Waking up after a terrible night's sleep was a godsend. Hearing other footsteps in the unfamiliar house was like music to my ears. Slowly sitting up, the brown walls of the Marklin's guest room greet my weary eyes. I forgot I was here for just a second. All my mind wants to do is go back to bed, but the pain radiating from where there are now screws and stitches keeps me from the peaceful slumber. Slipping a large hoodie on, being careful not to let it touch my thickly bandaged hand, I slip my good hand through the sleeve. The hoodie is primarily black, but in the centre it has a large mandala. I bought it an extra size too big, so luckily it is coming to good use. Looking in the mirror on the wall, my appearance shocks me. The light cascading from the window I opened hours ago illuminates my face, showing the dark circles and sunken cheeks.
Gross.
My hair was a whole nother story. Because you can't do hair with one hand, I have not touched it since Christina re-did the two braids on tuesday morning. Being thrusday now, they look pretty rachid. Hopefully Melissa won't mind putting it in a pony tail for me later.
I walk down the stairs, and walk to the kitchen, where Melissa is making sandwiches at the kitchen bench, and Connor sits opposite eating cereal.
"Good morning." My tired voice cuts through their low chatter. Both pairs of eyes spring towards me. Silence encompassing the room.
"Dani, you can stay asleep dear." Melissa says, her voice laced thickly with worry. No wonder with the state I look.
"It's okay Melissa. I can't sleep anyway."
"If you're sure dearie." Melissa hands me a glass of water and places the 3 pills next to me.
Connor, seeming to snap out of his trance, starts talking again.
"So, Mia, Coral and Faith bombarded me with questions about how you were yesterday. And they texted me and said they tried to call, but you didn't answer." Finishing swallowing the last pill, I take my time to reply.
"I just... didn't really feel like talking. They called me when I was asleep in the afternoon, just when you got home, and I just haven't called them back yet."
Connor spoons in another spoon of cereal, whilst Melissa pours another one, presumably for me.
"Can you tell them I will call them at lunch?"
"Of course." Connor smiles fully, showing off his mouth full of food.
"Sit down Dani, have some breakfast."
"I should probably go and finish getting ready. Be back in a sec." Connor stands up, plopping his bowl in the sink. He leaves the room quickly, planting a small kiss on his mother's cheek.
Crying suddenly fills the hallways.
"Mummy! Dani's go-go-gone!" Lucy is in tears as she runs into the room.
"I wanted to go in and see if she was awake-" Lucy's eyes widen as she realises that I was in fact, in the room.
"You stayed!" She screamed in joy. Running up to me, her mother catches her arm, forcing her to stop just short.
"Remember what we talked about?" She whispers in Lucy's ear. Lucy nods her head in recognition of her mistake.
"Why not you go and get ready for preschool? Remember? You go to preschool on Thursdays."
"But I want to spend the day with Dani, Mummy. You made me go to Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday so I didn't get to stay with her then."
"We can play this afternoon when you get home Lucy. And tomorrow we can definitely play." Even though Lucy is to cute to deny, I really didn't feel like playing with her.
"Okay." She says happily. She runs off up the stairs to get dressed.
Finishing off the bowl of cereal, I stand up and place it in sink, moving to go back to my temporary room. I came over to the Marklins at about lunch time yesterday. Melissa thoiugh it might be good to let Joel and Chritina pack by themselves, and for me to get settles in before the kids got home. It felt odd being in a strangers house, but somehow, being in the company of Melissam then Connor, was comfortable.
"Dani?" Connor walks out of his room, fully dressed in the school uniform, running his hands through his hair in an attempt to get it to sit perfectly.
"Yeah?" I open the door to the guest room, and half walk in.
"I put the work you missed on your bed, and I'll get the stuff you need today. Thought if you are bored you may want to do it." Connor was in my English, maths and physics class. I talked to my bio, chem, music and dance teachers, who were all emailing me the work.
"Thankyou. You didn't need to do that.."
"Pleasure." Connor smiles, slowly lowering his hands in defeat.
"Can I help?" I move towards him, gesturing to his hair. I remember having to help Joel with his hair when he started dating Christina. He could never seem to get it right.
"Sure..." Reaching up, I run my fingers through Connor's hair softly, just like I used to do for Joel.
"Done..." I breathlessly say, realising the distance that is now between us. "Umm..." Biting my lip softly, my eyes meet Connor's. We stare into eachothers eyes for what feels like forever, but in actual fact was only seconds. We both are separated by a call from downstairs, reminding Connor he needed to drop Lucy at preschool.
"Yeah mum!" He calls out, breaking the distance between us.
"I'm just gonna head..." I lean towards the door of the guest room.
"Yeah, I should go and do that... stuff..." Connor rubs the back of his neck nervously. We both walk off at the same time.
Sitting on the cream bedspread, my mind runs wild with the things that just happened. I look through the large pile of notes and instructions Connor has written up for me. This is more than just getting the work I needed to do. He wrote out exactly what we did in class and what the homework was and any notes or answers. As well as having a small summary of the key points for everything. This must have taken him hours.
"He really put in a lot of effort for that." Melissa comes in and sits gently next to me on the bed after the door slams and everyone has left.
"As soon as he got home and saw you were asleep he got started on it, and finished it just before you woke up."
"Wow..." I definitely have to not only thank him, but say that he doesn't need to put in too much effort when he gets home.
"But i think maybe today is too soon to be doing this. I think you just need it relax for today. Ive been looking forward to sitting down, putting my feet up, and watching sone chick flicks with an actual chick!" Melissa laughs.
She stands up, picking up the pile of notes, placing them on the small desk to the edge of the room.
"Try and get some more sleep. You look like crap." We both let out a small chuckle. Melissa exits the room, and I lay down under the covers and let the chemicals take over my body and pull me into a heavy slumber.
YOU ARE READING
In Your Company
Teen Fiction--Re-written-- When I was 8 we were playing hide and seek in the little park surrounded by bush down the street from my house. It was a large group of us. It was always fun down at the park, since our parents never really came and checked on us. Bei...
