Bruises of the Heart (19 page)

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Over the next few days I started to feel better. It was still painful to breathe deeply, but my therapist made me so I wouldn't develop pneumonia. The nurses also had me up and walking around the floor I was on. I called it shuffling like an old lady, but whatever got me out of there quicker was all right by me.

I was sent home on Saturday morning, and I was so happy to be back at the cabin I didn't even mind the flood of attention from my family. The swelling around my eye
s
had gone down so I could see again, but I hadn't had the nerve to look in a mirror yet. I knew I was still really bruised and swollen. Noah told me every day how much better I looked, but I didn't really consider him an objective observer.

Tara visited, of course, but since it was the first day back from spring break, I found myself hoping she wouldn't come to see me. I knew everyone must know what had happened and I wasn't looking forward to hearing what everyone's opinions were.

"Hey, Victoria, how're you?" Tara came through the screen door of the cabin. "I have so much to tell you."

"I was actually hoping this whole incident would escape everyone's notice. I guess that was more than could be expected, though, especially since I wasn't in school today. All right, tell me everything so when I go back I won't be surprised," I said reluctantly.

"Well, I didn't want to tell you earlier, but everyone knew about it way before today, so it wouldn't have mattered if you were there or not. Amanda Wall's mom works in the emergency room and she saw you come in, so there was no way everyone wasn't going to find out."

If Tara was the biggest gossip in school, she only just beat out Amanda Wall. If they ever decided to team up and put their extensive abilities to work for good, there would never be another secret.

"It isn't as bad as you're thinking, either. I was barraged with questions all day long and so was Noah. Everyone has the same opinion about Will, though, and that's that he's a complete jerk. There were a few underclassmen girls who were really jealous of you dating him who expressed the opinion that if you had been nicer to him, this wouldn't have happened, but I already took care of altering their opinions," Tara said with a smile.

I groaned and tried to imagine how exactly she had altered their opinions without getting into trouble, but then I figured I would find out all about it soon enough.

"Well, I'll be back day after tomorrow, so that should really start a wave of talk after everyone gets a look at my face," I grumbled.

"What do you mean the day after tomorrow? I thought you were going to be out until next week?" Noah said, from the front door.

"No, the doctor said I could go back on Wednesday," I told him.

"But it hasn't even been a whole week. Do you feel well enough to go back?" he asked as he walked in and gently sat down at the other end of the couch.

"Well, I have restrictions. No P.E., and I have to wait until after the change of class to go to my next one so no one bumps into me, but other than that it should be fine."

"How are you going to carry all your books?"

"I'm going to take her bag with me when the bell rings. It'll be there waiting for her," Tara chimed in.

"And I'm only starting back for half a day this week then back to full days next week. It'll be fine. There's nothing to worry about." I smiled brightly.

I wasn't feeling as confident as I made it all seem. The pain was still really intense at times, but I was able to work through it. And I always had the option of calling and going home early.

"Well, if you feel well enough to go back, then I hope everything will be okay. Just do me a favor
—
and I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but if you start to hurt or get tired, give it up for the day," said Noah tactfully.

"I know that you mean well, and yes, I'm going to take it easy. Mom already lectured me at length about this."

"You also should never be alone. Even in the halls at school. No one knows where he is or where he might show up, even if everyone at school is watching out for him. We all know that it's easy to slip in and out of school with no one really noticing." Noah looked at me meaningfully.

I gave him a wry smile, remembering the times we had disappeared for part of the school day
—
driving around and talking, or sometimes not talking a whole lot.

"Have either of you heard anything about where he might be?" I asked hesitantly. Noah and Tara looked at each other and I got the feeling that they didn't want to tell me something. "One of you needs to just spit it out. It's obvious that you found something out today."

Tara took a deep breath, then said, "Amanda told me that she heard his parents had tried to put him on a plane to some relative in California, but because there is a warrant for his arrest, they couldn't get him on in time. No one's seen him since the warrant was issued. Everyone figures that his parents are hiding him somewhere. It's just that no one knows where."

I nodded my head. "That makes sense. His father's in real estate, so he probably has several houses where he can send him and no one would even notice. Do the police know that?"

"Do the police know what?" Mom asked as she came into the cabin. "You may as well just tell me what you know. I'm not so old that I don't remember you guys are way better informed than I will ever be. You have that whole teen grapevine thing that I'm just out of at this point."

"Tara told me that his parents tried to get him out of state, and I was just wondering if the police knew his father had a lot of properties that he could hide him on is all."

"That explanation seems woefully short and I'm sure without a lot of details, but it will do for now. And to answer your question, the police do know that. They have been trying to get a list of properties from the father for a few days, but now they are waiting on a court order."

The three of us stared at my mom with shocked expressions.

"What? I can be well informed too, you know. I have my own sources," she said in response to our jaw dropping expressions.

"Wow, those must be really good sources," Tara said, a little in awe.

"Yeah, well, when you have friends from high school who work in the D.A.'s office, you'll be able to have really good information, too," I said, looking at my mom, who smiled at me.

"By the way, your Auntie Bree says hello. She'll probably stop by sometime this week to see us," Mom said as she busied herself in the kitchen.

"I've got to get going. My mom will be wondering where I am. Ever since what happened to you, she's been a little overprotective. I'll see you tomorrow," Tara said, then got up and walked out the door, waving as she went.

"Will you be staying for dinner, Noah?" my mom asked from the kitchen.

"If that's all right, I'd like to."

"It's fine with me. Do your parents remember what you look like?"

"Yeah, they do. But I won't be staying late tonight. I have to be home before dark," he answered. "Everyone's parents are a little uptight since they all learned about the attack on you
—
mine included," he said quietly to me.

"I'm so sorry. It seems like I'm still messing everything up. First, I disappoint my family with everything that went on with him, then I scare the heck out of them because I got beaten up by him and look like this, and now everyone's parents are freaking out because of me. When is all of this going to end? I thought that by breaking off the relationship, everything would eventually get back to normal," I whined to Noah.

"First, none of this is your fault and I think you know that. You're just feeling miserable right now, which I can also understand. Second, you need to stop blaming yourself and put the blame where it belongs
—
right between his eyes."

"Why do I get the feeling that you would love to see your fist in his face? At the very least, that is?"

"Probably because that is exactly where I would love to place my fist, or something slightly more lethal. Don't start worrying about me actually doing something like that. I'm too smart." He smiled at me before he gently leaned forward and kissed me on the lips.

"Don't you people have homework to do?" Mom yelled from the kitchen.

We both laughed, even though I tried to suppress mine because I knew it was going to hurt. Noah pulled out his books, started working on his homework, and filled me in on what had happened in class. I tried to do as much as I could, which wasn't much, but I had all day tomorrow to work on it. By the time Noah was ready to leave, I was exhausted and was asleep before he was off the porch.