Painted Lines (8 page)

Chapter
13

Thayne
and I sat talking about some of the more horrendous and interesting bikes we
had seen.  He had me laughing at one particular story when someone cleared their
throat.  I looked over and saw Dr. Carter standing there watching us, he smiled
at me then walked into the curtained off area, pulling up a rolling stool and
sat down.  I wasn’t comfortable with how close he was sitting near me and
scooted closer to the other side of the bed putting me closer to Thayne.  It
was strange that I didn’t seem to have a problem being near him.  I typically
wasn’t comfortable around people, but he seemed to be an exception for some
reason.

“Scout,
it’s nice to see you again,” Dr. Carter said.

“Uh
huh,” I mumbled.

“How
have you been?”

“Fine.”

“And
who’s this?”

“This
is my friend, Thayne,” I told him a little defensively.

“Mmhmm,”
he murmured.  I looked over at Thayne hoping I looked apologetic for this.

“Who
are you?” Thayne asked.

“Oh,
I am Dr. Carter, I’m a psychiatrist here at the hospital.”

“Uh
huh,” replied Thayne, “and you’re here why?”

He
cocked his head to the side, “To talk to Scout, do you mind if I can speak to
her alone?”

“You
okay with that?” Thayne asked and I shook my head no.  “Yeah, I don’t think
so.”

Dr.
Carter stared at him for a minute then focused on me. “So would you like to
tell me what happened?”

“Uhm,
no not really, if I have to speak to someone I would prefer it be Dr.
Lawrence.”

“Unfortunately
she’s not on call right now.”

“Why
were you called in?” I asked curiously.

“There
were some concerns,” he said shooting a look at Thayne, “about what happened.”

“I’m
fine,” I said starting to get angry.

“Mmhmm,”
he murmured, “so want to tell me what happened?”

“Someone
wrote something on the wall to the stall I had been working in, it upset me.”

“Why
did it upset you?”

“That
is none of your business,” I said, I was not going to discuss this with him and
especially not with Thayne sitting here.

“I
just want to help, Scout.”

“I
don’t need your help,” I bit out.  “I have a doctor.”

“Yes,
you do, but she’s not here, I am.”

I
sighed and rubbed my head, it was hurting again, and I didn’t want to talk to
this guy, I didn’t like him.  I looked over at Thayne and he looked to be deep
in thought, well that was a short friendship.

“I
am not talking to you,” I finally said.

“Well
we have two options here, you can tell me what’s going on, or I can put you on
a forty-eight hour psych hold, where you will have no option about it.”

“On
what grounds?”

“You’re
being combative.  It’s also my understanding that you assaulted a coworker.”

“I
didn’t attack anyone,” I yelled.  I felt something on my hand and looked down
Thayne was rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand.  I took a deep breath
and tried to relax.

“That’s
not what some of the reports stated,” he said watching Thayne and I.

“Where’s
Simon?” I asked.  He had said he was going to make a few phone calls but hadn’t
come back yet.

“Why
do you need Simon?” the doctor asked and I ignored him.  “Why do you need
Simon, Scout?”

“Uhm,
because he’s my friend.”

“You
seem to have a lot of friends,” he said making it sound like it was something
it wasn’t.

“Simon
is married,” I growled.

“Mmhmm,”
was his only response.

“Just
get out, I am not talking to you!” I yelled.

“Fine,
then I will go get that paperwork ready, you and I will be spending some time
together.”  And the fucker had the nerve to smile at me.

I
thought back to the other hospitals, the other stays, and no way was I going to
let this prick keep me here against my will.  “Because it’s what he called me!”
I yelled.

“Who
called you that, Scout?”

“Tristan,”
I spit out his name.

“And
who is Tristan, Scout?”

With
that, I screamed at him, “Go the fuck away!”

Thayne’s
arms circled me and he began to softly whisper in my ear.  I didn’t hear any of
it through the sobs that were now wracking my body.

“What
the hell is going on here?” asked the doctor that had been treating me for my
concussion.

“Just
talking with my patient,” replied Dr. Carter smoothly.

“No,
you were baiting her,” Thayne bit out, “talking about having her hospitalized,
scaring her.”

“I
think it’s time for you to leave,” the other doctor said and I gripped Thayne
harder, not wanting him to leave me.

“She
needs treatment,” Dr. Carter said.  “Why can no one else see that?”

“I
said leave, now, and I will be contacting your superior.”

Thayne
held on to me while I cried then I heard Simon’s booming voice yelling at
Thayne asking him what he did to me. Before I could say anything Thayne was
ripped away and Simon had punched him.

I
sat there in stunned disbelief; I couldn’t believe that Simon had hit him.  I
quickly snapped out of it though when Simon went to hit him again.  The entire
time Thayne did nothing but watch him, but when Simon threw the next punch, he
deftly moved out of the way.  One moment he was in the path of Simon’s fist
then he wasn’t, I quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of Simon by the back
of his shirt.

“What
the hell do you think you’re doing?” I nearly yelled.

“He
hurt you,” he shouted spinning around to face me and nearly yanking me off the
bed in the process.  “What did he do?”

“He
didn’t do anything, Simon!” I screamed back.

“Then
why were you crying, Scout?”

“B-because
the doctor.”

He
glanced towards Thayne who had stayed quiet through the whole ordeal.  He had a
split lip and blood trailing down his chin.  He reached up wiped it away with
the back of his hand and nodded.

“Sorry,”
Simon said quietly, “I just thought…” he trailed off.

“Yeah,
I get it,” he replied he reached down and squeezed my hand.  “See you later,
Scout?”

“Yeah,
I’ll see you later.”

He
squeezed my hand once more and walked out the door.  I looked up at Simon and
frowned at him.

“What
was that?”

“I
could ask you the same thing,” he said coldly.

“I
was talking to my friend, Dr. Carter came in said some things then left.  I
cried and my friend held me, now want to tell me why you felt the need to hit
him?”

“I
thought he had done something.”

“Do
I typically let people who have hurt me hold me, let alone touch me?”

He
looked at me like I had lost my mind, but we both knew the answer to that
question “no”.

“So
then why would you think he hurt me?”

“Because
he works for them, Scout.”

I
nodded, “He does, did you know that he didn’t know Ace had a daughter until
that meeting?”

“So
why does that matter?”

“That
I don’t think he knows anything about them really, and he’s not like them.”

“Oh
and how do you know that, you’re so naïve, Scout.”

“Get
out,” I told him, “if you are going to act like a jealous boyfriend then get
out.”

He
spluttered, “Jealous boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“How
would you know what a jealous boyfriend acted like Scout, you’ve never had a
real boyfriend.”

“GET
OUT!” I screamed and he spun on his heel and stormed out through the curtain.

I
curled up in the fetal position and waited for sleep to take me again, but my
body wasn’t cooperating this time.  I felt a warm body curl around me and took
a deep shuddering breath.

“He
was acting like a jealous boyfriend, Harper Lee,” Liam murmured into my hair,
“and he didn’t need to say that.”

I
nodded.

“You
really like Thayne, huh?”

“He’s
my friend, Liam.  He’s the only friend that I have that doesn’t know about what
happened, and with him I can be mostly normal.”

“Yeah,
I can see how that would be appealing, just do me a favor and go slow with him,
I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

I
nodded again and cuddled into his chest, sleep finally finding me.

When
I awoke, Liam was fast asleep drooling all over the pillow, I nudged him with
my elbow but it did no good.

“I’m
sorry,” Simon whispered.

I
looked over and found him sitting on the same rolling chair Dr. Carter had
used.

“What
for?”

“The
way I acted, I should have listened to you to begin with instead of going off
halfcocked.”

“Yeah,
you should have.”

“And
he told me about what happened.”

“You
saw him again?”

“Yeah,
he wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh.”

“He’s
a nice guy, Scout, and the cops have already said he wasn’t involved in what
happened today.”

“Didn’t
need the cops to tell me that,” I mumbled.

“Yeah,
yeah, I know.  So I talked to your doctor he’s going to call that
psychologist’s boss, he won’t be allowed near you again.”

“Good,”
I muttered, “he gives me the creeps.”

“Hmm,
and they are going to let you go, your doctor is getting the paperwork ready.”

“Really?”
I asked excitedly.  “Thought they were going to keep me overnight.”

“Not
anymore.”

“Oh
okay.”

“So
let’s get sleeping beauty here up so you can get ready to leave.”

We
finally got Liam to wake up enough to stumble out of the curtained off area and
I was left to get dressed.  I was released thirty minutes later, happy to go
home.

Chapter
14

“So
what happened with the competition?” I asked while walking in the house.

“Well
you went down for the count,” replied Liam, “we ran over and saw what was
there, and had them call the cops.  They had to reschedule the judging, we have
to be there in the morning to get it done.”

“Okay,
then I need to get some sleep.”

“Ah,
ah, ah, the doctor said you can’t be alone so that means you’re stuck with one
of us, so choose.”

“Kale,”
I replied immediately.

“I
am wounded, Harper Lee, why Kale?”

“He
doesn’t drool,” I told him matter of factly and headed towards the bathroom so
I could take a hot shower.

When
I walked in my room, I found Kale passed out in the middle of the bed.  I
climbed into the sliver of mattress he left me, wedged my feet into his side
and pushed.  I giggled as I watched him roll off the bed with an oomph.  He sat
up glaring daggers at me, and I laughed harder.

“Not
funny, Scout,” he growled.

This
only caused me to laugh so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks, snot coming
out of my nose, and my side hurt.  He kept grumbling like a pissed off bear
woken up before spring and climbed back into bed, where he tackled me down and
began tickling me.  I squealed and tried to get away, but he was able to
deflect and grab my wrists in one hand and tickle me with the other.  My laughs
quickly turned to sobs, and his arms circled me holding me close, and murmuring
nonsense to me trying to calm me down.  After a good cleansing cry, I pulled
myself together and laid down, Kale spooning around me and we fell asleep.

I
was woken up by a noise and looked around, then it hit me—my cell phone. I
jumped out of bed and grabbed it hitting the answer button.

“Hello,”
I mumbled sleepily.

“Scout,”
I heard Cas shout, “you there?”

“Yeah,”
I responded I could barely hear him.

“Head
on trans home…”

“What?”
I yelled.

“See
you hours…” then nothing but static.

“Who
was that?” asked a sleepy Kale, I looked over at him.

“Cas.”

“Is
he okay?”

“Yeah,
he’s fine, but I think he’s on his way home,” I said stunned.

“You
think?”

“I’m
not sure I couldn’t hear him very well, I just got words like transport hours
and home, so what else could it mean?”

“Huh,
well maybe he will call back and we’ll have a better idea.”

“Yeah,
maybe,” I replied climbing back in bed confused. Kale fell back to sleep
quickly, but I stayed awake staring at the ceiling till the sun came up. I kept
going over and over the past twenty-four hours.

When
the sun began to peek behind the blinds in my room, I gave up the façade of
sleep and went downstairs to make coffee and get ready for the judges table.

I
left earlier than anyone else to head for the garage and hung out listening to
my MP3 player, trying to figure out this strange twist on circumstances between
Thayne and me.  I knew I shouldn’t trust him, at least that’s what I kept
telling myself, but I didn’t believe he would hurt me.  I didn’t get that vibe
from him.  I was comfortable around him, which never happened with new people. 
I didn’t know what to do.  I had dated in the past, even had a, well for me,
long-term relationship—we had been together for eight months.  He broke it off
after a botched attempt at sex.  I had been putting him off until finally I had
said yes, then freaked out.  It hadn’t been my first glitch during the
relationship that had just been the last.

After
that, I had decided to stop trying to have relationships, and I couldn’t blame
them for leaving, I was broken.  They had all told me I was broken, and no
matter how hot they thought I was, I wasn’t worth the trouble.  So I had
decided to focus on work, and that’s what I had done for the past year, focused
on the shop, and saving money to buy Saul out.  I didn’t have the time or energy
it would take to have a relationship with anyone, let alone someone who could
be gone at a moment’s notice.  Also there was no way I would be going anywhere
near where Thayne lived.  Too many demons and nightmares for me to ever return
there.  So I guess that made the decision easy, not that he had asked for
anything like that.  He had jumped on just friendship, so maybe that’s all it
was, maybe I was making this all more difficult than it really was.

“Scout?”

I
looked up and found Thayne looking down at me, his lip was swollen, and I
winced for him.

I
pulled my ear buds out.  “Yeah?”

He
laughed, it was a nice sounding laugh.  “I called your name like five times.”

“Sorry,
didn’t hear you.”

“Yeah,
kinda figured that out.”

“Did
you need something?”

“No,
not really, just wondering how you were feeling?” He asked a little taken aback
by my abruptness.

“Doing
fine.”

“How’s
the head?”

“How’s
the lip?”

“Touché,”
he said looking at me oddly, “sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,
I’m fine, just didn’t sleep well.”

“Right,
I can understand that.”

I
was beginning to get nervous under his scrutiny, it was like he saw me, my
demons, and I didn’t like that.

“Okay
well,” I said lifting my ear buds up, “nice talking to you.”

“Scout,
what the hell is wrong with you today?”

“Nothing,
just tired.”

“Did
I do something?”

“No,
it’s me, okay, I’m broken, you don’t understand how broken.”

“Scout,
we’re all broken, in some way, we’re all broken.”

“Not
like me, you’re not broken like me,” I told him, hopped up and headed to the
bathroom so I could breathe.

I
went to the sink and ran cold water, leaned down and splashed some water on my
face.  I reached over to grab some paper towels when one was handed to me.  I
jerked my head up and saw Thayne standing there.  I took the paper towel from
him and wiped off my face keeping an eye on him.

“Want
to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.  “Yesterday we were friends and today I
get the cold shoulder?”

I
shrugged.  “I’m not a good friend.”

“Mmm
nope, that’s not it, so what’s going on?”

“Nothing,”
I mumbled.

“So
then what was with all that broken shit out there?”

“I
am you know, broken?”

“How
about you let me come up with my own conclusions?”

“Why,
so I can get used to you, comfortable with you, just so you can tell me I’m not
worth the time and energy?”

“Fuck,
what the hell they have done to you?” he muttered, though it sounded like it
was to himself.

“Told
me the truth.”

He
shook his head.  “They did a real number on your head.  What kind of dickwads
have you dated in the past?”

I
looked away and whispered, “Not many, they all came to the same conclusion
though.”

“Well
how about you let me make my own decisions regarding about how I spend my time,
yeah?”

“Fine,
whatever.”

“I
never knew I could hate a word so much, until now.  How about the next time I
ask how you’re doing you tell me the truth instead of just saying fine, think
you can do that?”

“Don’t
know.”

“Well
at least that’s honest,” he told me while rolling his eyes.  “So Scout, how are
you feeling today?”

It
was my turn to roll my eyes.  “My head hurts, I’m tired, and I don’t know
what’s going on between us, and it’s confusing the fuck out of me.”

“I’m
sorry about the head, take a nap in your stall later, and we’re friends, for
now.”

I
had to hide my smile about the nap comment; I hadn’t known anyone had noticed
that.

I
nodded, “Friends.”

He
smiled at me, “For now, now let’s get out of here before I get into trouble for
being in the women’s bathroom.”

We
walked out of the bathroom and straight into Simon, Liam, and Kale walking into
the shop—well, this should be fun.

“Scout,”
Simon growled and walked away.

Liam
and Kale both looked at me smirking, and I sighed.  This is shaping up to be a
fan-fucking-tastic day.  Thayne reached down squeezed my hand then grinned at
me, he knew I would be in for it and he found it funny—terrific.  Then he
walked off.

“So
what was that middle of the night call about?” asked Kale. “Something about
Cas?”

“Yeah,
not quite sure but I think he may be on his way home?” I said ending it in a
question looking at the two of them.

“Well
guess we’ll find out soon enough, Harper Lee.”

I
nodded, not wanting to think what I had missed in that conversation, about the
possibility that he had been hurt, and they were transporting him to a
hospital.  I headed towards our stall for the guys to grab my arm and direct me
to a different stall.

“Uhm,
where are we going?”

“We
were moved,” replied Kale.  “Everything’s been moved over already.”

“Okay,”
I said following them over to the stall beside Ace & Lace’s.  “Oh this is
lovely,” I said sarcastically.

We
unlocked and opened the door and I went in search of my pillow and blanket,
found a corner and curled up for a much needed nap, and I hoped that Cas would
call me soon.

I
was awoken by my phone ringing once again.  I quickly pulled it out of my
pocket, and hit the answer button.

“Ello,”
I mumbled.

“Scout,
it’s Cas.”

I
was awake in an instant, “Cas.”

“I’m
in Germany, waiting on transport.”

“Are
you serious?” I asked.  “Are you okay, you’re not hurt, are you?”

“No,
I am fine, not hurt, just being sent home early.”

“Really?”
I squealed.

“Yeah,
hey I just wanted you to know, I gotta go, talk soon.”  Then he was gone, and I
squealed again.

“You
okay over there neighbor?” I heard Thayne yell.

“I’m
great,” I yelled back.

I
heard him chuckle. “I like great,” he yelled back.