by J. N. Pack
“Why the fuck did you bring him here?” Jaxon.
Well shit!
I hear Tanner next, “Because it was either bring him here and let him sleep it off or take him to have a conversation with your sister in the state he was in last night.”
“Why the fuck did he want to come here?” Jaxon.
Tanner laughs, “Because he loves you and he loves me and Meggie and… and he loves Piper.” His laugh had sobered by the end of the statement.
Well double fuck!
“You can come out dickhead. I heard the door shut.” Jaxon.
I stumble into what I’m assuming is the kitchen with one eye half open and I stop and run my hand through my hair. “Yeah, I’m sure this was a better idea in my drunk head.”
Jaxon smirks.
Tanner laughs, “Too late to back out now.”
Jaxon waves his hand at a seat at the bar beside Tanner, just as Shelby comes out. She smiles brightly, “Still in love with my man today.”
My eyes widen in horror, “Fuck! Really?”
Tanner laughs, “Who the fuck don’t you love dude?”
I rub at my eyes and stare at the ceiling in humiliation.
Jaxon is watching, “There is only one of those people I’m concerned with you loving and I’m telling you Devoreaux, you fuck with my sister or say some stupid shit like you have recently again and I’ll fuckin’ bury you.”
Tanner looks from the food in front of him over to me, “and I’ll help him.”
I look over at Jaxon and nod. What can I say here? I fucked up. After an awkward breakfast Tanner and I make our way back to campus.
Tanner pats my shoulder, “Jaxon may seem like he’s being a dick, but he’s not. That conversation would have gone a lot different if he was. Just don’t hurt his sister and you want have a problem with him.”
I nod confused, “Why? I mean I understand you and her were best friends for forever, but why are you okay with everything that happened? Cheating is cheating regardless of the circumstances. Why would you be okay with everything that happened?”
Tanner rolls his shoulders back and shoves his hands in his pockets, “In the beginning I was pissed. I was pissed because my family was under my skin, coming at me from all sides, but then she disappeared, and I was terrified I’d lost my best friend. I went to her family. None of them would tell me where she was.” He looks off in the distance and then turns back to me, “I was losing my best friend and it broke my heart more than her leaving me at the altar. The more I thought about it, she was suffering more than I was. She was beating herself up over the whole thing more than I ever could. She still beats herself up over it. She came here with the secret about you, thinking I would hate her. Meggie would hate her. The only reason she came here this year is some stupid pact we made as kids. Me, Jaxon, her and Meggie. We all promised we’d go to college here together. Jaxon and I are older than her and Meggie, but it was always the plan.” He shuffles his feet and smiles at whatever memory he is having. “She came here thinking at some point she’d have to tell us the truth and we’d turn our backs on her. I was angry when she first told me, but by the time she finished the story and I saw her heart on her sleeves, I knew I couldn’t be mad at her. Not even a little bit.” He glances at me, “I don’t know the whole story of what happened between the two of you and honestly I don’t want the details, just know whatever happened changed her.”
I’m at a loss for words. How can one person’s heart pull so many people together? “I get it, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do from here. I’m well aware of how big I fucked up. She should hate me.”
Tanner laughs, “She should, but I can guarantee you she doesn’t hate you.”
I glance up at him and he smiles. I nod knowing exactly what I have to do.
I give myself today to sober up and get a level head, but tomorrow I was going to talk to my girl.
Monday morning, I stand outside of the English building knowing she has class this morning. When I see her stumbling in the direction of the building, I start walking with her. When she glances over at me, the light in her eyes is missing and my heart sinks. “Hey.”
She looks over at me confused, “I need to… I need to get to class.” She walks a little faster.
I grab her arm gently to slow her down, “You need a rest. You look like you haven’t slept in days.”
She glances up at me, “I will… I’ll take a nap after class.”
I’m trying not to get angry because something is off with her right now, “No, not a nap. Sleep. You need at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.”
Her brows pinch together, and she rubs at her left temple, “I will, but I need to get to class right now.” She starts to walk away, and I grab her arm again, “And eat. You need to eat something too okay?”
Now she really looks confused, “Yeah… I’ll eat something in the mess hall at lunch.” She rushes away. I don’t follow her, but I’ll be in the mess hall today and if she’s not I’ll be delivering food to her dorm. Before entering the building, she glances back over her shoulder. Noticing me watching she turns and quickly rushes into the building.
At lunch I head to the mess hall and drop down across from Meggie and Mannex. Meggie has her head dipped staring down at her phone. When she realizes it’s me, she glances up smirking. I cock an eyebrow knowing exactly what is running through her head before she says it.
“Still love me today?”
Mannex burst out laughing. He pat’s my shoulder as I laugh at my own expense. “Maybe.”
She laughs turning her attention back to her phone. Tanner joins us dropping a kiss on Meggie’s forehead. She smiles up at him. “You see Pip?”
He glances at me and then back at her shaking his head. I give her until lunch is over and I make my way to the dorms with pizza in hand. I fully intend to force her to eat at least a quarter of this pizza. When I get to the dorms I knock. After a minute I knock again. I hear her quiet voice on the other side, “Coming.”
She cracks the door open and peaks out, “Cael…”
I push past her and drop the pizza to the counter. She looks at me confused. “What…”
I turn and smile at her, “You need food and sleep, I intend to see to it you get both.”
She looks at her watch and grimaces, “I can’t. I got class in a few minutes.”
“Eat Piper. I’m not leaving until you eat something, anything.”
She literally growls under her breath. “I’m not hungry. I’m fine!”
I cross my arms over my chest and lean back against the counter with my eyebrow raised. More than a tad frustrated she snatches a piece of pizza from the box and shoves a bite in her mouth. With a mouth full of food, she cocks her head to the side, “Happy now?”
I smirk taking a piece of pizza and polishing it off in four bites.
She rolls her eyes, “Really attractive. When you choke, you’ll have to walk to the RA I don’t know how to help you.”
I laugh, “Lies.”
She’s halfway through the pizza when she is plagued by yawns. After yawning for the fifth time, I have to turn away. That shit is extremely contagious. After finishing the first piece I offer her another and she glares at me but takes it anyways. I take another and watch her eat the second piece. The more she eats the more tired she gets. After the second piece she sits down and curls up in a chair, “Why are you here Caelan? We both know you hate me, what do you want from me?”
I set down the third piece of pizza I was eating and glance up at her, “Do we?”
She looks confused, “I don’t understand.”
I sit in the chair across from her, “Do we both know I hate you?”
Confused and not able to find the words to say she leans her head back on the chair staring at the ceiling looking more upset than she was before, but not upset enough to yell at me. Not enough to put in on me and give herself some relief. I sit back and watch as her eyes become heavy. I watch her beautiful lashes
flutter a few times and then close. After watching her sleep for two hours I’m confident that she’s getting some of the rest that she needs, so I leave a note on top of the pizza box and make my way to my afternoon class. Meggie is on her way up the stairs as I’m headed down, “She okay?”
I shrug, “She’s sleeping. Has for about two hours.”
Meggie nods, “She missed her afternoon class.”
I drop my head, “She can be mad at me later, right now she needs sleep.”
She nods looking towards the door and then back at me, “One day… One day we need to talk about that day.”
I drop my chin, “One day… Just not today.”
She smiles and I nod as I turn and start towards my class.
Chapter 13
Piper
Monday, I slept for what felt like forever. I woke up feeling like I could focus, like I could concentrate. I had Caelan to thank for it. Why? I have no clue. I don’t understand why he cared. Not after the things I’ve done. Tuesday I was more focused in class and I could participate and function. I ate in the mess hall with my friends and Caelan sat across from me beside Mannex. He didn’t say anything, but I caught him watching me several times. I don’t get it. How can he go from cold to hot so quickly?
Meggie and LaLa have been at me all week about going to the homecoming game Friday night, but I’m not so sure. Last game I went to led to a party, which led to Caelan being a jackass. Not so sure I’m ready for that again. Pretty positive I’m not.
I escaped everyone today and went exploring some abandoned buildings just on the outside of town. One is an old barn that has a lot of character. It’s missing a couple boards on the outside and has an aged patina. I take a couple photos of the outside and circle around it making sure it’s safe to go in. Opening the front door, I slip inside. This thing is huge. There are stalls lining both sides and there is still hay remnants scattered across the ground. It still has the smell of livestock. Horses, maybe cows. It reminded me of the barn at home. Only the ones at home were in pristine condition and full of horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Except for one anyways. One is a rescue and I have nursed and babied him until he is spoiled rotten. Copper. I pitched the biggest fit I’ve ever pitched in my life for my Dad to let me get him to save him from the glue factory. My Dad told me he would never make it and if he did make it, I’d never be able to ride him. He was wrong. So, so wrong. I got him in the Winter and had him healthy and broke before Spring. He runs free in the pasture at home. Something he’s never had before. Freedom.
I climb up to the rafters and smile when I’m confronted by a territorial cat. She’s white, but the tips of her ears have very faint orange markings. She’s a little scrawny so I pull the crackers from my backpack and feed them to her. After that she does circles around my legs like we’ve been friends forever. I hear some quiet meowing coming from the corner and she follows me over as I go to see. She does circles around my feet the whole way. Once I’m close enough to see, she leaves my feet and goes and lays beside five of the cutest little kittens in the world. I pull my camera out and take pictures because they are all so beautiful. All of them are white except for one. One is bright orange and when I reach for him, he arches his back hissing at me. I smirk as I pull him to my chest and begin to pet him. He melts into me after that. After a few minutes I grab the second pack of crackers and sit them on the floor open beside the cat and her kittens and make my way back down the rafters. Walking down the center of the barn looking into each stall I get a sense that at some point this was a well-used barn. I can picture it now full of livestock, a little barn cat and a couple goats, because who doesn’t want a goat right. I loved this place. I loved the peace, the calm of it.
After driving a little further down the road, I find a couple of houses a short walk through the woods that had been abandoned in probably the early nineteen-hundreds. They were falling apart and run down but were a firm reminder of what it was like back them. There were no updates to them, they were exactly what they were. I got some good shots, but my mind kept drifting back to the barn. The simple beauty of it tugged at my heart.
I made it back to campus right before dark and I’m met by Meggie and her glare, “I’ve been calling you.”
I smile. I love her. She worries. She’s overprotective, but I love her dearly.
“I’m not laughing. You’re going to make me put you on restriction.” Meggie.
I cock my brow as a little laugh escapes, “Yes mummy!”
She starts grinning and hoping on her toes, “Show me what you got. I know you had your camera; I want to see.”
I smile and drop my things on my bed pulling my camera from my backpack and dropping down on her bed beside her, pulling up the pictures I had taken today. We flip through them and she ohhhs and ahhhs at all of them. She absolutely fell in love with the images of the kittens. As did I.
Thursday, I met Meggie in the mess hall for lunch. As I’m walking to the table, I hear giggling to my left and as I turn, I trip over something in front of me and fall forward. I throw my hand out to brace my fall. When I hit the floor, my left wrist takes the brunt of it and I hear it pop. Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I turn on my side and pull my wrist close to my chest.
I see movement above me and a commotion across the mess hall. Kenzie, Kayla and Lindsey are standing above me laughing. Kenzie leans squats in front of me, “You should probably watch where you’re going. I’d hate to see you fall.” She pushes back to her feet laughing as she makes her way out of the mess hall. Kayla leans down, “Back off of Caelan.”
WTF?
I hear people running my direction, but the pain is too much. I feel arms lifting me from the floor and I hear Tanner and Meggie talking quickly. A whimper leaves my mouth and Tanner whispers, “Hey it’s okay. We’re going to get you looked at. You’re okay.”
Fresh tears run down my cheeks. I can hear Meggie, “Jax? We are on the way to the hospital with Piper. Someone… Kenzie or Lindsey tripped her in the mess hall, she fell, and you could hear her wrist snap across the room.”
It’s quiet for a second and then she says, “See you in a few.”
Tanner sits me in the front seat of his truck and Meggie climbs in the back leaning over the seat, “Jaxon is going to meet us at the hospital.”
Three hours later we are sitting in the back at the hospital. I have a distal radius fracture. The doctor has done x-rays and is preparing to cast my wrist. Jaxon is watching the doctor like a hawk and Meggie is sitting beside me looking through her phone. The tears have long dried and the pain is minimal since the doctor gave me a hefty dose of something for pain. Tanner stayed in the waiting room since they would only allow two people in the back with me and there was no way Jaxon was going to stay out there and miss this opportunity to boss someone around. My phone dings and the two of them dive for it, but my good hand grabs it before they can get to it.
“I can answer my own phone… or text.” I wasn’t really sure on the text thing, but I was damn sure going to try.
Caelan: Hey. I’m in the waiting room.
Confused is what I am. What does he want me to say to him? I’m not angry at him. He should be angry with me. He will hate me when all of this is done, and the truth comes out. Just like Tanner and Meggie should have.
Caelan: Do you need anything? Tanner and I can go grab it.
Piper: I’m okay. Going home as soon as they cast my wrist.
Caelan: How bad is it?
Piper: Distal Radius Fracture. It’ll be in a cast for about five weeks.
Caelan:
Caelan: I’m sorry Piper. Those girls are bitches, you don’t deserve that.
I’m almost certain I deserve that and more. People are under the impression that I’m some angel and yes, I try to be a good person, but I’m not perfect. I fucked up royally and there’s no going back for me.
Piper: But don’t I?
Caelan: No, you don’t.
But I
do. I know that and he will one day. Just not today.
Meggie’s stomach grumbles and both Jaxon and I look at her. “Please go eat Meggie. I’m fine. Jax is here and he’s not going anywhere.”
Meggie rolls her eyes, “I can wait.”
Jaxon laughs, “NOPE! Go to the cafeteria and get something. Anything I don’t care what, but the sound of your stomach yelling at us all is driving me insane.” He takes her by the arm and leads her to the door. He pushes her into the hallway, “Bye-Bye now!” Then he shuts the door behind her. I giggle, because honestly what else do you do when those two start in on each other. I can hear her on the other side of the door huff and stomp her foot.
I laugh, “She’s having a hissy fit.”
He smirks and walks over to the side of the bed dropping in the seat she was just in, “She will be okay.” He looks down at my wrist and back up at me. “You don’t know what it’s taking for me not to choke the ever-loving fuck out of those girls.”
My smile fades and I shake my head, “You’re too good of a person for that.”
He shakes his head, “I try to be, but then shit like this happens and I want to go against everything. You are a good person Pip. Whether you believe it or not, you are. You don’t deserve this shit.”
I glance away, “Maybe I do though.”
I can feel his eyes beating into me, “What could you possibly have done to condemn yourself like that? I promise you there isn’t a single thing you could have done that would deserve the hell you are putting yourself through.”
Shrugging I look up at the door just as the doctor walks in with the material to cast my wrist. The doctor smiles. Jaxon realizes the color material he has for the cast and grimaces, “You choose that Pip?”
I glance at the florescent pink and nearly gag, “No. I told Meggie to choose.”
Jaxon chokes on a laugh, “Big mistake little sister. Of course, she’s going to choose her favorite color knowing good and well you hate pink.”
