Stay

Chapter 7

Peyton offered to drive me home and I took him up on his offer. I pulled a small bottle of perfume out of my purse to spray on my clothes to hide the scent of a man. I checked my phone and there haven’t been any phone calls or messages from Nathaniel.  For once I’m not surprised that he hasn’t been worried about where I am. Then someone popped up in my mind, Carson. I decided to call the house phone and no one answered. I called three more times, same thing, no answer. Maybe Nate is doing this to me on purpose. Anxiety is now taking over my body, making me want to vomit, but I hold it back.

Peyton waltzes in his bedroom and immediately senses that something is wrong with me. He doesn’t say a word, rather he wraps his strong around around my shoulders and pull me into a hug.

“What’s up?” He whispers in my ear. My heart went from racing to its normal pace. I know Carson isn’t my biological son, but I love him like he is. He’s a helpless four year old who doesn’t know his real mother and his father isn’t loving him like a father should. Carson needs someone to love him, and I’m going to be that person.

“Carson is probably home alone. Can you take me home now, please?” I can hear the fear in my voice. The fear soon disappears when Peyton tells me that everything is okay. He grabs my phone from my hand and begins to typing something in it.

“I put my number under the name awesome so whenever you need anyone I’ll be at the top of your contacts. Just call me anytime okay?” He rests his head on mine and pulls me into a tighter hug, except this time his hands are around my torso.

I draw in a deep breath filled with his scent. I kept my eyes closed and help onto how he smells for as long as I can before he pulls out of the hug.

“Are you ready to go home now?” He whispers, but I hear him clearly. I shake my head no. I don’t want to go back home. I never want to walk in that house, but I have to for Carson. I take a deep breath again then nodded my head.

“Yeah, I’m ready now.”

~*~

We pull into my driveway and the only vehicles here are mine and Peyton’s. Nate probably went out all night and hasn’t returned. Peyton shuts his engine off then opens his car door. I glance at him and he questions why I’m not getting out.

“Did you not want me to walk inside with you?” Now he’s just being nice to me. A grin grew on my lips and I managed to say “Please, come inside.”

I calm myself down before opening my front door. I’m terrified to see what the house looks like. I’m scared to find a little boy alone, watching tv and starving. I close my eyes then finally open the door.

I look around the living room to see it looks just like it did when I left last night. I run to Carson’s room to find him lying down in his bed watching Spongebob. He doesn’t notice me walk  in, so when I ask him if he’s hungry, he’s startled. He jumps up from his bed and hugs me tight. I hug him back and pull him away from me. I examine his face closely to see that he has a small black eye.Guilt explodes through my body and I want to cry. I want to sit down on my bed, lock th doors and cry for hours until I feel better about everything; but I can’t do that, I need to stick it through until it’s all over.

            “I fell off my bed.” He explains to me. I know it’s a lie, he knows I know. We just don’t tell each other. I can’t help it but to say “He hit you didn’t he?”

Carson’s eyes fell to the floor and couldn’t look back up into mine. I placed my hand so his shoulders and kneeled down to his height.

“It’s okay, you can tell me.” I caress his little cheeks and he nods his head. I pull him into a hug and he hugs me back. When he looks at me again, I’m smiling assuring to him that everything is okay.