The next morning when I checked on Claudette it seemed as though she was feeling much better. She was giggling, and exclaiming random words and sounds at me. I laughed and picked her up and brought her into the kitchen, finding Amber in there making breakfast.
"So when are we going back?" she asked without turning to me.
I sat down in a chair, Claudette in my lap. "Well…I think we could make it there on time for tonight but we won't be able to do anything. But I mean it wouldn't hurt to leave…and then we could go on the plane tomorrow…it's up to you. Cause Claudette is better."
Amber looked crookedly at our daughter. "Yeah I guess we could go tonight. Want some eggs?"
I laughed. "Sure," she smiled to me. I nearly melted. Kitten walked into the room minutes later, fully dressed and seemingly awake.
We talked to her about coming with us and she said she would. We spent the day packing and making phone calls and at one point watched a movie…a normal day for us. For Kitten I'm not sure but I could guess that she knew what things like this were like because of her gift. Claudette was fine and babbling and giggly…I was happy.
The event had only just started when we'd arrived at the arena. We met Raven and Saphrin happily, and Jake seemed excited to see us again. Mark wasn't around for a while at first…I actually don't remember why. I was taking care of something and wasn't in the room. Saph and Raven both remembered Kitten and didn't treat her any differently as they would treat anyone else. The night went on normally, and when Mark arrived he had some business to take care of with Vince so came in, dropped his bags down and left without even saying hello to anyone.
Raven had a match that night, while he was out wrestling Mark finally came in.
Kitten was very quiet and introverted, holding Claudette and whenever she left the room and one of us went with her, she'd stay behind us as if to hide. But when we were in the room, and Saphrin and Raven were outgoing enough to start conversations with her she was fine and talkative. As the night went on she was more and more warm and open. But as soon as Mark was in the room she was cold again. I gave him a hug to greet him when he came in. She was standing a few feet away from me, it seemed like she was trying not to look at him.
"Mark," I said, and gestured to Kitten. "This is Kitten. She's uh…staying with us for a while."
He nodded and smiled, and when she lifted her eyes, the look on her face saying that she didn't want to look at him, I'll never forget the expression she undertook.
Instantly her eyes glazed, and seemed to burn with some kind of horror. Her bottom lip trembled. When I looked back to Mark I saw that he too had an effect from her. He went solemn, not frightened and horrified as she was but more of in shock, or confusion. The look in his eyes was more of a somber, calm horror. Like he wasn't ready to give in to it. Whatever the hell was going on between them, it was clear to me that they understood each other completely.
They must've remembered that they were in the room with other people because for a moment they each looked away long enough to glance at the rest of us. She rung her hands and covered up any expressi0on she'd had a moment earlier, as did he.
"Hello, Mark," she said, speaking as his name like a curse.
"Pleasure to meet you," he grumbled, and they shook hands. I saw the hair stand up on both of their arms when they made contact with each other. They reminded me of a divorced couple, their attitude and empty sincerity making it seem as though they'd known each other for years. I looked to Saphrin and Amber to see that they'd also been taken in by this.
If it hadn't been for the shouting that came from the hallway I don't know how long this would've gone on. We all stepped out of the room to see Hunter and Raven. Hunter was looking at Mark and I. Raven was fuming.
"Scott, you little fuck," Hunter spat, "grow some balls and then come talk to me!"
"I'm talking to you right now, slick."
"Well you shouldn't be cause you don't have any balls."
I shook my head, not sure if I even wanted to know what Raven had gotten himself into. Raven smiled. "Sure I have balls. Wanna see?"
Hunter was getting angry. He looked up at me again. "You damn well know that you wouldn't be saying this to me if your buddies Kane and Mark weren't here!"
Raven gave a confident smile, his eyes locking on Hunter and taking on an almost venomous glare. "Yeah I would. I'm not silly like you, Mr. H."
"Really? So what are you doing later?" Hunter demanded.
Raven faked a scared face. "Why? Are you gonna…gonna…'beat my ass'? Oohhhh no!" he faked a sob. "Kane what am I gonna do???" he cried.
Hunter screamed in frustration. "No I wanna see if you'd fuckin say this to me when your friends aren't around. See if you have the balls to say this to me when I get you alone!"
Raven grinned. "You wanna know if I'll go up to your face and ask you if you wanna see my balls when we're alone? I'm not sure man…that seems kinda perverted…"
Hunter began to respond but fell silent, a clenched fist slowly loosening and his arm dropping to his side. For a moment we all just stood still in silence before he flipped out and screamed, picking a table that had been next to him and throwing it into the wall. "Fuck you!" he yelled, and pushed through us to storm off. We all stared at Raven in awe and amusement, wondering what kind of stunt he'd pulled now.
"What the hell was that?" Amber asked him. He frowned and stepped into the locker room.
"He fuckin…" Raven whined, "I was just walking, right? And he bumped into me and I dropped my fuckin cookies on the floor and they broke and they were on the floor and it was all dirty and Hunter didn't even afuckinpologize." He sat down and pouted. Saphrin, Kitten and Amber looked at each other with reactions as if it was the cutest thing in the world. They rushed to him and began to hug him and rub his arms. Mark and I looked at each other incredulously.
"This is about…cookies?" I asked. Raven looked up and nodded.
"Yeah that fuckin prick. I mean…I mean fuck him!! What the hell did my cookies do to deserve that??? Or me????"
Saphrin was kissing the top of his head and his forehead and massaging his neck. "Don't worry, honey, the cookies will have revenge…"
I held my face in my hands and looked at my brother. He gave me the same look. "Am I fuckin really seeing this?" I asked. He just stared on with no response.
"Yes! Vengeance will be served. And I'll tell you the fuck what, if he fuckin pulls some shit like this again he'll know that I have balls when I knock him out and put them in his goddamn mouth!"
I grabbed Mark by the arm. "Let's go get some coffee, I'm going to be driven to insanity…" he nodded and we left the room.
"Jesus…" I was mumbling as we walked around, not even for coffee but just to get out of the room. It was just a thing…like if you thought about it too long it was possible for your nose to start bleeding or something.
Mark stopped suddenly and looked at me. "Where the hell did that girl come from?"
"Who? Kitten?"
"Yeah. Why the hell is she here and what does she want from me???" he looked afraid. I frowned.
"Umm…I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
He groaned and started walking again. "Nevermind…" he said quietly.
A moment later I stepped on what seemed to be a broken cookie on the floor. When I took my foot away I saw that it was one of those ones that you cut from dough, with the little pictures in it. It had a pink heart in it. I sighed and rolled my eyes, wishing that for just once I could get inside Raven's head.