The House of Grey- Volume 2 (14 page)

“
Send him in, Brian.”

Artorius walked into the room. He looked distraught, like he was laboring under some huge burden.

“
Where have you been?” asked Monson the moment Artorius entered his study. “I haven’t seen you for a whole day. Uncool to leave me hanging like that.”  

“
I was in the medical wing for most of the evening and for part of this morning, then I tried to talk to Casey.” Artorius walked to the couch against the far wall. He plopped down and let out a breath. After a moment he looked a great deal calmer. “He wasn’t having it. All in all, not the best Saturday I’ve ever had.”

“
How’s Kylie? Is she OK? What about Casey? Where has he been?”

“
Kylie is doing better, but you should have seen her yesterday. She looked half-dead.”

“
Half-dead?” Monson raised an eyebrow. “You’re dramatizing just a bit.”

Artorius’ eyes rose to meet Monson, his own expression turning very serious. “No, I’m not.”

Monson, slightly taken aback, lapsed into silence as a stream of thought came to mind.

Whatever Kylie had done, it had a huge effect on her stamina. Her mind control, or whatever it was, physically affected her. Doubt suddenly rose up from the back of his mind.

Mind control,
he thought.
That isn’t possible. The good guys don’t always win and life isn’t fair.

He caught the image of his scarred countenance in his sleeping flat screen.

Life is definitely not fair
, said the voice in his head.

He stared at his own face for a moment more. His face stared back.

No…that was not right. His face
reflected
back. An image does not stare. But…but then why were his lips moving? He leaned closer to the black screen.  He thought he saw something behind his reflection, almost like those colorful 3D pictures you have to stare at for a while before you see the hidden image.  He rubbed his eyes.

“
Grey, are you OK?” Artorius’ voice startled him. He fought the urge to look behind him. He slowly finished rubbing his eyes and again gazed at his own face in the screen.

Just me,
he
thought.
Man I must be tired.
 

“
Yeah, I’m fine,” he said finally. “Just a bit tired. It’s been a long day.”

“
Ain’t that the truth,” agreed Artorius. He suddenly jerked, looking squarely at the right side of Monson’s face.  Troubled, he spoke in an unsure voice.

“
Grey, what happened to your face?”

Monson laughed. “Wow, this conversation sounds familiar.”

Artorius laughed as well, catching on. “Ahh…memories…but no, that wasn’t what I was referring to. Your jaw is all red and puffy.”

Monson paused, unsure whether he should tell Artorius what happened. He decided he should.

“
Casey.”

Artorius’ eyes bulged. “He hit you?”

Monson nodded his head. “Yeah.”

“
Why?” Artorius sounded stunned.

“
Probably because I was there and in his way.”  

Artorius’ shock gave way to curiosity. “What happened?”

Monson smiled weakly. His jaw still hurt. He relayed the details of the incident as best he could. Amazement spread its way across Artorius’ face.

“
So what happened after he hit you?”

“
I lay on the ground for a bit and then came back here.  I’ve been waiting for you and him ever since.”

He flipped open his phone. “I texted him this morning, and again about an hour ago. Haven’t heard from him.”

Artorius ran a hand through his hair. Some sort of internal struggle seemed to be plaguing him now. “I think we need to talk, Grey.”

Taken aback, Monson asked, “About what?”

Artorius smiled. “About the very thing that you’ve been wondering. I think we need to talk about Kylie and Casey.” He looked at the bruise starting to form on Monson’s face. “There’s an explanation for his behavior. Please don’t think badly of him.”

Monson’s confusion was mounting. “Hold on, Arthur.”

Artorius glared at him.

“
Sorry.”

Monson shot him a big smile. He winced as his jaw twinged painfully.  “I thought we wanted Casey to tell his story.”

“
We did.”

 “
So what changed?”

Artorius gave him a serious look. “Everything, but that’s not the point. I think you’ve earned this one.”

*****

”
I can’t give you all the details,” said Artorius.

The two were in Monson’s room now, Monson lying on the bed and Artorius in his customary spot by the window. They both snacked on some rice cakes that Brian left out. They were very dry and without much flavor, but they were low in everything from calories to sugar so Brian loved them.

Artorius continued talking after taking a bite of his cake.

“
I don’t know the whole story myself, but as these stories tend to start, Kylie and Casey were childhood friends. They grew up together and—”

Monson, anticipating his next words, interrupted. “Oh, let me guess.  They grew apart as they went to school.”

Artorius looked unsure of himself.  "Yes and no at the same time. It’s kinda hard to put into words.”

“
Wait,” Monson put up a hand. “Allow me.”

Artorius waved his hand as if to tell him he had the floor.

Monson cleared his throat. “They were childhood friends, very close, inseparable in fact. And for the longest time, like family. No...even closer than family. When the time came, they started school together and remained just as close, supporting each other through all kinds of trials.  Both were very happy with their friendship and the obvious hints of something more just under the surface…”

He gave Artorius a small wink then continued.

"Which all changed when Kylie came to school one day, looked down and realized she had boobs and a smokin' bod, and then all of a sudden Cassius Kay wasn’t qualified to be her friend anymore. Jealously, anger and bitterness swelled as the turbulent, unsettled and tragically unspoken feelings took their toll, destroying the once-glorious relationship. Now? Now they hold fast to the remnants of that glorious past, not wanting to dwell on it, but sometimes thinking of how things might have been.”

He put his arms up as if to say
ta-da
then quickly put them back to his side, mortified. Artorius just looked taken aback.  

“
Sorry, Arthur,” Monson berated himself inwardly, ashamed once again of his habit of using humor to deal with sad or depressing things.

Artorius recovered. “No, it’s fine. I’m just amazed at how close you are to what really happened. How did you guess?” Then as an afterthought he added, “And don’t call me Arthur.”

Monson shrugged in relief.  “I was in a hospital bed for two months. I watched a lot of TV. I’m pretty sure I saw this on an episode of
Days of Our Lives
.”

Artorius tried to talk and laugh at the same time, which caused him to choke on his half-chewed rice cake. “Well, I’ll try and fill in the details that
Days of Our Lives
left out.”

He settled back, making himself more comfortable.  “Really, for the most part, you got the bulk of the story correct. They were friends. Really close ones from what I understand. What you don’t know is that Kylie didn’t just go through puberty; she went through a… a change.”  

 
Monson chuckled at this. “Well, I don’t know about you but I’m glad that we got that out of the way. I don’t think we need to continue this story. I really feel that I understand both Kylie and Casey in ways that I didn’t even think possible.”

Artorius scowled, though he had a slight smile on his face. “You’re such a smartass.”

“
Yeah, I know,” agreed Monson. “OK, I can’t resist. Tell me about this colossal change that Kylie experienced.”

“
I have a better idea, I’ll show you.”

 “
How do you plan on doing that?” asked Monson.

 
Artorius continued smiling and pulled out his phone. Moving towards the bed, he motioned for Monson to scoot over and sat down next to him.  Artorius touched the Photos app and scrolled down.

“
Now form a picture in your mind of what Kylie looks like.  You’re well acquainted with her. And hey, let’s face it, she’s a fairly hard person to forget. Got it? OK, now look.”

Artorius touched the small thumbnail and the image filled the screen. Monson gasped at the picture.

“
OK, I agree. She changed. Continue your story.”

Artorius nodded his head, a knowing expression on his face. “But it wasn’t just her change in appearance that caused…,” he waved his hand vaguely, “all that. Believe it or not, her entire person changed. It’s sort of hard to explain.”

“
Interesting.”  Monson put his hands behind his head, thinking. He lay there for a moment. “But that’s not totally out of the ordinary. I remember one time on
Days of Our Lives
—”

“
Grey,” said Artorius sharply, “please.”

 
Monson went slightly red.

  
He changed tactics. “My point is, it happens. Kids grow up and change. I don’t see anything that’s really out of the ordinary except for the fact she changed
a lot
and they had a huge falling-out. What
really
causes them to act that way towards each other? I’ve never seen Casey that pissed before.”

“
That’s where the details get murky. From what I gathered, a few events contributed to the current state of their relationship. The first two were the death of Casey’s mother and his father’s disappearance.”

Monson propped himself up. He marveled inwardly,
Casey’s mother died? And his father…his father disappeared.
 

He could not believe it. How could he not have known? He was supposed to be Casey’s friend.

“
I know what you’re thinking.” Artorius’ voice was soft. “You're a good friend, Grey. You didn’t know because Casey didn’t want you to know. He didn’t want your pity. He just wants people to have fun and enjoy the moment.”

Well, Monson could not argue with that. He had similar reasons for his own secrets.

“
The third has to do with Kylie’s—”

“
Hey, Dr. Phil.”

Both Artorius and Monson sat up. Casey was standing stiffly inside the door, arms folded across his body. There was an air of edginess around him. He waited for Monson and Artorius to say something before finally walking over to Monson.

“
Why didn’t you block it?”

Monson laughed. “You think really highly of me, Case.”  He sat up a little straighter on the bed. “Don’t you think I would have blocked it if I could?”

 “
You so could have. I know you could have. Quit kidding yourself. Why’d you let me hit you?”

Monson took a deep breath. “Because you’re my friend and it seemed like you needed to hit someone.” He spoke slowly; his jaw was incredibly sore. “I’ll let you hit me as many times as you need if it will keep you from going all crazy again. I have to admit Casey, you were a bit scary yesterday. I let you hit me because I didn’t want to see you hit Kylie.”

Casey deflated as hurt crept onto his proud face. “Grey, I never would have hit Kylie…I could never….”

“
I know, Casey,” he replied, and he did in fact know. The expression in Casey’s eyes and the inflection of his voice told him so. No matter what, Cassius Kay would never have struck Kylie Coremack. Never.  “But I had to be sure.”

Tears started to run down Casey’s face. He wiped them away, straining to hold them back.

Monson lowered his’ voice and tried to reassure him. “I don’t know what happen between you and Kylie…well, not fully, but I do know that you can’t solve everything with a flash fist.”

“
I know. I didn’t even mean to use it. It’s never been that powerful before. I just sort of…lost control.”

Monson knew that feeling all too well. Maybe he was rubbing off on Casey.“Casey, you need to tackle this problem with your words. You need to talk to Kylie. If you refuse to talk to her or us, the only thing that’s going to happen is …well, you know what’s going to happen.”

“
I’m sorry—I can’t, Grey. I thought that I had let go…that I had forgiven and forgotten.”

He sat down on the floor. “But I was wrong. I haven’t forgiven her and could never forget.”

“
It’s OK Casey. I forgive you; I forgave you even before you committed the act. And it’s OK to be angry. Anger is as human as any other emotion, but don’t let it rule you. Feel that anger and then let it go.”

Artorius leaned in. “Dude, that was really deep.”

“
Shut up, you’re going to ruin it,” replied Monson.

Casey gave Monson a fierce look and then shook his head as if he suddenly decided something.

“
Hit me back, Grey.  That will make us even. You should hit me.”

Monson’s brow furrowed. “Casey, I’m not going to hit you.”

“
No, you should, you really should. That’s how it should be. I will show you how sor—”

Casey fell back as a pillow smacked him hard in the face. He hit the floor with a loud
thump
. He stared up at Monson, who was laughing hysterically.

“
You actually hit me!” Casey sounded shocked.

“
What? You told me to.”

“
I didn’t actually think you’d do it!”

Monson could not stop laughing. “Well, I guess we know how really sorry you are then…hit me back indeed!”

“
Yeah, maybe he should hit you again, Case,” said Artorius.

All three boys guffawed until they had tears in their eyes. It was then that Monson realized they were completely back to normal.