Strained

Chapter Twenty

I tossed and turned until inevitably I was forced awake. I still wasn't sleeping well and it has been eight days since Isobel's accident. She was still in a coma. There wasn't a whole lot we knew, except for that her injuries were extensive. She had a broken clavicle, most of her ribs, wrist fractured, her lungs kept collapsing and her brain was bleeding. Two days ago they had taken Isobel into surgery to fix the brain bleed, but they were waiting to fix her other injuries. Kate said they had to wait for her lungs to get stronger before they did anything else.

Kate was still convinced there was Supernatural behind what caused her mom's accident. We had no proof, but she was searching for it. I offered to help her. It was really the only thing I could do since I was grounded. My mom hadn't grounded me in a long time, but here I sat: grounded for one week. It was fair. Honestly, I thought I deserved another week but I wasn't going to tell her that. It did suck though since I was mostly grounded from Jamie. My mom had let me keep my cellphone, but only for emergencies. She wasn't that naive to the world I lived in to leave me unprotected like that.

Plus, she barely left the house if I was home. I think she thought if she left then I would leave too. Although, during the week I really didn't have anywhere else to go. Addie was still gone, it had been twenty-seven days and she hadn't visited. She called me a couple of days ago and sent me a text today, but it was the same stuff she posted on Social Media. I kept my problems to myself when I talked about her. It was becoming easier each time I talked to her. I just treated her like my other human classmates. 

I rolled on my side, flipping my phone over in my palm. I unlocked my phone and clicked "Messages." There were no new messages, but I looked through my old messages. I only had two more days until I wasn't grounded anymore, so I felt I deserved to be able to text someone. My finger hovered over Jamie's name. I didn't click it. Instead, I clicked Daniel's name. It was the oddest thing, I could physically feel that he wasn't in Salem. We had talked last Weekend when he updated me on his attempt to get more Cursed Ones on our side. 

In a weird way, I missed him. It was hard to explain, but Daniel was apart of me. In the easiest of terms, he was my soulmate. We might not be together in that way, but my life would never fully depart from Daniel's. It was comforting, knowing I would always know him. He would always be there for me and I him. Except, what if breaking the Curse changed him? What if he wasn't the same Daniel anymore? The more I thought about it, the more I realized he would change. Daniel had changed the day he turned sixteen when the Curse took full effect on him.

Who would he be when we broke the Curse?

I shook my head, not wanting to think about that. Then, I saw Erik's name and my heart was full. There was so much about Erik and all of it was confusing and complicated. Erik and I talked during the school week, but we tried to keep the conversation short. He and Sage seemed to always be fighting and I think it was starting to get to him. That in addition to Addie being gone had to leave him feeling lonely. I started to text him, "Hey," but then deleted it and set my phone down. I couldn't start that conversation without feeling guilty.

It was a good thing I set my phone down because my mom walked into my room the next second. I know my face looked guilty because she narrowed her eyes at me. 

"Whatcha up to?" She tried to make it sound casual.

"Just wondering what I should do with my Saturday," I responded deadpanned. My homework was done and I was burnt out on looking stuff up for Kate. I don't know how she looked at all of this stuff for hours and hours like she did. 

"I hate to break it to you, but part of being grounded is time alone to think about what you did." She informed me. I gave her a look. One that said, I'm seventeen, how much time should I think about this. The truth was, I knew what I did was wrong but it was probably going to happen again. I couldn't always stop and explain to my mom where I was going. If anything, being grounded was a good excuse to stay safe.