Then he talks and I relax immediately, recognizing a voice so familiar that it's like he’s part of my family. He says, “Whoa! Hey, it's me. Don’t worry, I'm right here.” He makes a shushing sound and continues to comfort me. I don't know why he keeps at it, I'm fine now that I know that he’s okay.
Then I feel how wet my cheeks are and realize I’ve been crying, and crying hard because I'm hiccuping.
Charlie slowly slips his hand away from my mouth and I turn around and immediately smack him right in the face. Not hard but hard enough to know how worried I was about him. But I’d also been worried about Liam. Wait, where is he?
I look around the beach while Charlie is recovering from my love tap. I whirl back to him and ask, not quietly, “Where’s Laim?” I’m practically shouting at him but I think I deserve it from the way he scared me with the whole disappearing act. And also the sneaking up on me.
Charlie looks confused as if I just asked a stupid question, then he reads my expression and quickly sobers. “Don’t worry, he’s right behind me,” when I check behind him, he quickly adds, “not literally. But he’s catching up. We went to the nearest store to get you your gift but when I saw you hopping out of my Jeep I ran after you. I knew you thought the worst case scenario so I hurried to get to you to reassure you that everything is alright.” He finally finished with a shy smile but an apologetic expression.
“If you woke me up then we wouldn’t be put in this situation now would we?” I ask not entirely nicely. I snapped at him more than anything else.
“It looked like you needed the rest after today. You know with the whole broken nose thing. And by the way you can’t even tell that you broke your nose today,” he added, trying to give me a compliment but I didn’t buy it.
One, because that’s not possible. And two, I’m still not over the whole waking up with no one around experience that I just endured.
So I ignore that last part. “But still, you could have woken me up. You know how scared I get in cars and you made it even worse!” I practically scream.
Charlie cowers back as much as he can without moving a step. “I’m sorry. I thought for sure that we would make it back before you woke up. Of course, your brother thought it was a bad idea but I coaxed him into coming with me and for that I’m truly sorry.”
I huff out a breath and decide to let it go because he does seem that he’s sorry about it. “It’s fine. So stop looking like that.” He starts to relax a little but I can tell that he doesn’t believe me that everything is fine now. So I decided to take his mind off of it. “But this present better be worth giving me a heart attack.”
He perks up at this, I knew it. “Oh, don’t worry it is but if you don’t mind you need to wear a blind fold.”
I snort. Like I’d really wear a blind fold after what just occurred.
“C’mon, please.”
When I don’t budge he keeps going.
“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
Still I don’t budge.
He bats his ridiculously long eyelashes at me. “Pretty please with extra whipped cream and five cherries on top?”
I give in because who could resist that? The man practically begged me.
“Fine. But this better be good.”
Charlie lights up and dances around me until he’s behind me and gently wraps a bandana around my eyes. He asks if I can still see which I could have easily lied about but I say that I can’t see. Which is a half truth, I can still see silhouettes but nothing else.
“Can you take off your shoes?” He asks tentatively.
I think about it for a few seconds then realize it won’t hurt anything to be bare foot so I comply.
He guides me a few feet away from the water which I immediately miss the water lazily lapping at my feet. The sand is cool against my newly bared feet, sifting through my toes bringing memories of times before when I went here with Charlie when we were alone. With Liam of course, everytime.
Charlie stops which causes me to stop abruptly. Have I ever said that I hate not being in control, especially when it comes to my own body? Well it’s true. According to Google it’s a real phobia. I think it’s called Merinthophobia though I’m not completely sure on the top of my head.
I can feel Charlie behind me, heat radiating from his body, just before he releases me from my moment of darkness. It takes a little bit to get used to the light but when I do I gasp at the sight before me.
Liam is in front of me with a cake covered in sprinkles with whipped topping covering the whole top of the cake and of course there are five cherries placed on top of the whipped cream in a perfect X shape. I think about the scar on my hip that the cherries are replicating and feel a rush of anger before it cools and becomes happiness. Only because a select few people know about my scars don't walk away laughing at me or thinking that I’m a freak and the majority of those people standing around me right now.
“Happy Birthday!” They say in unison which makes me think about how long they have planned this whole shindig. But thoughts ceased to exist when these boys boast out the Happy Birthday song that I hate so much, just not right now.
When they're done I’m left speechless so I do the thing that I can and turn around to embrace Charlie and when Liam complains about him not being hugged since in his words “the one who had to carry the cake all the way here” I turn to embrace him but come up short. He’s still holding the precious cake and I don’t want to hurt it. I take it from him and practically shove it into Charlie’s hands and then pounce on my younger brother.
“I love you sis,” my brother murmurs in my hair. Voice full of sincerity that I almost cried. People would say that I’m a heartless piece of crap and sometimes I think they're right but when I’m with these two I know it’s as true as the rumor that I killed my own parents.
“I love you too little bro,” I say back.
Charlie whistles behind me to remind us that we aren’t alone. “What about me? I’m the one who thought of this. And I’m the one who bought the cake.” He grumbles but I can tell it’s only half heartedly.
I turn to face him and say the same thing to him, “I love you Bestie.”
“Love you too. Look, I know that my awesomeness is indistinguishable but that’s not all! We also have a present…!”
I groan my protest but still accept the gift from him from his waiting hands. This one is better wrapped but still in the same newspaper as its sister that is currently sitting on my wrist. This one is also as big as a shoe box so it can’t be more jewelry unless it's one of those bulky diamond necklaces which I seriously doubt.
“So I’m betting that Liam was the one to wrap this one. Am I right or am I right?” I ask.
Charlie purses his lips but still looks at me expectantly while Liam answers for him.
“Bingo!” My little brother turns from me to face Charlie. “Ha. I win, I’m the better gift wrapper!” He says, sticking out his tongue.
Charlie grumbles something unintelligent that sounds something like, “Mine’s not that bad. Jeez.”
I laugh before getting back to unwrapping my gift. I was right, it was a shoe box, but not just an ordinary one, it was Converse brand. My favorite. I eagerly open the box to reveal another pair of high tops just different. These ones had comic strips plastered all over them with some iconic book quotes in some swirly font that almost makes them unrecognized.
Mental note: Later I will figure out what all of them say.
Screw not crying, I was a total mess right now.
Liam looks at me expectantly. “What’d you think?”
“These are awesome. Did you pick them out?” I ask.
“Yup! But that’s not all, I also bought them with my own money!” He says, practically buzzing with excitement.
“Aw, you didn’t have to do this, I would have been okay with what we usually do.” I say. My emotions are haywire right now. I get hit with happiness, then with sorrow. Because honestly, he would have to have spent a high amount of money for these. Money he would have to save up a long time for. But he still did it, and it was all for me.
“Well duh, but these do make it better. Right?” Doubt trickles into his voice at the end as if he’s scared that I’m mad about him getting me a Birthday gift. Always the people pleaser that one is.
“Of course, bud.” I grin down at him. “This is the best Birthday gift I’ve ever gotten.” I say this knowing Charlie is near and he was the one who also gave me an amazing present but I don’t care because I was speaking pure truth. Of course, I loved his gift but it's a high second place to this one and he’s just going to have to get over it. Liam is and will always be my highest priority. And so will his gifts.
That night we ate the whole cake in one sitting. There weren't even crumbs left after we were done feasting. Liam didn’t get a stomach ache afterwards either because there was a third person there. After the feast for kings we went into the water and watched the sun set. I would have stayed and replayed this moment of time over and over until I died. But alas we couldn’t, we had to get back to reality sooner or later.
We decided to pack up when the moon shone bright in the sky. What did aunt Jenna say this morning about the moon again? I didn’t have the heart to remember or figure it out.
Liam fell asleep on shore while me and Charlie were in the water so Charlie had to carry him back to the Jeep. We both were soaked to the bone. Charlie dropped the sleeping Liam in the back seat before making his way to the back of his Jeep. When Charlie came back around to the passenger’s side he held two dry towels that smelled faintly of lavender laundry detergent.
Which reminded me of him. He always smelled clean and like home.
“Kinda thought that we would need it tonight.” He says as he wraps me in one of the towels.
“Guess you thought of everything didn’t you?” I replied.
Charlie gave me a sheepish smile before he opened my door, motioning me inside.
“Such a gentleman.” I say, waving my hand in front of my face like I was about to faint.
“Only everything for the Birthday girl,” he whispered as I clambered into my seat.
He closed the door quietly so as not to wake Liam. He made his way to his side and climbed in more gracefully than me. Nothing was said for the rest of the car ride but this time it was a comforting kind of silence. One I reveled in. Charlie pulled up to my house, one that didn’t have a single light on inside. Not even the regular glow coming from the t.v. I guess Aunt Jenna and Phil went to bed.
I looked at the dashboard that glowed brilliantly in the dark. The white numbers showed that it was only 10 pm. Wait. It was 10 o'clock already?
Crap on a cracker, I missed my meds.
I looked over at Charlie with a frantic look. Though it took him a second to realize what was happening, he finally figured it out and quickly mirrored my expression.
Before I knew it we were out of the Jeep, Liam in Charlie’s arms and me frantically making my way to the front door. Then I thought better and went to the side of my house where trellises crawling with vines that lead to my bedroom window are located.
“Put Liam on my back!” I whispered to Charlie. My heart was beating so freaking hard I thought it would explode through my chest.
Charlie complied and set Liam on my back piggy back style and wrapped Liam's arms around my throat where Liam instinctively clasped his hands together in a tight grasp. He also instinctively knotted his legs together around my waist.
I turned around and said goodbye to him. It took some convincing to make him actually leave. He thought this was a really bad idea. And frankly, I thought so too but there was no other way of getting in the house without getting caught. Finally he left and I started climbing.
I knew that I could lift Liam but I didn’t think that it would be this easy. I was also surprisingly faster in climbing than usual. Oh well, as long as I got Liam and myself into the house safely was the only real concern that I had at the time. You know, seeing as I'm currently on the side of my house with the ground so far below! Since when was the second story so high?
After what felt like an eternity I finally made it to my window and kind of spilled into the dark room. I made sure that Liam didn’t get hurt while I was getting in. I looked around my shoulder that his head rested on and saw that he was still sleeping, mumbling in his sleep even. Jeez, this kid can sleep through anything.
After taking off my shoes and socks I went into the hallway that leads to Liam’s room. The air in the house smelled… different but I ignored it. I’ll investigate as soon as I get Liam to bed. Once there I carefully set him on the bed and kissed him on the forehead and said goodnight. Before I could make it one step towards his door, he grabbed my hand.
“Don’t go,” he murmured in his sleep.
I decided then that I’ll spend the night with him. It’s only fair. “I’ll be right back, bud.”
But first I have to go take my meds. Yes, I would be taking them late but better late than never, I guess. Plus when aunt Jenna wakes up she shouldn’t be completely mad at me since I technically didn’t miss a dose, I just took it late.
I stepped out into the darkened hallway and made my way to the stairs. The smell was stronger here then it was back towards Liam’s room. The smell faintly reminded me of when I would get one of numerous cuts or gashes on my body and I was cleaning it with rubbing alcohol. Weird, maybe aunt Jenna or Phil spilled some and didn’t properly clean it up.
The stairs were hard wood and some of them creaked under pressure. I made sure to avoid those stairs and made a slow, cautious dance down the stairs. When I finally made it to the ground floor, I was hit by a wall of that stench.
Metal mixed with the sickly sweet smell of decay.
Something was very very wrong.
I knew something was wrong but the dark liquid that my foot stepped in just confirmed my concerns. My feet were rooted in this sticky, congealed liquid. It was already cooled but that didn’t make it any better. It just intensified my fear.
Because what I was currently standing in was blood.
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