Keeping Tabs

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the time we made it back to my house, the sun was burning more orange in the sky then the bright gold it had been when I had left. My father was standing on the front porch when I came up the drive, and it only took him two seconds to clear the entire twenty or so paces that made up our front yard.

“What happened? Who did this to you? Which one of them did this?”

“It wasn't them! Dad, I have some people that you need to meet and things that I need to tell you. We should go inside and talk.”

I didn't move toward the house until I could see the stress lines in my dad's face relax. When he began to look a bit more logical, I walked inside, gesturing for the others to follow. As soon as the door closed behind us, my father was dragging my shocked mother over to us from the kitchen, where I told them everything that I'd witnessed at Micah's house. My mother was calling the police before I even finished the retelling. By the time police arrived, my mother had bandaged and fed us all.

Micah's mother and sister were picked up on multiple charges, and he has actually never spoken to either of them since. When his grandmother found out what happened, she took immediate custody of Micah. He loved every minute of living with Nann, and she loved him so much that she even moved into town so that he wouldn't feel transplanted. And from then on, we all hung out and played video games at my place, and occasionally at Nann’s.

It didn't take too long for me to regain brain function in Colin's presence. Only a couple of months. And by the time school started again, I could actually hold a slightly coherent conversation with him, if I concentrated hard enough.

It wasn't until the Christmas break when things changed again. And things changed all too drastically.

~~~~

“Hey, did you hear about Colin?” Micah asked. He practically buzzed with excitement when I opened my front door to find him standing there. He looked healthier and happier than ever before. Nearly six months with his grandmother had done him very well, and I still have to smile a bit to myself when I think of it.

“Have you been out here long?” I had to ask, because he was shivering so hard I thought his teeth would fall out. I opened the door wider to let him in, trying not to look at the hideous salmon color that my father had painted on every external surface of our poor little house just two days earlier. It hurts my eyes to think of it even now!

“Not long, but that's not important. What's important right now is Colin. Or rather, what's happened to him.”

Micah's smile was the only thing that kept me from sinking into the floor right there. He must have seen the worry set in, because he began elaborating in a hurry.

“Colin turned sixteen on the fifth, as you know, and his mom got him a car, as you may have heard. And now he's going out with Jennifer Coates, who’s in like, four classes with me.” He said. Micah's smile faded as he watched my face sink. My chest began to hurt so bad I wanted to die right there.

“Jennifer Coates?”I already didn't see Colin hardly at all since August, and now this meant he'd never bother with me again. Why hang out and play video games with an eleven year old when you could be spending your nights making out with some homecoming queen? I couldn't think of a single boy that would pick me over her.

“Oh good, you know about her,” Micah began. He paused and watched me intently, his eyes mirroring the sorrow that must have been swimming in mine. “Are you alright, Tabs? What's wrong?” he asked, concern stamping itself across his features.

“Nothing. Ok, tell me the rest.” I knew that Micah had an idea of what Colin meant to me, but I didn't feel the need to confirm it for him. So I made a conscious effort to straighten up and look interested in hearing about Colin's new girlfriend. I'd never even spoken to her, but I already hated her.