Obscurity

Chapter 62: Sick Day

Sierra

I wake up to a loud knuckle-y rapping on our open door.

"Breakfast!" Chris calls loudly from the hallway. "Get decent and come down and eat."

Alma sits up and looks at me. We both exchange a bewildered stare.

"What the fuck is he doing here still?" I say to her, my tone frantic.

"I don't know, but Cindy's supposed to be here." She says apprehensively.

We both jump out of bed and hurry to get dressed. We quickly brush our teeth, and I pull my hair up in a messy bun. I don't even brush it. I just go.

Alma and I make our way down the hallway to the day room. We're the first ones to arrive for breakfast. We take our usual seats. I can hear Chris systematically going down the East Hall waking everyone up for breakfast.

Watching the nurses station, I realize quickly that Cindy is not on the unit. Where is she?

"We needed to talk to Cindy." Alma says, watching for Chris to come back down the hallway to the nurses station.

"I know. I don't know what's going on." I keep my voice low.

"Is that even allowed?" Alma asks.

"Is what allowed?"

"Is staff allowed to work a second shift like this?"

"I've never seen this in the entire time I've been here." I explain.

Alma keeps sneaking glances between the East Hall and the nurses station. I notice Jim entering the day room and not far behind him Lara as well.

Everyone seems to be moseying down for breakfast and after a little while, I realize Daniel is not here yet. After being dragged from Group last night, I have yet to see him. He's probably in Solitary. That's where Chris would've sent me if I acted up like that.

Spencer and his lost puppy of a room mate come strolling into the day room. They take their typical table next to ours.

"Good morning, ladies." Spencer says casually.

"What's so great about it? Chris is still here." I say.

"He's not supposed to be?" Spencer asks quizzically.

"Let me ask you something. Was he here when you went to sleep last night, Spencer?" I say.

"Yep."

"Then, no. He isn't supposed to be here. This is Cindy's shift." I inform him.

"Hmm." He says, rubbing his chin.

I put my attention back on Alma. I notice that she's nervously bouncing her knee, like tapping her heel while she sits at the table. She's making the table slightly reverberate. I can tell she's very nervous this morning. The change in routine is really bothering her.

When her leg stops bouncing and the table stops shaking, that's how I know Chris has made his way back down the hallway to the nurses station. Immediately when she saw him, she froze up. I thought we were past this.

"Alma. Are you okay?" I ask in a voice slightly above a whisper.

She nods, not taking her eyes off Chris behind the observation desk.

"Alma... if he looks over here, I suggest you look away. He's going to see you're staring." I warn her. I mean, I don't know what he'd do other than direct his attention at Alma. And as far as I'm concerned, no attention from Chris is the best attention.

She nods and looks down at her hands.

Spencer looks over at Alma. The concern on his face is so evident, he may as well wear a red light that spins accompanied with a wailing siren whenever he's worried about her. He couldn't hide it if tried. That's when it dawns on me. The realization smacks me in the face. Hard.

"You two are exes." I theorize out loud.

Both of their heads jerk up and they look at me. Alma's eyes seem worried. Spencer's curious.

"I knew it." I say as I play with my fingernails as I try to avoid eye contact with either of them. I'm mildly embarrassed about gushing over Spencer to Alma when I think about this new development.

Neither of the two says a word. That's enough of a confirmation as any. I give them both a curt smile and look around the day room for another table to sit at. There's no way I'm sitting with Lara and her crew. I worry Jim won't tolerate my invading his table and Daniel still isn't here.

"I'm going to move to another table to sit by myself." I tell them as I go to stand.

"Please stay here?" Alma asks. Her eyes plead with me to accept the proposal.

"I don't know." I weigh my options.

"Sierra. There's nothing between Spencer and me. I swear to you." Alma says in a low voice so as not to let the others in the day room hear what we're discussing.

I glance at both of them. Alma may not feel anything for Spencer; she's probably telling the truth. Her body language says as much. But Spencer most definitely has feelings for Alma. I can see it in the way he looks at her. I can see it in the way he leans towards her when he talks to her. His body language says a thousand words.

I think sitting by myself will suck too much so I sit back down and I stay put.

"I'll explain everything to you later, okay?" Alma says as she reaches across the table and squeezes my hand.

I flash her a small smile, embarrassment still engulfing me for being so naive. I silently chastise myself for missing signs of this all along. I'm positive there had to have been 'tells' I missed.

The breakfast cart comes rolling off the elevator into the hall near the nurses station like every morning. It's being pushed by the hot food guy who wasn't here yesterday. As he pushes the cart into the day room, Chris crosses the hallway from the nurses station and comes into the day room as well.

He walks over to Jim's table and sits down with his clipboard that is holding several sheets of paper and a pen. He surveys everyone sitting in the room. He doesn't speak as he sets about filling out whatever the paperwork is that he has attached to the clipboard.

I take the opportunity to try for some answers. The apprehensiveness is killing me.

"Hey Chris, where's Cindy?" I ask from a few tables over.

"Sick." He says as he looks up from his paperwork briefly.

"They couldn't find anyone other than you to fill in?"

"Nope. I guess not." He says, a smirk creeping at the corners of his mouth. He continues writing.

I leave it at that. This is unnerving. Another day with Chris? I don't know if that's such a great idea. I doubt he's had any sleep. He's going to be cranky.