Envious (22 page)

What happened?
Panic subsided when I saw his face, but reality pressed down upon me. I was half naked in a bathtub, being held up by my cousin. The previous moments were all a blur to me. “Todd.”

“How are you?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

“What happened?” I urged him to answer truthfully; my eyes pierced his and he looked away.

“What did you take?” he demanded.

I stared at him until he reluctantly looked me straight in the eye. “I didn’t take anything,” I answered.

He closed his eyes regretfully, shaking his head. “Well, you were high on something.”

“Todd, tell me. What happened?”

Without a word, he yanked off his black t-shirt and tossed it on my head as he stood. His body crackled and popped from the motion.
How long had he been there? Minutes? Hours?
Had he been there all night?
I drew my arms through the sleeves and pulled the body of the shirt over my tan bra, trying not to drop it in the water. Todd held his hand out, taking mine in his and pulled me to my feet, water sloshing around the porcelain. He helped me out of the slippery tub, then got me a towel from a cabinet.

I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror. I was white as paper. Dark red circles had formed under my eyes and my hair was sweaty and matted to my forehead. Blood seemed to drain from my body as the realization of that night hit me.

I held the towel, still folded in my hands, and said, “Everything’s a blur of color, and noise…”

Todd’s gaze intensified and his face tensed. “Still?”

“That’s what I remember…like a dream.”

Todd took the towel from my hands and wrapped it around my waist, covering my soaking wet jeans. He rubbed the towel vigorously against the outside of my thighs, making me feel like a child being dried by her parent after a bath.

“Why’d you leave my room? Why’d you go out there with
them
?” he asked, standing up straight again.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?! Damn it Sandy! You could have gotten hurt, died or something! Hell, you almost got raped!”

Tears flooded my eyes and fell down my cheeks in rivers. I couldn’t even try to hold them back. Todd swallowed hard and pulled me against his bare chest. He wrapped his thick arms around me and hugged me tightly as I pressed my head into his shoulder, weeping on him. I had hoped what I recalled was a dream. Maybe some was, but to what extent?

“Todd, tell me everything?” I asked.

He sighed and sat me down on the toilet seat lid. He knelt beside me on the small, wet rug and messed with his hair, pulling his fingers through it like he really didn’t care what it looked like. “I saw you weren’t in my room, so I went out to find you,” he said, then fell silent. I watched him, waiting for him to continue. It seemed as difficult for him to say as it was for me to hear. Todd began to pull at the fibers of the rug as he slowly continued, “When I did…there were three guys all over you and they, uh, yeah, well, they were all over you. I got rid of them and pulled you in here. You were so hot, sweating real bad. I tried to cool you off in the tub, but you kept thrashing around. So I held you still and tried to calm you down. Eventually, you fell asleep.”

I squirmed in my seat. Ew, three guys.

Todd reached out and lifted the bottom hem of his shirt that I wore. I stared at him uncomfortably until he said, “Look.”

I looked where he touched my stomach. My skin was red and puffy. It looked like a bite mark. I shuddered at the thought. “I think I saw a couple more,” Todd said. He searched through the cabinet until he found peroxide. He soaked some toilet paper in it and handed it to me. “Who’s Eric?” he asked.

“How do you know about Eric?” I inquired as I began to disinfect the wound. It didn’t look like the skin was broken, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Well, you called me…uh, you said his name while you were out of it.”

I tried to think back to when I said his name. I think I said it a lot last night. But…wait… “Todd, did I kiss you?”

He snickered, then started to laugh. I stared at him uncomfortably until he calmed down a bit. He looked at me, grinning, holding back another laugh. “Oh, you did a lot more than
that
.”

“I know I implied I wanted to know everything, but there is a limit to what I can handle.”
Ewww!

“Don’t worry, Sandy,” he told me. “People used to marry their cousins. Man, those were the good old days.” My eyes widened and he burst out laughing again. “Ya know, I’m sure there’s some state that will let us get hitched.” Again with the laughing. Now I remembered why I couldn’t stand him.

“Oh, this is so like you,” I sneered. “You were probably jumping out of your pants at the thought that I would touch you.”

The smile on his face died immediately. “What are you saying, that I liked it?” he asked, ferocity taking over his expression. “You’re sick, you know that? Sick. I didn’t want my little cousin grabbing me, so shut the hell up! Oh, by the way, there’re two more bites on you, and they’re not from me, bitch. I’m outta here.” He unlocked the bathroom door and slammed it shut behind him.

“Todd, I’m sorry!” I yelled, desperate for him to come back. I doubt he heard, but I waited for a response. There was yelling from outside. Maybe the party was still going on. I cautiously stuck my head out the door and saw something I didn’t expect. Todd was beating on some guy in the living room. The guy was laid out on the floor, trying to fight back, but Todd was on him, pinning him down with his knee on his chest.

I stood there watching in shock as Todd hauled fis
t after fist on his face. He just kept hitting and hitting. Blood splattered across the carpet and Todd’s bare chest. Slowly the sleepy partiers who were laying and sitting everywhere in the room began to come to life. A tall guy came from behind Todd and pulled him off the bloody mess, but Todd whaled on him. He threw the guy into the wall by the shoulders, then pushed him back again, slamming him into the wall over and over. Three more people, two guys and a girl, tried to pry him off but he fought with all of them hanging on him. The guy he attacked slid to the floor and Todd followed him down, whaling his fists into him. Then Todd got up, with the two guys still pulling at his arms and back. They screamed at him to stop.

I couldn’t move. I was too scared. Todd shook the guys off him and stared down the gir
l who had tried to stop him. Todd screamed at her, yelling, “Where is he?! Where is that son of a bitch?! Tell me, Denise!” His voice was raw and dangerous. The guys stood behind him, unsure of what to do. Todd shoved the girl into the seat of a chair. “Where?!”

“I don’t know…” she whimpered, biting on the ends of her wild pink hair nervously.

Todd turned from her and began to search through the sea of bodies passed out and lining the walls. He searched and searched as I began to emerge from the bathroom. He stormed out the front door and I sunk back into my haven. I locked the door and heard Todd outside, storming across the lawn in search of someone. I felt worse as I heard the yelling and screaming amplify.

I snuck out of the bathroom and into Todd’s room as quickly as I could, locking the door silently behind me. The yelling and noise stopped. It seemed like an eternity before Todd shook the door handle, trying to enter his room. I heard him punch the door as I slid back the lock. He slammed the door wide open as he entered, nearly hitting my face with it.

Todd threw my shirt at me. “I’m taking you home,” he growled, not even looking near me.

“Todd, I didn’t mean-”

“Never turn your back on your food again. I won’t always be around to bodyguard you. Now grab your damn purse.”

We rushed from the house. Todd stayed close to me, protectively. He pushed me along as everyone stared. I was still barefoot, but there was no way I
was going to bring that to his attention. When we got outside, people in the yard began to yell obscenities at Todd, trying to rile him up, but he was playing it cool. Cool as a hot stove, but cool compared to before. A huge guy picked up a broken tree branch and headed toward us. I clambered into Todd’s car, slamming the door quickly, and Todd sped away from the curb as the guy was about to smash the windshield with the branch. He barely missed.

I sat, silent and embarrassed, twisting my sweater in my hands. My heart pounded in my throat. I still wore Todd’s dark t-shirt, swimming in its massive size. I looked carefully over at him and saw a bit of blood had soaked into the sleeve of the white t-shirt he now wore. His knuckles were bruised and bloodied, and he squeezed the steering wheel with such force that I expected it to break. I forced my eyes closed, not wanting to see any more.

His car screeched to a stop in front of my house. My parents’ car was gone.
Where did they go last night?
I couldn’t remember. My brain felt fried. I felt so dirty…

“Get out,” Todd said sternly, dragging me out of my thoughts.

“Todd, I’m sorry. I never consider your feelings and what you did for me, it was great. Thank you, Todd.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, staring out the window. He mumbled something indecipherable. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said.”

“Fine. Now go.”

“Come in with me. Please?” I begged. I didn’t want him going back to that house, not ever. He glared at me, his gray eyes hard as steel. “I feel kind of weak,” I lied. I felt mixed up, confused, dirty, and like I had gotten hit over the head, but not weak…physically anyway.

Todd got out of the car and gently pulled me out. He held his arm around my waist as he helped me to the door. Todd searched through my purse with his free hand and pulled out my keys. He jammed them in the door and lifted me inside with one arm.

“Need anything?” he asked. “I’ll make you some food. God knows you need it.”

“I’m gonna take a shower really quick,” I called after him as I shut myself in the bathroom. Tears threatened my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall. I refused to feel sorry for myself. I knew what happened to me last night would haunt me all of my life, but I wasn’t about to let it start today.

I detached my mind from my body, a skill I had perfected long ago. As I washed myself, cleansing every last inch of my body, I thought of nothing. My mind was numb, just the way I wanted it to be.

When I was showered and dressed, I walked into the kitchen to see Todd flipping an egg in a pan. “You like cheese?” I nodded and he laid four pieces on the fried egg.

1205

I sat, crumpled in the corner of my cell. Hours earlier, guards had attempted to blindfold me without looking at me. It was a failed act. They were too frightened to risk looking me in the eye. They feared my nonexistent powers.

The door at the end of the hall opened with a loud screech of metal grinding against metal. A procession walked into my presence, hooded figures carrying amulets. The leader of them all stepped up to me. He removed his hood to reveal his wrinkled, tired, but strong face.

“Witch, your powers cannot work on me, so do not try.” He pulled a cloth from his cloak and tied it tightly over my eyes, but not before I caught the glance of my brother, Elijah, under the hood farthest from me.

CHAPTER 20

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Todd and I sat next to each other on the sofa, watching old episodes of “Saved by the Bell.” We must have both fallen asleep because when the front door opened, we nearly jumped out of our skin. We turned and looked to see my parents standing in the open doorway. Todd cursed under his breath. For three long seconds, no one said a thing…no one moved. The air seemed to have been sucked from the room. Todd slowly came out of shock and stood to go.

“Todd,” my mother said, “We didn’t expect to find you here…”

“Yeah, well I didn’t expect to be here.” He tried to walk past them to the door, but my dad stepped in his path, grabbing his chin with his hand.

“What’s going on here?” my dad asked, almost in a whisper to Todd’s face. I could see my cousin’s Adam’s apple move up and down as he swallowed hard, looking up into my dad’s stern face.

Todd pulled away. “Leave me alone.” Dad blocked the door.

“Is that blood? Why are you bleeding?” my mom asked in a harsh manner. “What happened to your hands?” she demanded, pointing to his bruised, gauze-wrapped knuckles. “Have you been into drugs again?”

“What’s it matter?” Todd spat the words with potent venom.

“Tell us the truth,” my dad demanded. “You can’t lie to us. We know you, Todd, whether you like it or not.” My dad was never this harsh on him before, at least not that I could recall.

“I can’t believe this!” my mom exclaimed.

“Todd didn’t do drugs, mom!” I yelled.

“Don’t bother, Sandy,” Todd said through gritted teeth. He reached and grabbed the door handle. Curling his lips back, he spoke directly into my dad’s face, “Get out of my way.” My father moved, gesturing that he really didn’t care, and Todd stormed out, slamming the door closed behind him.

“Todd, wait!” I scrambled off the sofa and to the door, but Todd was already pulling away from the curb.

“What’s going on?” my mom asked me. She stared straight at me. “Why are you protecting him, Sandy? Why was he here?”