Hurt

Chapter 4

"So it's been, what, a week now? And I haven't really found out that much about you." Katherine said, leaning back in her chair and observing Toni. The small brunette shrugged slightly.

"I'm not good at the whole sharing thing." Toni said, fiddling with the edge of her sleeves.

"Yeah, I noticed. Okay, we're going to play a game." Katherine said, brightly.

"We are?" Toni said, her voice uncertain.

"We are. For every question you answer, you'll get a reward." Katherine said.

"What kind of reward?" Toni said, slightly intrigued. Katherine thought for a second then her face broke into a small smile.

"Now, Cheryl is visiting you tomorrow, right?" She asked. Toni nodded. "And you only get an hour?" Toni nodded again. "Okay, for every question you truthfully answer, you will get an extra ten minutes with Cheryl. If you answer five, I'll give you a bonus ten."

"So... So I answer five of your questions and I get an extra hour with Cheryl tomorrow?" Toni asked.

"Absolutely." Katherine said, watching as Toni thought it over. She seemed hesitant. "Tell you what, if I can guess a fact about you, something that you haven't told me, and I get it correct, then we have to play this game. If I get it wrong, you get one free pass on any question, without losing the ten minutes. Make sense?" Toni thought for a second before nodding.

"Okay." Toni said. Katherine observed her for a second.

"Can I see your hands?" She asked. A confused Toni held out her hands for Katherine to see. The woman turned Toni's hands so they were face up and gently touched the finger tips of both hands. She smiled. "Okay, so, you're left-handed. But, you play guitar as if you were right-handed."

"Dammit." Toni muttered. "How did you know that?" Katherine grinned.

"You have calluses from playing on your left hand. If you were using a left-handed guitar they'd be on your right." Katherine said, sitting back in her seat with a smile that suggested she was very pleased with herself.

"Ugh, okay. Let's play your game." Toni said, subconsciously snapping her rubber band against her wrist.

"First question, why do you play a right-handed guitar?" Katherine asked, wanting to start easy so Toni didn't immediately clam up.

"It was Fang's guitar." Toni said, smiling at the memory.

"That's a nice guitar." Toni said, cautiously stepping into Fang's bedroom for the first time. "How long have you been playing?"

"Oh, dude, I don't. I bought that a few years ago. I was convinced I'd just be able to pick it up, you know? Turns out it's hard." He said. Toni laughed. He gestured for her to sit so she perched, anxiously, on the edge of his bed. "I'm not going to bite, Toni. You don't need to look so nervous."

"Sorry." She said, running a hand through her hair. "I always wanted to play. My dad thought it was a dumb idea."

"Your dad's the one you ran away from, right?" Fangs asked, placing his hand lightly on top of hers. Toni flinched a little at the contact. "Sorry." He said, withdrawing it.

"It's fine." She said, smiling shyly at him. "Yeah, he's the one I ran away from." There was a small silence before Fangs stood and picked up his guitar and handed it to her.

"Here, if you can play a song by the end of the week, it's yours."

"Dude, you can't be serious? You drove me to hospital. You let me stay in your home. You don't want any money or anything and now this? It's too much." She said.