Crushed (31 page)

“Are you okay?”
Luci
asked.
Cleo
could tell she
was
trying
not to cry.
She was t
rying to be strong for
her big sister
.

“Absolutely,”
Cleo lied as she
sli
d into bed beside her. Luci
carefully hugged
her and Cleo
hugged her back. She smelled like
pine cleaner
and cake.

“
Are you going to leave me
?” she finally asked and her voice broke.
“Is he going to make you go away?”

“No
,”
Cleo
tried to assure h
er.

“He said—”

“I don’t care what he said,”
Cleo
told her as
she
cut her off. “I’m taking care of things so that won’t happen.”

“How?” she demanded.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

She was quiet for a
bit
but
Cleo
knew she was not sleeping.

“Who will take care of me if you go away?” she asked after a long while. “I don’t
want to be all alone.” Her voice was so small and quiet it made
Cleo’s
heart ache.

“You’re never going to be alone, Sweat Pea. I promise,”
Cleo said as she
gave her a squeeze.

“I miss
Mom
,” she finally said.

“I know
Luci
, me too,”
Cleo
admitted.

“And I miss Reece…”

Cleo
rubbed
Luci’s
back until
she
knew she was out.  Then
she
lay there, letting
her
self think of Reece and remembering how good it felt to have his arms around
her
again.

***

“Cleo? Cleo?” Luc
i said as she shook
her
shoulder.  T
he one that wasn’t bruised. “Cleo, wake up.”

She
had a brief battle with
her
eyelids, fighting to force them open.

“The alarm went off,” Luci told
her
.

“Okay,”
she
said in
a voice that didn’t sound like her
own.

She
blinked at the clock. The alarm must’ve gone of
f
a
little
while ago
.
It was not unlike Luci to sleep through it.
Cleo
was actually surprised she had awakened at all.
She
wondered how long
Luci had
been trying to wake
her
.

Her body creaked to life as she
managed to roll out of bed in slow motion.
With Luci sitting right
there, she bit her
lip and fought the urge to whimper.

She hurt. She
hurt everywhere
. T
he first thing she
did
when she
hobbled into the bathroo
m was take a few pain killers. She would have to hide them in her
jacket pocket because they weren’t allowed on school grounds
. But she
alre
ady knew there would be no way she
could make it through the day without them.

Getting out of
her
pajamas and into some clothes was a painful ordeal.
She
opted for
loose, comfy
yoga pants
. She
tried not to care what sort of comme
nts Mia would be making about her
haphazard attire.

She started to fret obsessively about her appearance because it was a distraction
from worrying about anything else.

Her
hair was a tangled c
atastrophe sprouting out from her head because she
had gone to bed with it wet
.
She was fairly certain she
’d tossed and turned quite
wildly
all night long. She
was in the bathroom trying to tame it when Luci came to check on
her. It was hard to raise her
arm above shoulder level, to try t
o get at the tragedy that was her
hair.

“Let me,” Luci insisted
. S
he took the brush from Cleo’s
hand.
Cleo
sat on the closed toilet
seat
and
Luci gently calmed the chaos. She sat with her
eyes closed, relishing
the feeling of closed lids. Luci
moved away and came back at
her
with a rubber band
. S
he carefully twist
ed Cleo’s
locks into a ponytail. “Done,” she finally said.

Luci
stepped back to appraise
her
, a wrinkle appeared between her brows. “You might want to put on make-up,” she told
Cleo
as she slid a gentle finger across
her
pale
cheek.

“Will do,”
Cleo
readily agreed.

Luci
left and for the first time
Cleo
took a good look at
her
self in the mirror.
She
had the face of
her
nightmares; a pal
e, ghostly death pallor
.
Her
eyes were bloodshot, sunken and hollow.
She
had what look
ed
like skid marks under them.
She
worked with
her
concealer first and went from there.

When
she
was done
she
realized there was almost zero chance of catching the bus.
They
’d had such a slow start to the day.
She
briefly considered staying home but then
she
’d have to deal with getting permission slips from Paul to excuse both Luci and
herself
.
She
was not going to deal with that. Not today. No telling what kind of mood he’d be
in if he thought
she
let Luci skip school for no apparent reason.

She
wanted nothing more than to stay home and curl up in bed but again,
she
was not willing to ask for a note to excuse
her
self. Suddenly it occurred to
her
that
she
was not a minor anymore and maybe
she
didn’t have to get Paul’s consent. The lines had been blurry on this because
she
’d been too afraid to ask for clarification.
She
decided at some point to check with the school secretary on this
. L
egally,
she
was no longer a child
. T
echnically,
she
was parentless. This was something
she
hadn’t wanted to bring to anyone’s attention while
she
was a minor
.
S
he
figured now,
there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.

“The bus just went by,” Luci said mournfully as she met
Cleo
in the hallway.

She
sighed. As ludicrous as it was,
she
decided to call a taxi.
She
’d have to use the emergency cash that
she
’d taken out for the pizza.

“Come eat,” Luci insisted. She’d poured
Cleo
a bowl of corn
flakes. It was soggy and
Cleo
wasn’
t
the least bit
hungry.
She
ate it anyway
while
Luci ate hers because
Luci
was watching
over her
like
a momma bear looking over her cub
.

“What’s that?” Cleo asked as she noticed a blue plastic bag on the table.

Luci pulled out a pile of books. “I found them in the entryway last night. There was
a note from Reece inside. They’re new releases that our library doesn’t have yet,”
she said. A subtle smile fought its way onto her lips.

The sight of the books and Luci’s grateful smile made Cleo want to burst into tears
all over again.

By the time the taxi pulled up, the edge of the pain had dulled a bit. Luci handed
Cleo
her
soft
purple
lunch box
. She informed
Cleo
that
she’d made a sandwich and packed
her
lunch while
she
was busy trying to fix
her
face.

It hit
Cleo
again how much
she
loved this kid.

The middle school started later than the high school. Still,
Luci got dropped off without a lot of time to spare.
Cleo
told her to hurry
. T
hen
she
smiled when
Luci
actually listened and trotted off down the sidewalk.

Cleo
was a good half an hour
late by the time the taxi delivered
her
to
her
destination.
She
was glad no one was outside to witness the odd occurrence.
She
’d convinced
her
self
she
was the only person in the history of Sheridan High that had ever willingly paid
for a ride to school.

She
briefly considered going to the office to try to figure out the state of
her
guardianship, or lack thereof.
She
decided against it for fear that
the school secretary would
insist on calling Paul to discuss matters.

She
didn’t want to bother him at work
.

She
didn’t actually want to involve him at all.

She
made
her
way th
rough
the empty halls to
her
locker
.

She
realized that
she
had not done
her
homework.

She
still needed to buy Luci some new pajamas.

They
were almost out of milk.

After the cab ride,
she
had almost no money left in
her
hot chocolate canister.

She
was glad there was left
over pizza for Luci to have for dinner.

Her
head was desperately trying to think of anything other than the
mess
she
was in.

Chapter
18

Reece
officially
broke up with Mia after
he
left Cleo’s.
He knew he
should’ve done it
Friday.
He
should’ve tracked her down, wherever she’d
run
off to
and taken care of it
. No, scratch that.
He
never should have been with her in the first place.
He broke up with her
via text. Under normal circumstances
he
’d agree that breaking up via text was a spineless way to go. Considering that
he
did drive to her house, only to find the lights all off and Colby’s car parked out
front
—
again
—
he
’d say
he
was justified.

As far as
he
was concerned, this worked out for the best.
He
didn’t want to have a confrontation that would take up space in
his
head. The only thing
he
wanted to allow into
his
head were thoughts of Cleo.
He
wondered if she would have let
him
kiss her if
he
would’ve
for sure
already broken up with Mia.
He
thought—
he
was sure, actually—that there was a damn good chance she would have.

Last night had been just like old times. Like all of the nights last year where
they
hung out; Cleo
, Luci and him
just having fun. There was no way she could deny that she didn’t miss it to.
He
could see it
etched across her face.

At first,
he
wasn’t sure
he
was even going to stay.
He had
thought maybe
he
’d drop off everything and go if she acted like she didn’t want
him
there. With her hot and cold attitude lately,
he
wasn’t sure what to expect.
He
would’ve left if she would’ve asked
. B
ecause the last thing
he
wanted was to ruin her birthday.

But she didn’t ask
him
to leave. And more than anything,
he
had wanted to stay.

He’d realized s
he was wearing an old t-shirt of
his
. An old summer league baseball one that
he
hadn’t missed. It probably hadn’t meant anything but
he
was happy to see her with it on.

He had been
so close to driving back to her house after
he
sent that text to Mia. But
he
knew Paul was there
. H
e
didn’t want to push it too much in one night.

And Paul? What had that been about?
he
couldn’t stop wondering.
Reece had
never liked the guy.
And he realized Paul had probably never really liked him, either
. But he’d always been civil. Last night, he’d been seething.

Reece had
waited at
Cleo’s
locker in the morning
but
she never showed.
He
walked into class, just as the bell rang, thinking maybe
he
’d missed her and she’d snuck in early with Emma. Emma was in her desk but Cleo wasn’t.

N
early half way through the hour
, Cleo slipped in.

Mr. Jessen stopped talking to
the class
so he could look at her. He immediately frowned.

“Do you have a l
ate pass?” he asked.

She rolled her lips in and shook her head. “No, sorry,” she finally said.

Something was wrong.
Reece
was not the only one that knew it. Mr. Jessen sensed it too.
His frown deepened when
Cleo carefully lowered herself into her desk. She was moving like an old arthritic
grandma. Her eyes were swollen. W
orse than they
were
when she was simply overly-
tired
. A
nd what
Reece
would expect them to look like if she’d been crying.

Her hair…well,
he wasn’t sure what to think
about that
. O
ther than it
was
in a floppy, lopsided ponytail. It looked like a kid did it. It looked like
Luci
did it.

He
was not the only one on high alert here. Cleo sat diagonal from
him
.
Emma was in
his
line of sight between
them
. She’d shot up in her desk and her head was tilted
in
Cleo’s direction as well. Cleo didn’t look at either of
them
. Her movements were slow. It was painful to watch because it
was
so obvious that something
was
not right.

Mr. Jessen cleared his throat and turned back to the rest of
them
. “Well, since we have
half an hour left,
I think we could spend a little bit of time showing our school spirit. Let’s get
some poster
s made for this weekends’ game. You might as well pair up. Supplies are up here.”

Cleo glanced at
Reece
as everyone started moving around.
He
motioned to the supplies, letting her know
he
’d get them. She nodded.

By the time
he
grabbed them, Mr. Jessen was talking to her. They slipped out in
to
the hall
way
.
He
slid a desk next to hers. Then
he
spread the poster sized paper and the handful of markers
he
’d grabbed across the table
their
desks had been made into.