Chapter 19: Chapter Eighteen

I woke up to the panicked yelling and screaming of my step mother, and initially I thought it must have been something that came out of the residue of a strange dream, but I couldn't recall dreaming anything at all.

Nothing seemed out of place when I woke up, except the missing warm soft belly of the cat that usually stretched on or beside my face as I slept.

I heard the loud screech of a tiger outside my door and realised what was going on and hopped out of bed as fast as I good, struggling to untangle my leg from the covers before heading out of the door to see Irene screeching as she tried to hit Akuma off of her ankles where the cat was biting and scratching her legs and her wide terrified eyes looked directly at mine.

"Get... it... off... of me..." She half screeched, half whispered as she tried to keep backing up.

I dove for the cat and grabbed Akuma off of her, struggling to get the suddenly feral black cat off of the woman even as it spun its head around, twisting its back so it could scratch me too.

She only calmed down when she finally looked up to see it was me, even my scent apparently not alerting her, by which point she had thoroughly scratched up my arms and hands.

"What's this all about?"

Irene seemed to think I was talking to her. "I tried to wake you up in the morning! I didn't even touch you and that dratted cat scratched me all over!"

I frowned, looking down the hallway in the opposite direction where there was a small clock on the wall. "Why would you wake me up this early?"

Colby stepped out of his room just as I said this, looking bleary and wide eyed, circles under his eyes from the early wake-up call, ones that would fade without a trace during the day unlike mine.

"You think that's the question you should be asking?! I'm bleeding and you're asking me why I'm waking you up in the morning?"

Colby frowned at me as he walked up to us. "Mom are you okay? What just happened?" He eyed down the cat.

She wiped away a tear. "Nothing I just got scratched by your brothers cat."

"Wow you're bleeding..."

She extended both her hands and sniffed. "It's just a scratch."

"Do you need us to take you to the hospital?"

She covered her face briefly with her hands. "I'm sorry Colby I'm just... very shaken. Yes, god that's really messed up my whole day..."

He rubbed her back and frowned deeply.

I thought, somewhat in a manual, forced fashion, that I should also extend some sympathy, even though I wasn't apparently capable of it these days.

"Sorry, she didn't mean it."

She didn't seem placated by this and instead turned to me, outraged. "Are you crazy? Elliot? Have you lost your mind bringing that cat into my and your fathers house?"

I looked her over, unimpressed. "This cat's like a teddy bear. It doesn't normally scratch people."

She blinked at me.

"And you have no reason to be in my room at five in the morning."

Colby blinked and then looked toward the clock, surprised.

Irene on the other hand stared at me with that look where her eyes were so wide they practically bulged from shock. I hated the way that looked in the past, it was always filled with so much outrage, it made my anxious and made me lose focus on any argument I might have had.

"I can go into your room whenever I want..." She looked and sounded breathless in her anger. "You realise this house doesn't belong to you, right?"

I didn't reply.

"Until you pay for the bed you sleep on, the food you eat and the clothes you wear, in this house you should realise it's not your place to question me. I'm your mother. If I want to check if your room is clean I can."

I observed her for a moment longer, the cat in my arms was watching her vigilantly, and when Colby moved past me I saw her reach out lightly and try to scratch him with her paw, so I quickly tucked her against my other side, glared down at her, which she hardly seemed to acknowledge, and started moving back toward my room.

"How dare you just walk away from me like that Elliot!" She snapped at me. This time my father, with dark circles around his eyes and an unhappy expression on his face, came out in his pyjamas and glared at the four of us in the hallway.

"Elliot seriously you can at least apologise..." Colby half whispered.

I looked back at him, and then at her, and then at the dark discerning look from their bedroom down the hall, watching us all, ready to step in to her defence.

I dropped the cat on the floor and stood in the doorway, it was sensible enough to go back to bed.

It occurred to me, as I looked at all of them, that I could simply say what I wanted, now that I didn't care about anything anymore.

I didn't need to act strong.

I didn't need to win and argument.

I didn't need to come out on top.

"I've already apologised. Are you going to apologise for sneaking into my room while I'm asleep? Or explain why you were there? You don't exactly model the behaviour you want from me do you? "

There was a long moment of silence.

Irene just stared at me, she sort of had that kind of look to her, I think, where she's acting like I'm murdering a puppy in front of her and she's pretty sure everyone in the room is as shocked as her.

I smiled. "No?"

She breathed out a shuddering breath, she really looked like she was contemplating taking the two steps across the hall to slap me.

"I'm checking your room to make sure you're not self harming with anything. That's what I'm doing Elliot."

I blinked slowly.

The absolute concentration of awkwardness that filtered into the hallway, thick as gum, left the breeze coming in through the window, just open a crack in my room, feeling like relief on my back.

Colby shifted and looked at me like he thought I really needed to apologise now and hurriedly looked away out of awkwardness.

I sighed long and hard. "Why would you think I was doing that?"

She folded her arms, hissed and unfolded them, cradling her right hand with had a couple more scratches than the other. "I don't know, why do you think I might think that?"

There was a longer silence this time.

I stood there for some time, until my knees creaked. "I don't know what you're saying here..." Was all I could think to reply.

She pursed her lips, even she looked annoyed with her own discomfort, and then is struck me.

I stared at her, I probably looked surprised, I probably felt surprised, I couldn't quite tell, but my eyes must have been wider than usual because they almost felt dry. "You think... I jumped off the bridge..."

The unfeeling, cold look I got in response was enough of a response to let me know that I was right.

I licked my lips. "The cats only here for a week or two. I'll keep her in the room."

But there were goosebumps on my arms when I closed the door behind me.

I looked over at Akuma watching me, still standing in the centre of the room, her tail curling calmly beside her from side to side, with those childlike wide unblinking eyes.

I exhaled and crouched down.

She stepped toward me, a little step. Even now, when she must have thought I was angry at her for attacking me, she still looked as though she was stepping carefully, making sure not to scare me off.

I covered the top of her head with my hand, and ran my hand down her fur.

"Good cat." I told her quietly, looking deep into her eyes. "Good Akuma."

I probably imagined her relaxing slightly, but I didn't imagine her purring as she walked against my leg and circled me as I stood.

I would get ready for school and leave early, and on my way back I would fetch her another toy, an expensive one.

~⌣︵⌣︵⌣︵⌣︵⌣︵⌣~

It had been a few days, but since that conversation Irene did not bring up removing the cat again, nor did she try to sneak into my room again in the morning, that I knew of.

The cuts on my fingers and forearms stayed red and angry for a while. They blended in nicely with the residual bruises from the lake, fading at last but still there,.

Slowly people were beginning to stop staring at me, and the room was less and less quiet around me, and the eyes of the teachers turned back to their students and barely saw me as I entered the room, just as before.

Despite this nothing felt familiar.

Even the urinals looked different. It took me a long moment to realise they had, in fact, been replaced since I was last in the school toilets.

I didn't like going to the toilet in school. I had no fond memories here, not that it was exactly the place to make them. My memory of the times I'd been caught in here had given me such anxiety to enter that more than once I'd snuck behind the art block to pee into the bushes.

But even when Pierson, of all people, entered, with a smug smile and that ridiculous gold tie clip his mother made him wear, I didn't remember what it was I was supposed to be feeling.

I washed my hands and he walked slowly up to me, stopping beside me, a little behind. Grinning eyes looking at me through the reflection. He didn't smile in private the way he did in public, but his eyes did all the work for him.

I ignored him.

"Not even a hello?" He shoved my head. "Aren't we buddies? Or are you still mad at us for that prank?"

I ignored him, washing the soapy suds off of my hands.

He hummed. "So fucking gutsy. All 'cos you fell from a bridge..." He chuckled lightly, then his eyes trailed down to my fingers and there was a twinkle in his eyes. "Wow really?"

I looked back at him through the mirror.

He gestured down at my hands. "Are you an emo now?"

I slowly looked down at my hands, saw the cuts from the cats claws and blinked slowly. "They're cat scratches." I replied, my voice low and monotonous.

He laughed louder, put a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close enough that past me would have made a run for it at this point already.

"Remember... Real emo's cut straight down." He whispered into my ear, and I saw his finger trailed down his wrist vertically in the reflection.

It took me a moment to take in the words, let alone understand them, I was so far inside my own head it was really a choice to hear them at all.

I dried my hands with a paper towel and turned around slowly, Pierson backed up a step so he wasn't quite close enough to make it feel weird and I smiled at him.

He stared at me, unimpressed with my clearly false display of coldness.

He might have said something else he thought was hilarious and edgy if I hadn't pulled back my hand and struck him hard enough that I heard a gasp force its way out of him.

The sound of the slap was loud enough that it echoed in the toilets, his head snapping to his side, he took a small step back but otherwise just swung his head back to look at me.

I'd never seen his eyes so wide before on Pierson.

There was a rush, it was swirling around in my head, energy from nowhere, my hand tingling pleasantly. I imagined that guy in my head, Arran, the way he stood there, practically immovable, unbothered. In that moment I desperately wanted to be near him again, for whatever reason, even if just to look at him.

"Don't speak to me so close." I told him clearly and calmly, scrunching the paper towels together and tossing them in the bin. "Your breath smells. You need to brush your teeth in the morning." I shook my head. "Or at least use mouthwash..."

He stared at me, eyes frozen, slightly wide, but I couldn't read his expression otherwise. He didn't say anything, or follow me as I opened the door, slow enough for him to grab me. My feet were the only ones heard on the linoleum floor as I left.

[A/N]  Thank you as usual, for giving me the opportunity to write this book... The Wattpad Creators Program and my amazing supporters on patreon. You can never escape my love !  ( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡) ♡