Frustration: Part II

“I hope you realize how completely unnecessary this is,” Charity groaned.

“It is not unnecessary to make sure you’re safe and that you have everything you need,” Leah retorted as she forced Charity to lay back down in her bed. “You have several broken bones and can’t even get out of bed to go to the bathroom without feeling pain. I’m not leaving your side until I’m confident you won’t do anything to injure yourself further.”

Charity rolled her eyes. She understood, and was even thankful, that Leah wished to take care of her. However, being confined to a bed was frustrating. She had nothing to do and no one to talk to. She sighed heavily as she stared back up at the beautiful, high ceiling in her room. The glimmering stones were mesmerizing and more magnificent than the night sky, but even Charity, who loved nothing more than to admire a beautiful tapestry, had grown tired of seeing the same thing after hours of only being able to look at her ceiling.

Charity was not sure exactly how much time had passed, but she was certain it was at least late afternoon. She had hoped Andrew would call or come to visit, but she hadn’t heard anything from him all day. Maybe I should call him, she thought, but she decided against it. Surely, he would reach out to her as soon as she possibly could. Maybe he’s just… really busy. Another heavy sigh slipped past her lips before she drifted to sleep.

“You’ve got to be joking!”

Charity’s sleep was interrupted by Leah’s shrill voice. While she wasn’t sure if she had been sleeping a few minutes or several hours, what she did know was that Leah was very angry with whoever was in their home. Charity sat up, doing her best to stifle the painful groan that attempted to escape her mouth, and craned her neck to hear what was happening.

“That’s ridiculous!” Leah shouted.

“It’s ridiculous to think we could help you take care of your very injured friend?” Uzziah’s tone was filled with amusement.

“Ridiculous that you would even think of suggesting that! Neither of you know Charity like I do, and I don’t know either of you. What reason should I have to trust you enough to let you stay in my home while I’m sleeping?” Leah’s voice kept rising. Charity was sure the vein on Leah’s forehead was protruding.

“Well, for one, we’re the reason you’re living here now,” Andrew’s voice carried its usual coolness, and Charity’s heart began to flutter. “Two, we literally saved Charity’s life the other night. Three-”

“Stop,” Leah groaned. Charity could picture her rubbing her temples in frustration. “I appreciate you stopping by, but we’re fine. I am perfectly capable of taking care of Charity on my own.”

Charity struggled to stand up. She didn’t want Leah to push Uzziah and Andrew out. She had been locked away in her room all day, and the person she wished to see most was just on the other side of her door. There was no way she would let them leave if she had any ability to stop it.

Each step was agonizing, but she was determined to make it out of her room. She was gasping for air as she finally reached her door. She pushed it open as hard as she could and nearly fell as she did so. Andrew, without missing a beat, rushed to steady her.

“Charity! What are you doing?” Leah asked.

“They’re staying,” Charity proclaimed.

“But, Charity-” Leah began.

“No, Uzziah and Andrew came to help me. I get to decide whether or not it’s okay for them to do so, and I want them to stay. I understand where you’re coming from, but they both risked their lives to save me. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, please. I want them here.”

Leah pressed her lips together. “Fine,” she huffed, “there’s no changing your mind, I know. But I still don’t like it.”

“You’ve done more than enough for me today anyway, so why don’t you use this time to get some rest? You can return to being my house nurse in the morning,” Charity smiled, leaning into Andrew’s side as he continued to support the majority of her weight.

“Alright, but if you need me, please yell. I will come running,” Leah replied as she hugged her friend. She glared at Andrew and Uzziah one more time before heading toward her own room.

“Well, she’s a ray of sunshine,” Uzziah commented.

“I heard that!” Leah yelled, causing the other three to laugh.

Charity winced as the laughter hurt her damaged ribs. Andrew noticed and immediately scooped her up with as much speed and grace as he could muster and gently placed her back in her bed.

“What were you thinking walking out there like that?” Andrew’s brows furrowed, his usually calm expression etched with worry. He reached out a hand, his touch hesitant as he gently traced the curve of her cheek.

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“That I didn’t want you guys to leave,” Charity replied candidly as she searched Andrew’s face. Andrew’s lips parted, but nothing more than a simple breath escaped.

“How sweet,” Uzziah teased, shattering the tension that had filled the room.

“Oh, I have something I need to tell you,” Andrew confessed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“What is it?” Charity’s brows furrowed.

“I know about you two,” Uzziah propped casually against the door frame with a smug expression.

Charity shot daggers at Andrew, and Andrew raised his hands in surrender. “It wasn’t my fault. Uzziah just figured it out on his own!”

“Yeah, maybe next time, don’t almost rip the man’s shirt off.”

“I-I didn’t do that!” Charity stammered, her face turning beet red. Uzziah laughed loudly.

“I’m just messing with you,” Uzziah stated, “Your secret is safe with me, but I don’t understand why you want to keep it a secret honestly.”

“You’ve met Leah, right?” Charity asked. “I love her, but it can take her a while to warm up to people, and she can be a bit… hostile… with people she doesn’t know well. I just want to give her some time to warm up to the idea before I tell her, mainly so I don’t have to listen to her nagging. It won’t be long.”

“I think she has a point, though. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to trust people, including us. It’s not exactly the wisest thing to do and could probably end up getting you hurt in the long run,” Uzziah remarked.

Charity shrugged, “Maybe, but it hasn’t yet, and I also feel like people who are as cautious as Leah don’t put enough faith in their own intuition. I go with my gut, and it has yet to prove me wrong. I had a good feeling about Andrew, and he ended up saving my life.”

“Caution isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It may be better to utilize both in moderation rather than be at the end of both extremes,” Andrew added.

“Look at you sounding so philosophical,” Charity teased.

“Alright, well,” Uzziah clapped his hands together, “I’m hungry. I’m going to raid your kitchen.”

Charity shook her head and chuckled. “Is he always like that?” She asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Andrew shrugged.

“I think we’ll be good friends.”

“Good,” Andrew responded, sitting on Charity’s bed next to her. He gently grabbed her face and moved in to kiss her. Their lips gently brushed against each other, and Andrew pulled back ever so slightly to say, “I’ve been thinking about this all day. I couldn’t even go to sleep last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Charity giggled, enjoying the feeling of his calloused fingertips as they brushed against her face. Andrew seemed so kind and genuine, and while Charity was still determining the full extent of her feelings, she could not help but to fall for him a little more every time he looked at her like he was now. She breathed in the familiar scent of his woody cologne and sighed.

“I was worried you had changed your mind when I hadn’t heard from you all day,” she admitted.

“There’s no way that would happen,” he said reassuringly, turning her face ever so slightly to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry for making you worry. I was just hoping you were getting rest, and I had already planned to come by this evening, so I didn’t want to disturb you. Uzziah and I had also been a little swamped with work.”

“Yeah,” Uzziah rejoined them with a mouth full of food, “we spent almost all day trying to figure out what to do with you.”

“What do you mean?” Charity asked.

“Mainly just how best to keep you safe if you do go back to working for your father,” Andrew replied.

“And what ideas did you come up with?”

“Not a lot yet. We’ve mainly just been trying to think of possible worst-case scenarios and how best to get you out of there alive. Mainly, we’ve just learned we need to find blueprints of the building so that we can know all potential exits and also maybe learn how the alarm system works, among some other things.”

“And also that Andrew would be going with you,” Uzziah added between bites of bagel.

“You are?”

“Yeah,” Andrew shrugged, “it only makes sense given that I already technically work there, and there’s no way I could have thrown you into a den of wolves alone.”

“That reminds me,” Charite started, “why are you even working for the council? It seems unnecessarily dangerous, and it’s not like you agree with anything that happens in there.”

“Well,” Andrew cleared his throat, “before your mom left for her last mission, she knew it would be dangerous and wasn’t sure if she’d make it. She made me promise that if anything happened to her, I would do whatever it took to protect you. So, I came in the next day with approved transfer papers.”

“But I read your file. You had signed documents from council members in Megalopolis. Were they all forged? And how did I even get your transfer request so quickly then? Those usually take weeks of processing before they can make it to my dad’s office.”

“I might have broken into your dad’s office and snuck my papers into his meeting stack, and maybe added my name to your calendar,” Andrew said, rubbing the back of his head.

“That sounds stupid and dangerous, but that explains why he was double booked for appointments that day,” Charity noted, “and why you were so cryptic when I kept asking you why you came.”

“You aren’t upset, are you?” Andrew asked.

“No, why would I be?”

“I just told you our entire first meeting was a farce. It’s reasonable you could be even a little upset about it,” Andrew replied.

Charity laughed and shook her head, “What were you supposed to do in that situation? Walk up to me and say, ‘Hey, I know you don’t remember me, but I knew your mom. Your life is a lie. And those crazy dreams you’re having, those are real, and you’re probably going to die if you don’t come with me.’”

“I guess you have a point,” Andrew chuckled.

“Besides, you did all of that to honor my mom’s last wish. As far as I’m concerned, that’s at least twice you’ve risked your life to save mine.”

“Okay, if you guys are done making doe eyes at each other, I have a deck of cards and a winning streak in Ninety-Nine,” Uzziah said.

Charity smiled, “You’re on.”