I didn’t see the appeal myself. I’d much prefer a dog any day, I’d always wanted a dog but Max hated them.
I followed Eli into the bathroom, watched him brush his teeth, then let him pick his clothes for the day. He chose a pair of shorts and a winter jumper.
I smiled at the odd combination, but one of my favorite things to do was to see what he would choose to wear on the weekends.
“Let’s go, mama!” he called on his way to the door.
We went into Miss Maggie’s. Eli headed for the couch, he hadn’t even sat down before the cats jumped up to him. The same cartoon channel that Eli had just been watching was playing on the TV.
“Hi, dear!” Miss Maggie waved, not bothering to look at me as she was just as engrossed in the TV as Eli was.
I’d never seen anyone watch cartoons the way that she did. At least not anyone over the age of twelve.
I made us tea like usual, cursing myself for not thinking to bring over some coffee again, picked up both cups and sat on the couch next to Eli.
My mind wandered as I sat there with them, not a word spoken as they both stared wide eyed. I couldn’t help but wonder what the guys at the compound would get up to today. Did they have weekends off?
I’d never thought to ask.
I found that I missed seeing Ty’s face and listening to Evans silly jokes. I’d tried to tell Eli one the other day, he looked at me li
ke I was losing my mind. I think there was a knack to the way they were told. Evan always got it spot on.
I hadn’t been able to talk to Kitty much. She told me that she wouldn’t be as busy next week so we could sit and chat. I looked forward to that, I’d never had a real girlfriend.
The ones at school had used me to get closer to my brother, little did they know that he disliked them even more when they did that. I was the one person who never fit into any of the cliques. I wasn’t smart enough for the nerds, too cheery for the goths, not cheery enough for the cheerleaders and not popular enough for the ‘in’ crowd.
“What the hell happened to your face?” Miss Maggie practically shouted.
“Jeez, you scared me,” I croaked, my hand flying to my chest.
She raised her brows at me. I cut my eyes to Eli, knowing that his little ears heard everything.
“I fell.” The lie rolled right off my tongue with such ease that it scared me a little.
Her face told me that she didn’t believe me but she knew that there was nothing else that I would say.
That I could say.
“So I finished my first week at work.” I said trying to change the subject.
It would only work for so long, she wouldn’t get an explanation to what had happened.
She knew that.
*~*~*
I spent the meeting with my head down, my face half covered by my hair. The bruise was even darker now and no amount of makeup I tried to put on could cover it, at least I’d been able to take the butterfly stitches off.
Max had come home late last night whilst I was in bed, I hadn’t seen him since Friday. I didn’t get up to go and see him, instead I stayed where I was and waited until he was gone this morning.
The thought of seeing his face made me sick to my stomach.
Unlike last week, when everyone would scatter to whatever jobs they needed to do, Evan and Kitty stayed at the table talking. Luke headed for the gym equipment and Ty leaned back in his chair looking through some files.
I took my chance to go unnoticed and fled to the office. I turned the chair to the side when I sat down, knowing that the right side of my face couldn’t be seen from this angle and started typing the files up.
“You good?” Ty said when he came in half an hour later.