Aria

 

 

 

“He fell down,” Tiffany said, her eyes red and swollen.

It hurt to watch my friend upset, so I wrapped her in my arms and brought her to a chair. Memories of my sister comforting me the last time I saw her added to the pain.

We sat in two of the three black leather chairs in the doctor’s office. Alex hovered in the corner. While I comforted, he appeared uneasy. His eyes scanned the room for something.

I wondered if he had a problem with hospitals. I knew some people didn’t like them and given Alex’s unusual life, I wouldn’t be surprised if his mother caused him to fear hospitals too.

“Tell me what happened,” I said cradling Tiffany as her tears streamed down her cheeks. I took a tissue for her, from a box that sat next to a plush unicorn, off the large wooden desk in front of us.

Tiffany and I had grown closer over the last month. As she helped me with the mural, I spent more time with her and her son, David. She was the kind of friend who would never bother you with her problems unless it was an absolute emergency.

I knew when she asked me to meet her at the hospital with David it had to be serious. How could I run off to some paradise with Alex, knowing I left my friend behind in her time of need?

She’s everything to that boy and that boy was everything to her. Tiffany was the example of how a mother should be. Alex’s mom and my mom should have taken lessons from her.

“The physical therapist tried to get him to climb up steps in the stairwell of the building. Usually, he does the steps in the physical therapy room, which has three wide steps and a lot of room for someone to work with him. But the stairwell is four floors and the steps are cement.”

She took a breath as her voice began to waver before continuing, “I don’t know what happened exactly but I think the therapist looked away for a moment and David slipped. He was making such good progress. A million thoughts are running through my head. Did he break something? Will this cause him to regress? Why wasn’t the therapist focused on him? Grrr. I want to hit that therapist so hard.”

Tiffany shook her fist in the air. I was about to say something about finding some guys to beat up the therapist when Alex came over and sat on the other side of Tiffany.

He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Tiffany, remember what I told you when I first met you?”

She sniffled, shaking her head. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t.”

“You are a good mother. Accidents. They happen. It can’t be helped. But you took him straight here and are fighting to find out what went wrong. That’s what counts. Maybe this therapist was in the wrong, maybe he wasn’t. But, since you are a wonderful mom, you will find out and do what is best for David.”

Tiffany took a deep breath and relaxed back into the seat. Her tears had stopped. “You’re right, Alex. I know sometimes I doubt myself. Especially when something like this happens. Our old physical therapist moved away so we have this new one. He’s okay, but sometimes I get the feeling he isn’t one hundred percent present.”

She took another breath. “Anyway, I keep thinking that if I got him a different therapist this wouldn’t have happened. I blame myself. I’ll do what needs to be done for David. Thanks, Alex.” She gazed up at him and he smiled.

The door opened and there was a woman standing there. “Ms. Blackburn?”

“Yes?” Tiffany stood.

“Dr. Gerald wishes to speak with you. Your friends can stay here, it shouldn’t take long.”

Tiffany walked off with the woman and I turned to Alex when the door closed. “You are like the mother-whisperer.”

“What is a mother-whisperer?” Alex said before chuckling.

“You have the power to calm a distraught mother. It’s a gift, Alex,” I said and realized that his mom didn’t deserve him.

Maybe I didn’t deserve him either?

“I was just pointing out the obvious. She seems nice and she cares very much for her son. It’s something I have rarely witnessed.”

Now I wanted to find some guys to beat up Alex’s mom. This giant of a man had the heart of the sweetest child. So much kind innocence flowed through his veins that it made me want to do anything to keep his mother away from him.

“Thank you for coming with me, Alex.” I got up and sat in the seat Tiffany vacated.

I took Alex’s hands in mine and gazed into his wonderful gray eyes. “I know you want to run away to paradise with me but I don’t think I can leave.”

He frowned and his fingers intertwined with mine. “Why not? I’ve told you everything about me. You’ve shared things with me. I feel closer to you than I have to anyone.”

“Yes, I haven’t told any guy I’ve been with as much as I’ve told you about my life. Even Morgana doesn’t know some of the things I told you, and I’ve known her since I was a freshman in college.”

“Then what’s the problem?” he asked and my heart ached as I watched the pain in his eyes.

“This is the problem.” I waved my hand around. “I have people here I care about. You don’t. My friends are my family and I love them. Before my roommate, Morgana, left for New York I stayed up with her as I helped her get over a broken heart.”

I got up and picked up the unicorn. It was worn and a little dirty, but I could tell it was loved.

“And my friend Evaleen. She doesn’t open up much but when she does, I want to be there for her. These are women who I’m not blood related to but it doesn’t make me love them any less. I can’t just run away from them. It would break my heart.”

I heard him sigh and we stayed there like that, in silence, as the sharp sting of reality tore at our happy dream.

“Maybe we don’t run away together,” Alex said.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“No, I know that. Hear me out. What if my mother thinks she won?” Alex said as he stood with a grin curling his lips.

“I don’t understand. I’m sure she will think she won. Wow, that woman’s control issues run deep.” I chuckled, shaking my head.

My breath caught as Alex stood and placed his hands on my arms.

“Yes, she has control issues. Bigger issues than you realize. But what I’m talking about is tricking her. Making her think she’s won.”

“But what would be the point of that? She did win, Alex. We aren’t running away together.”

Alex pulled away, taking the unicorn out of my hand and walking over to the window.

“This unicorn is the key.”

Oh God, he’s gone mental. At least we are in a hospital. It may be a children’s hospital, but they have medical staff that can help him.

“And what does the unicorn say to you, Alex?” I said in a very calm, unemotional voice as I crept backward toward the door.

“What? It doesn’t speak to me, Aria,” Alex said as he turned around. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.” My eyes widened from being caught.

“Anyway, it has been eating away at me that my mom seems to show up right when something is about to happen. When I planned to run away with you or when I decided to paint a mural.”

“Okay.” I was beginning to realize that maybe I decided too quickly that he was losing his mind.

I felt bad that I kept doing that with him. Like earlier when we left the Mimir building I kept thinking he was going to take me somewhere to kill me and now, that he was losing his mind. I seemed to jump to extreme conclusions with him.

Maybe I was just making an excuse to run away from him.

“When I started to take down the wallpaper for the mural, I found a small piece of black plastic near the ceiling. It blended into the pattern of the wallpaper. At first, I thought it belonged to something that was hanging before, like an old picture or shelving that had been removed. But the more I looked at it and now, with my mother always showing up at certain times, I believe she is bugging me. Spying on me.”

I gasped. Based on what I had witnessed from his mom I knew she was bad, but to spy on her son, in his bedroom, that was pure evil. Not to mention disgusting.

“Oh God. She’s crazy.” And I thought Alex was the crazy one. Now I really felt terrible.

“You have no idea,” Alex said as he shook his head.

“Then what should we do?”

I glanced around the room and wondered, how many places had she bugged? Did she spy on me too?

“That’s why I took you to that cheap motel. I paid cash for our room knowing she would never find me there. I didn’t want anyone to know where we were going. I wanted to talk you into running away despite what happened at Mimir. But the more I think about it, the more I think we should let my mom think she won.”

“Okay, I’m in. What’s the plan?”