bits of white, from where her nails had dragged across her skin. Her eyes were red and looking a bit puffy, tears made their continuous way through her eyes and down her cheeks. She was shaking her head, her hair flying across her face wildly.

There came a knock at the door, before I could do anything else.

"Hey Fee? You in there?"

Feather sucked in a breath and quickly tried to regain control over her breathing, so that Toby couldn't tell she was crying. That would lead to questions that Feather didn't want to answer.

"Yeah, I - I'm here" Feather cursed under her breath at the little stutter that appeared in her voice.

"You okay? You've been in there for a while."

"Yeah, I'm fine. How - How did you know I was in here?"

"Paige's new boy-toy, Markus or whatever, said you were upstairs. I checked your room, and you weren't there, so I assumed that you were in here."

"Good guess."

"You sure you're okay?"

Feather nodded her head, but then realized that her brother couldn't see her. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I dunno. Though it's kind of weird talking to you through the bathroom door."

Feather gave a watery chuckle. "It kind of is."

Toby was quiet for a moment. "Tell you what. You finish up in there, with whatever you're doing. And then we'll go out to get lunch. Just you and me. And Greg if you want. We'll leave Paige and her boy-toy here. How's that sound?"

Feather nodded again "Good. Yeah, that - that sounds good. I'll be out in a moment."

"I'll be downstairs."

There were footsteps, they grew fainter and fainter, until you couldn't hear them anymore and I knew that Toby had walked away.

Feather let out a shaky breath, pulling her hands out of mine and stood up slowly. She stood in front of the mirror, her hands on the sink and she breathed. She turned on the sink and took handfuls of cold water, splashing it into her face. She wiped away any traces of makeup from her face and wiped away the tears. She reached for a towel and dried her face off, breathing shakily. She looked herself in the eye through the mirror, staring straight at her reflection.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." She repeated the two words in a mantra.

She smiled at herself in the mirror, trying to convince herself that she was, indeed, okay.

She stepped out of the bathroom, smiling at Toby who was down the stairs. I stepped behind her, wrapping my wings around her, keeping her in a safe bubble. She went down the stairs, bouncing on the steps as she went, a little happy step to her walk to try and convince people even more that she was okay.

"you okay Fee?" Toby asked.

"Yep!" She beamed "And I'm ready to go."