All Four Of Me

Chapter 23

KENZIE

The sounds of people shouting is the first thing that I am aware of as I look around my bedroom. Once again, I have no memory of getting here, but the haze of confusion that usually swamps me whenever I "switch back" is surprisingly not as strong this time around.

My room looks like a disaster zone. School books and loose sheets of paper are strewn across the desk and floor, the bed sheets are a twisted mess and almost every other spare space of the floor is littered with different items of clothing, some crumpled and some still folded neatly from the laundry. Although this has happened a few times before, I have never seen any of the rooms I have stayed in over my lifetime look this messy.

Another muffled shout draws me towards the door which has been barricaded shut with the desk chair. Pushing the chair to the side, I ease my way out into the hallway where there are no other signs of movement. The argument must be happening downstairs and my theory is confirmed when I reach the top of the stairs only to hear the yelling grow louder.

Throughout the entire time that I have been here not a single one of these men have raised their voice either at me or each other, so to hear the pure anger in their tone is extremely unsettling. Sure, I have heard other people fighting in close proximity to me in the past, but those people had made it fairly clear from the beginning that their aggressive behaviour was normal.

Too curious not to eavesdrop and find out what their argument is about but too scared to actually go down stairs in case the argument is nastier than originally thought, I lower myself down so that I am sitting on the top stair, completely out of sight and lean forward slightly so that I can hear their heated conversation a bit better. From the sounds of it, the argument is between Nathan and Will and whatever it is about they are definitely at opposite ends of the discussion.

"This isn't what we signed up for Nathan!" Will huffs, obviously frustrated by whatever Nathan had said to him previously.

"Maybe not, but we all knew she had problems way beyond what any of her case managers reported and you weren't flinching then." Nathan spits back, not a single ounce of friendliness present in his tone.

I get the feeling that they are fighting over me, but I don't want to make any assumptions without any solid evidence. There are plenty of things that they could be arguing about, not everything in this house has to be about me.

"Our entire lives have been tipped up on their head because of this. None of us have seen our families in months and every time we think we are even close to finding some form of normality with her something else comes along to mess it all up!"

Cringing internally at his harsh words, a feeling of unease starts to unfurl in my stomach as my fears start to become real. What other person do they have in their lives that could cause the type of chaos he is talking about?

"How do you think Mackenzie feels? She has been living in uncertainty her entire life and just when she thinks she can rely on someone, they turn their back on her when the going gets tough."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I inch my neck forward even further as I wait for Will's response. A part of me doesn't want to hear whatever it is that he has to say, but the other part is desperate to know exactly what has gone so wrong so that I can either find a way to fix the problem, or if there are no prospects of success, find a way to protect myself from any further emotional pain.

"Well maybe they weren't wrong in doing that, Nathan! Can you honestly tell me that at some point during the last few months you haven't thought that she might be better off in the care of someone who actually knows how to handle her condition."