Love is Silent

Chapter 18

My nightmares returned when I was released from the hospital. I never remembered what they were about, but after waking up screaming three nights in a row, I reluctantly started taking my sleeping pills again. I stopped having the nightmares, but the pills always left me feeling groggy for most of the morning, which I hated.

            When school started up again, I was back on crutches. I wasn’t happy about it, but I knew that I’d be back to my cane in another week or so, so I didn’t let it bother me too much. The semester was starting to wind down, so final projects and exams became a bit of a worry. And it wasn’t only my own projects that I had to worry about; Chase was going to be starting his project with Vicky Morgan tonight, and I knew I had to be there for him, no matter what my feelings were about her.

            Chase took me straight to his place after school. Bev and Carson were still at work, so we had the house to ourselves until Vicky got there. Chase decided that spending that time in his bedroom was an acceptable pastime, and I couldn’t say that I didn’t agreed. We spent a pleasurable hour together, then got dressed again and grabbed a snack from the kitchen. We moved into the living room and I stretched out on the couch with my notes so I could do some studying. Starlight settled himself contentedly on my stomach, and Chase sat with my feet in his lap.

            When the doorbell rang, Chase groaned and reluctantly got to his feet. I heard him go to the front door and open it, and then a moment later, he came back in. He resumed his position with my feet in his lap while a girl with light brown hair and blue eyes came into the room. She was looking around curiously at everything, but her eyes narrowed when she saw me on the couch. “What are you doing here?” she asked snidely.

            “Nice to see you to, Vicky,” I replied drolly. “I’m here because I’m spending time with my boyfriend and our child.”

            Her brows winged up. “Child?”

            I nodded solemnly and stroked the kitten that was still purring on my stomach. “This is Starlight. We adopted him a few weeks ago. I know it may seem a little soon, but we couldn’t say no to his little face.”

            Chase snorted, but didn’t say anything. Vicky just looked at me like I was on crack. “You are so weird,” she muttered, before turning to Chase. “Should we get started on the project?”

            He shrugged and glanced over at me. I smirked at him and then looked back at my book. “Just pretend I’m not here. It’d probably be easiest if you just gave Chase something to do, since it doesn’t seem like he’s going to talk to you.”

            Vicky sighed loudly before looking over the project outline. “Fine, you can just look up foods from the country we’re researching.”

            Chase grabbed his laptop from the table beside the couch and placed it on my legs. He opened it and started typing into a search engine. I concentrated fully on my own book once more, and that’s how we spent the next hour. My leg started to get stiff, so I shifted a little, trying to get into a more comfortable position without disturbing Starlight. When Chase looked over at me questioningly, I smiled apologetically. “My leg is cramping up,” I explained.