Crazies

Chapter Thirty-Four

~Chapter 34~

*~* Erica Lee's POV *~*

Calvin's calloused hand clamps tight across my mouth, preventing Marie from hearing every foul word I could come up with to describe the horrible person she's being right now.

The girl could make a nun curse on Easter Sunday, so you can imagine the words Calvin is keeping from spewing from my mouth as I watch Jay being restrained by one of the new guys that came in with him and Sang late last night.

"Calm down, Erica." Calvin grunts as I fight against him, though his grip around my waist feels like iron bars and they don't budge an inch. "I understand how you feel but you have to let them handle this."

I ignore him, zeroing in on Marie as she turns away from the pair of angry boys. She wobbles for a second but quickly regains her balance before stomping her way back up the porch.

The moment she passes by me, she gives me this self-satisfied smirk.

Proud of the chaos she's creating in our home.

I pull against Calvin's grip again, fully prepared to go chew that girl out, when Calvin just yanks me off my feet.

"Let's go before you say or do something you'll regret," he says as he proceeds to carry me off the porch. I'm momentarily caught off guard by the abrupt movement, and he uses it to his advantage to swiftly carry me around to the back of the house. He gets just past the garage before I start fighting him again. "I'm not letting go until you promise you won't go after that girl."

Frustrated, I give him one jerky nod, knowing from first-hand experience he doesn't give out idle threats.

After all, this isn't the first time he's had to restrain me from unleashing all hellfire on her.

He waits another minute before he finally sets me down on my feet, and once free I take a few steps away from him before rounding on him. "What the hell, Calvin? That girl has gone way too far."

"Yes she has," he agrees but then pins me down with that stern look I've seen him use with his boys a couple of times, "but you can't step in every time she does something you don't like."

"You can't be serious?" His even expression tells me he's being dead serious and my anger begins to boil through my veins. "We can't let her continue with the things she's been doing. She's pushing everyone past their breaking point. Just look at what just happened with Sang and Jay."

"Erica, we can't..."

"Bullshit," I shout, cutting him off as my anger spreads out into my limbs. Old nervous tics have me pacing in a tiny figure-eight pattern in an attempt to calm down. "We are still the adults here and it's our job to protect them." I make another pass before Calvin steps forward and grabs my arm to force me to stop.

"We can't think like that anymore." The words come out a little strained, and the strongest man I've ever known begins to crumble right before my eyes. "I hate to say it but the odds of the two of us making out of this alive is slim to none. It's only a matter of time before something takes away our little safe haven, and then it'll just be threat after threat after threat until we get lucky again. Tell me, Erica, what will you do when we hit that point? When something comes to hurt those kids and you're the only thing standing between them and death?"

His booming voice grows in strength as tears slowly trickle down his face, summoning my own tears to begin building up as my anger fades to reveal the true feeling laying underneath.

Despair.

I already know Calvin was right, but a small part of me wanted to believe that if I fought hard enough to block out the blaring truth that I could live in ignorant bliss.