Nicholas: Enjoy, mates. I know I enjoyed writing it. Tell me if you find anything either funny or awkward. There might be somethings that aren't quite fitting, but I'm not sure. That's what this site is for!! Love ya all!
It was warm. Something was strange about that, but she had absolutely no idea what that was. Her bed was always warm in the morning. It was never this warm, but Malise wasn't complaining. It was comfortable. At first she wasn't quite awake and the pillow over her head kept the morning light out of her eyes. As she dwindled there, in the realm between dreams and reality, she smiled to herself. Never before had she felt so rested and this was a sensation she'd relish in. Usually her father woke her up before the sun came in through her window—and he did this violently if her alarm hadn't woke her up before he checked on her. Wait a second…her father…
"Oh shit!" She tossed the pillow to the side and sat up, scared stiff that she was in trouble for sleeping in. Light trickled through the sheer curtain in the space that the blackout didn't cover. After a beat, it dawned on her. "I don't have curtains."
Thank god for that. Nothing was a reassuring as remembering that she was not at home and in the danger of more bruises, but instead in a motel with brothers that had taken her in. Looking at the digital clock on the night stand, she realized that it was almost noon. Jay Neal would have a shit fit if he knew his daughter had stayed in bed so long.
With a smile, Malise pulled the blanket off of herself ignoring the cold of the air conditioner. It was still a bit dark, but since her eyes were already adjusted, she could see just fine. It was a Saturday and she was glad of it. If she missed school, she knew that Verónica would be worried that something extremely bad had happened to her and the last thing she wanted to do was put her friend through that kind of scare. Stiffly, she got up and balanced in her sleep-ridden state. Her head finally cleared and she looked around again.
The other bed was occupied, and by the looks of it, Murphy had come back some time last night. It quickly occurred to her that the twins must have made up because they were…well…for lack of a better word, they were spooning. Connor's back fitted perfectly against Murphy's chest and the arms wrapped around him protectively—the rest of them was covered by the blanket. Malise smiled and blushed slightly before overlooking them and walking around their bed. Those little suspicions that had been nagging her since the day before were becoming more and more proven.
Carefully and quietly, she went to the table and sat down in the chair so that her back faced the bed and poked at her wounded notebook. It was in terrible condition. Almost all of the pages were ripped from the metal spiral, but there was a section of blank papers still intact. Slowly, she picked up a paper that was covered in her scraggly, blue handwriting and set it off to the side. She began to gather the ink-covered pages and separate them into a pile from the blank pages. There were definitely less blank papers than not. She couldn't help but wince as she stacked up the different piles.
In all actuality, this was her fourth notebook since she started high school and she was only half done with it—she'd had it for two months. With this information, her book may seem a bit less valuable, but dear reader, take into consideration: this is the record of her heart. It is the descendant of the ones that came before it and with the congregation of all of these journals the spirit lies not in the book but the ink on the pages. But all out of order…it loses that pulse and it makes her heart hurt.
For a long while, Malise sat back and stared at the book, tears starting in her eyes. It would take her forever to put it all in order and she desperately wished her damn father hadn't done this to her. She put her head on the table hopelessly. Life is just hell on earth.
The light poked over the room and pushed Murphy's eyes open—no matter how much he didn't want it to. Immediately, he recognized where he was and that his arms were still wrapped around
Connor's waist. Stiffly, he lifted his head and kissed his brother's shoulder with a feeling of apology still clinging to his gut. It wasn't often that he gave himself cause to have to apologize, but now that he had to, it would take a bit to make the nagging sense go away. Trying to be careful, he pulled himself away and succeeded in getting out of bed without waking he twin.
"'Mornin', Malise," he said once he saw her sitting there.
She looked up, as though she was startled, but then smiled in relief at seeing it was just him. "Yeah, more like afternoon."
Murphy laughed quietly and searched around for his jeans—being that he didn't feel comfortable wearing just his boxers with a young girl in the room. After he had then pulled on, he sat down in the other chair at the table and hesitantly touched the papers. "Think you'll pull through?"
"I…" the question caught her off guard, but she quickly recovered. She just didn't expect him to have any understanding at all of how much the journal meant to her. "Yeah, I should think so."
"I'm glad." Murphy sighed awkwardly once the chat had ended and a silence took over. He then realized that he didn't really know her well enough to talk about anything. He didn't have any idea what her interests were beyond writing, and he preferred to keep off that subject because he wouldn't be able to write a creative story if someone held a gun to his head as "motivation." Well…now would be a good time to get to know each other. "So what d'ya write about?"
"Uh…" It was obviously a subject that she wasn't sure she'd liked to go in to. "Well, I write…adventure stories…romances. Stuff like that."
"Really?"
"Yeah…I have a few characters that I like to write about a lot. So most of my writing is about them. Just really long or really short quips and drabbles of things they could do, situations they could be in. Someday I might put them together into a large novel or something."
"Cool…Ya have a favorite character?"
"Yeah, her name's Dr. Caitlin O'Donnell. She was a surgeon for a long time, but one time she screwed up with the anesthesia and her patient died. She took her early retirement and never touched a scalpel again." The way the girl spoke of it seemed like she was talking about a real person that she'd known at one point in her life. It was eerie, but interesting.
"That's pretty sad."
"Well…Life can throw some pretty bad pitches sometimes…"
It took three, long moments for it to sink in and then Murphy had to physically grabbed the table to keep from falling down laughing. "Hah! Ya just made a metaphorical comment about baseball!" When she raised her eyebrow, obviously confused, he decided to explain. "Connor an' me always make fun o' that sport 'cause…well…it's a really stupid sport."
"I don't disagree. I always liked boxing."
"Now that's interesting, 'cause I was a boxer when I was younger."
Her eyes quickly lit up. "Really?"
"Yeah, in school I was the best in my weight class." For a moment, he sounded like he was bragging. "Loved fightin' so much back then. Did it fer me job when I came ta America, but that was illegal, so I won't go inta detail."
"Unlicensed boxing…interesting."
With a smirk, Murphy sat back. He wasn't sure whether or not he liked that she knew about things like that, but he quickly decided that it was probably because she had to know these things to write about them. "Dr. O'Donnell overdid the anesthesia, then?"
"Yeah…"
"What was it? General or local?"
"Um…it was a general anesthetic, but I don't know enough about that kind of thing."
"Well, it could have been a less used drug, maybe the patient was allergic ta what she would've used so she had to improvise with…something like vecuronium bromide, it's easy ta overdo that."
Malise blinked a few times, surprised at him. "I like that idea…I'll keep it in mind, thanks."
"Yer welcome." It felt good that he knew something about her now. He knew she was creative, intelligent, and eager to learn. Hm…if she was a year older and he didn't have a completely contradictory sexual orientation, he'd be attracted. "O'Donnell…" Maybe there was one more thing he knew about her. "Ya like Irish names?"
With a smirk, she nodded. "I like most things Irish. That's why I like you."
"Aw, that's harsh. It en't me witty charm or dashin' good looks?"
She started laughing and then he started laughing and they completely forgot that there was still a twin sleeping. Well…he was sleeping. "Shut it!" Connor groaned quietly, "fuckin' Commie." Then he rolled onto his back and fell back to sleep.
For a moment, Malise just stared at the blond Irishman, a bit startled at his sleep-talking. She glanced at Murphy, who snickered and shook his head hopelessly. "Nevermind him…he's just got a slight case o' idiot-itis."
