Asylum (39 page)

            With
everyone’s eyes on her, Chloe smiled weakly and quickly ripped the paper off. 
It was a small suede box.  She snapped it open and caught her breath.  Around
her, the family leaned in for a better look.

            On
a soft grey cushion, a deep blue stone set above a smaller green stone in a
silver setting was suspended from a delicate silver chain.

            “It’s
a necklace,” he explained unnecessarily.

            “It’s
beautiful,” Chloe whispered, touching the chain gently with one finger.

            “The
blue is supposed to be like the water and the green for the woods,” he said
shamefacedly.  “You remember what I said about how the outdoors…”

            “I
remember,” she said sparing him from the family.

            “He’s
so romantic!” Agnes said, trying to keep the pride out of her voice, but
failing none-the-less.

            “Oh
my God, Mom!” Seth said rubbing his face again.

            “Gets
it from me,” James vowed, returning to his poker face.  The girls all laughed.

            “Put
it on,” Rachel urged.

            “I
want a necklace like that one,” Bea pouted.

            A
knock at the front door called the attention away from the small grey box.

            “GRANDMA!
GRANPA!” Bea shrieked, rushing to the door in expectation of more presents.

            As
everyone stood and kicked aside paper or stacked opened presents in piles under
the tree, Chloe found her opportunity.  Squeezing Seth’s hand, she stood on
tiptoe and whispered in his ear.

            “I
love it.  It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten, from anybody.”

            He
nodded and squeezed her hand back.  For the rest of the vacation, she never
took it off.

*          *          *

            Sam
glanced at Chloe stretched out on her bed, reading her new Chemistry text book,
and dropped her suitcase with a thud.

            “You
will not BELIEVE what happened to me over vacation,” Sam declared.

            “Try
me,” Chloe disagreed, closing her book and sitting up.

            Sam
kicked her shoes off and fell backwards onto her bed with her arms
outstretched.

            “They
staged an intervention,” Sam said dramatically.

            “Who
did?  What kind of intervention?” Chloe asked, opening her book again.

            “My
family!  Said I was drinking too much and they were worried about me.  They all
had letters that they read, it was beyond awful!” Sam complained.

            “So
this wouldn’t be a good time for me to read my letter to you about your
drinking problem?” Chloe deadpanned, sounding for the world like Seth’s dad.

            “Very
funny!” Sam snapped.  “How was your vacay?  Find anything new?”

            “No,
I went home with Seth,” Chloe mumbled into her book.

            Sam
rolled over and propped her chin up with her hands.

            “And?”
she asked.

            “And
they’re all very nice,” Chloe said as she skimmed through a chapter on
electrons.

            “So
did you guys…?” Sam trailed off.

            “NO!”
Chloe said, slamming her book closed again, “no, we did not.  So get your mind
out of the gutter.”

            “It
lives there,” Sam excused herself.

            “So
he invited you to-”

            “No,
he pretty much just told me he was taking me home for Christmas,” Chloe said. 
“He didn’t really give me much of a choice.”

            “Uh-huh,”
Sam said in a tone that clearly expressed that she had more to say if asked. 
Chloe took the bait.

            “What
do you mean ‘uh-huh’?” she asked suspiciously.

            “Oh
nothing,” Sam feigned innocence, twirling a lock of hair between two fingers.

            “Go
ahead Sam, say what you want to say,” Chloe sighed.

            “So
when you got there, what did you guys talk about?” Sam asked, examining the
hair between her fingers for split ends.

            “Stuff…I
dunno,” Chloe shrugged.

            “Has
he ever said that he doesn’t like me?” Sam asked, sitting up and fixing Chloe
with a sharp look.

            “No! 
No, he likes you fine.  Why would you ask that?”

            “I
don’t think he does,” Sam said watching Chloe carefully.

            “Well…he…I
think sometimes…he thinks that I kind of act like I’m closer to you than to
him, and I think that it kind of annoys him, but no, that doesn’t mean he
actually dislikes you or anything,” Chloe fumbled.

            “Yeah,
that’s kind of what I thought.  It’s like he’s jealous of me or something,” Sam
nodded her head.

            “No,
not at all, that’s not it he just-”

            “Do
you ever wonder why he’s so into you?” Sam cut her off, changing tactics.

            “All
the time, but he’s just-”

            “Well
think about it like this…he complains that you don’t open up enough with him,
right?  That you don’t tell him enough.  And really, you don’t.  I mean, look
how long it took for you to even tell him about George,” Sam was back to
playing with her hair.

            “Okay,”
Chloe agreed.

            “So
he isn’t getting any emotional intimacy from you.  And we all know he isn’t
getting any ummm…physical intimacy,” Sam giggled.

            Chloe
frowned and shrugged.

            “What’s
your point?” she mumbled.

            “What
is he getting out of this relationship?” Sam spread her hands, suggesting that
she didn’t know.

            Chloe
recoiled, exactly as if she had been slapped.  What was he getting out of it? 
He never did say why he was with her.  Why exactly was he sticking around?

            “I
don’t know,” she admitted.

            “Control,”
Sam said, nodding her head wisely.

            “No,”
Chloe said.

            “Yes,”
Sam argued.  “Take a step back and look at the facts.  You didn’t want to go to
his house for vacation.  If he’d asked, you would have said no.  Somehow he set
it up so that he wasn’t really giving you  a choice, and you went.  He’s always
demanding that you tell him things, and he doesn’t like me because he thinks
we’re too close or something.  Remember when you didn’t go with him out to the
rocks, and he didn’t call you for two days?  How about in the car on the way to
Traverse City when he basically said he didn’t believe you about the ghost?  Or
how about when we went in the woods looking for Will, and he didn’t want you
to?  He didn’t say more than three words the whole trip back.  He was pissed.”

            “He
was tired,” Chloe suggested more than insisted.

            “He
checks in on you almost every night at the same time,” Sam added.

            “Because
he knows that we’re both kind of freaked out in here-”

            “Or
he’s checking to make sure you’re safely in bed and not out partying or hanging
out with people, or guys he doesn’t know,” Sam smirked.

            “I
don’t think that’s-”

            “It’s
just a thought I had,” Sam cut her off, and rolled over onto her back, crossing
her arms behind her head and gazing up at the ceiling.  “I’d watch it though if
I were you.  Don’t drink any kool aide he gives you.”

            “Whatever,”
Chloe shrugged. 

            She
yanked her textbook back open and feigned studying.  Still laying on her back,
Sam pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, crumpled it into a ball, and
began absent-mindedly tossing and catching it.  Every time the paper ball hit
her hand it made a hollow, rustling noise.  To Chloe it seemed to grow louder
and louder until, following the path of the ball up and down with her eyes, she
would wince every time Sam caught it.

            “Stop!”
Chloe snapped.

            Sam
tossed and caught the ball once more, and then shot it at the garbage can. 

Her
aim was wide.

            “I’m
bored,” Sam complained.  “Let’s go somewhere, let’s do something!  I could go
for a gin and tonic, or maybe just a beer.”

            The
phone rang.  Chloe leapt off the bed and ripped the receiver off it’s cradle
before Sam could sit up.  She kept the conversation short, fully aware of Sam
lying there, listening.

            “Who
was it?” Sam asked, rolling onto her side.

            “Seth.”

            “And…?”

            “And
nothing.  He just wants me to stop over for a minute,” Chloe narrowed her eyes,
daring Sam to say anything.

            “Well
run then Chloe, go on,” Sam smirked and cracked an imaginary whip at her.

            “Bite
me!” Chloe said.   On her way out, she made sure to slam the door.

            Seth
was leaning forward in his recliner, gripping his Wii controller with one hand,
playing a game with absolute concentration.

            “What’s
up?” Chloe asked.

            “My
mom just dropped by.  You forgot a shirt yesterday, Rachel found it under her
bed.  She set it on…”  Seth twisted the arm holding the game controller sharply
and then swore.  “On the desk,” he continued, completely absorbed.

            “You
should have let me know, I would have come and said hi,” Chloe chided him.

            “I
thought you were studying, getting ready for classes or something, didn’t want
to bug you,” he frowned at the screen.

            Chloe
shuffled over to his desk and picked up the neatly folded
Maird Pastie
Shoppe
t-shirt.  Underneath it was a green pamphlet with the MSU logo
across the top.  Chloe took a quick glance at Seth, confirmed he was still
devoted to fighting monsters or whatever, and leaned in for a closer look.

           
Study
Abroad: Costa Rica, Environmental Studies, Summer Semester
, she read. 
Glancing over her shoulder at Seth once more, she opened the pamphlet and read
about the course.  Rain forest walks, hands-on work with preservationists,
blah, blah, blah.  The pictures showed a college age girl face-to-face with a
bright red parrot, a group of students smiling and laughing in front of a
tropical waterfall, and another of a male student conversing seriously with a
native in front of a thatch-roofed mud house.

            Chloe
took a step back and made her face a blank wall.

            “Hey,
what’s this?” she asked, pretending to discover the pamphlet.

            “What’s
what?” Seth asked without looking.

            “MSU
Study Abroad,” Chloe read, “are you thinking of transferring to MSU or
something?”

            “Nope,”
Seth said, “Just going to do a summer study course through them.  BHC doesn’t
have any study abroad programs, and I thought it would look good, you know, for
grad school.”

            “So
you’re spending the summer in Costa Rica,” Chloe deduced.

            “If
they accept me.  I don’t know how many spots they have for students outside the
university, or how competitive it is, but yes I did apply recently,” he said,
hitting the pause button and turning in his seat to face her.  “What were you
planning on doing this summer, Clo?  I guess I assumed you’d be sticking around
here.  You’re not going home are you?”

            “Yeah,
for a little while at least,” she shrugged.

            “Do
you not want me to go?” he asked.

            “No,
that’s fine, I don’t care,” she shrugged again.

            “We
get a week off in the middle of the semester.  It’d be great if you came down
that week.  If I even get accepted to it, that is,” he said.

            “I
don’t know,” Chloe said, pretending to study a framed hockey team photo on the
wall over his desk.

            “If
it’s a money thing, I can help with it and-”

            “No,
it’s fine.  I’m just not sure what I’m going to be doing yet so…I really don’t
know.  How about ‘maybe’ is that better?” she asked.

            “I’d
prefer a ‘yes’” he smiled.

            Chloe
could practically hear Sam’s voice in her ear. 
And you’re already trying to
figure out how to do it too, because when he says JUMP…

            “You
look tired,” she said, changing the subject.

            “I’m
beat.  There was practice last night, and then Mike and I were over at Lane’s
until two this morning, and I had that meeting with my advisor about choosing my
internship, so I had to get up early this morning.  I was just thinking about
taking a nap when Mom stopped by,” he admitted.