Coming For You

Chapter Two

The next two days after the shows are relaxing. Alicia and John spend them basically getting some around the house and normal things done. Mikayla helps a little bit with yard work that John does. Around 1, Mikayla hops in her truck to go into town for dog food and other things. 

As she walks into the store, she quickly notices how busy it is. Mikayla actually has a hard time getting to the dog food without bumping into someone. By the time she gets to the pets section, it has already been five minutes. That's how long it takes for someone to just walk around the whole store. Mikayla is relieved to finally have gotten to the aile. As she looks around for the right brand of dog food, someone walks past her. She glances over at him. He has long blonde hair that looks a little dirty. His bangs are covering his eyes. His jeans are wore in the knee and there is stains on his shirt. He has an ace bandage wrapped around his left hand.

Mikayla looks at him for a second or two more before grabbing a bag of dog food. She looks back at him one more time. This time, he looks up at her. They have eye content for a brief second before Mikayla walks away. He continues to look at her as she walks toward another aile. Once both have all they need, they end up at the reigster together. Mikayla tries to resist the urge to look back at him. She's a little happy to get a chance to glance over as they both walk out of the store. Mikayla notices they parked close to each other too. She tries not to look over at him again as she loads her stuff in the bed of the truck. Right before she grabs the last thing to put in, Mikayla turns toward him one more time. She senses that he just turned his head into the other very quickly. Mikayla also senses something about him. She can't put that if it a good or bad kind of feeling. Mikayla smiles a little as she focuses back on her task. Mikayla is soon in her truck about to drive away. Something stops her though. She can't help but look back at the boy. She notices him struggling a little bit. Right as she opens her door, Mikayla sees him starting to fall. Mikayla runs over to him and gets him before his head hits the pavement. Mikayla puts him down gently as someone walking by calls 911. She then sits there with the boy until paramedics come. 

At the hospital around 2:17, Mikayla calls Alicia from the waiting room. She tells her that she will be about an hour or so late home. Alicia says ok. 

Half an hour later, a doctor comes out to Mikayla. The doctor looks a little depressed. "How is he?" Mikayla asks. The doctor asks, "Are you his closest family?" Mikayla thinks for a second then nods. The doctor takes a deep breath. "He collasped because he was suffering from some dehyrdration. By the looks of it, he hasn't had anything to drink for the past few days. After a few cups of water and a few hours of rest, he'll be good to go home."

"Can I go see him?" Mikayla asks. The doctor nods and leads Mikayla to the boy's room. By the time they reach his room, the boy is already asleep again. Mikayla sits down in a chair beside the bed. She pushes back a little so it isn't too close to the bed. She doesn't want to scare or upset him when he wakes up. 

About another hour passes and the boys still has not woken back up. The doctor comes in to check on him every once in awhile. When the two hour mark is about to hit, Mikayla gets ready to leave. Noise coming from the bed stops her though. She looks down and see big hazel eyes looking at her. She sees a little bit of fear and confusion in them. Mikayla sits back down. The two stare at each other like they did in the store. The boy sits up a little. "Are you the girl from the store?" Mikayla nods. "Yeah. You collasped as you were loading up your groceries. I finished loading them up as the ambulance took you away."

The boy looks at Mikayla again. "Am I okay?" Mikayla nods again. "The doctor said you were just a little dehydrated. He said you can go home now too." The boys quickly turns to look the other way. "What's wrong?" Mikayla asks. "Nothing," he replies. Mikayla doesn't try to get him to tell her. She doesn't want to make him more upset.

"If you want, I can go drive you over to get your truck."

The boy looks back at Mikayla. He looks her right in the eye. He feels a sense of comfort. "Ok." Mikayla smiles a little. She gets up and gets the boy's clothes out of a closet. She goes out to the nurse's desk to check him out. Mikayla notices there is no name beside the date. She turns back to the room and sees he's ready to go. Mikayla finishes up with checking him out then leads him to her truck.

On the way back to the store, it is quiet. Mikayla wants to ask him what his name is. On the other hand, she is worried that she might upset him. This makes her stay quiet. However, at a stoplight, he turns toward her. "I'm sorry of how weird I was acting. I shouldn't of acted so weird. You helped me, and I'm acting like a fool." At the next stoplight, Mikayla turns to him. "Hey, it's okay. I completely understand. I would be acting the same way if I was in your place right now. You just had a really rough day, don't worry about it." Mikayla turns back to face the road as the light turns green. Instead of going straight, she turns left right into the store's parking lot. She pulls up in a spot beside the boy's truck.

As he starts to get out, he hesitates. "Are you okay?" Mikayla asks. Without answering, he gets out of the truck and gets in his. Mikayla watches as he races out of the parking lot. She waits until his truck is out of sight to drive out of the parking lot.

                                                                       *********************

John is outside on the porch as Mikayla pulls into the studio. Alicia comes out too when hearing Mikayla's truck pull in. "Hey, glad you're home," John says. "Was traffic holding you up?" Mikayla says nothing. She is too deep in thought. John repeats what he asked. Mikayla glances at him. "Oh sorry. Yeah, the traffic was really bad today." Before John gets a chance to say anything else, Mikayla goes inside. She races to her room where Pepper is waiting for her. She greets him with a scratch behind the ears and a "good boy."

                                                                      **********************

On the other side of town, the boy's old beat up truck pulls up to a worn down house. He slowly walks up to the house. He grabs his bag of stuff before heading inside. He is soon greeted by a golden retriever. "Hey buddy." He throws a chew toy out of one of the bags. The dog catches it then follows the boy up the steps. They walk toward an open door that leads to a bedroom. In the middle of the room, Kent, a little blonde haired boy is sitting on a bed. The moment he hears the boy, Kent runs over to hug him. "Hey Cash, guess what I did?" Kent lets go as Cash guesses. "Hmm, I don't know what?" Before Kent answers, he spots the dog behind Cash. He kneels down to take the toy out of the dog's mouth. Kent smiles really big as he throws the toy and the dog runs to chase it. This game soon leads the two out to the yard. Cash makes Kent puts on his coat before he goes outside.

 Cash can't help but smile while he walks out and watches the two play. It also brings him to tears too. The only other thing that makes his brother that happy, besides him, is their dog. The dog and his brother were also the only things Kent ever had as a family. A few months after Kent was born, their mom left them. A month before, their dad died. Even before their mom left, she barely took care of Kent. Basically ever since he was seven, he has been raising his brother. Cash can't ever imagine doing anything else now.

As the darkness comes over the town, Cash calls his brother inside for a bath. Kent comes in without complaining with the dog following him. Both are equally dirty. "I guess your getting a bath together." Cash closes the door and follows the two upstairs. Cash starts up the water while he grabs towels for Kent and the dog too. After, Cash sits with Kent in his room for a little bit. As begins to fall asleep, Cash starts to leave the room. 

"How did dad die?"

Cash stops dead in his tracks. He turns back to his brother. "Why do you think that?" Kent shrugs his shoulders. "I've just been wondering."

Cash sits beside his brother again. "Well, that can be a story for another time ok?" Kent nods. "Ok goodnight." Cash gets up then says goodnight back and shuts the door. He goes back downstairs with  the dog following him. Cash plops down on the couch in the living room and looks around the living room. He looks over at a red rug behind a chair. Cash instanstly turns his head away. He just can't think of that right now. Kent doesn't need to know neither.