A/N: Thankies for the SMALL amount of reviews; Please continue to REVIEW! Sorry I haven't posted in decades, I've just been crammed with end-of-school-year assignments... so I haven't exactly had the most time. Please review!! I promise I'll get to one of your stories if I already haven't if you review me!!
The motorcycle's engine slowly droned down to a steady chug as Jamie stopped the bike. Caitie swung her leg over the side and handed the helmet to Jamie. "Thanks for the ride," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Jamie nodded at her and tugged his helmet on, then sped off around the corner.
Caitie walked down her driveway and then pushed open her front door. At first she only saw her mom, sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest, looking frightened and weak. Then she saw him. Her dad was in the middle of the living room, his fist raised high as if he was about to strike Sarah Roth. Caitie first stood back in fear, tears brimming her eyelids. Then the reality of the situation hit her in the face.
The 11-year-old girl whimpered in the corner of her room as she heard the worst sounds from her parent's room. Her dad grunted and swung again. Caitie couldn't see it, but the sounds of her mother's screams of pain after each groan caused Caitie to flinch and sob harder.
"Jake... please stop! I love you! I'm sorry!"
Caitie never knew what the apologies were for; her mother hadn't done a thing!
"Shut up, bitch!"
Caitie flinched and tears poured down her face as she heard another cry of antagonizing pain from her mother.
The hospital was gross. It smelled like soap and rubber gloves. Caitie stood beside the hospital bed, staring at the bruised woman in it.
"Mom?"
The woman slowly rolled over, revealing a black eye and a gash across her check. "Caitie... oh my sweet, sweet girl...I'm so sorry this is happening...I love you so much."
The 13-year old watched as Sarah's head dropped back onto the pillow and she fell back asleep. Her skin was so pale and bruised she almost looked dead.
"NO!" Caitie screamed, slamming the door behind her and tearing through the hallway to her mother.
Jake turned at the sound of his daughter's cries. "Get out of my house, slut. Go mess with some boys."
Before her thoughts could take over her actions, her actions won and she slapped her father across the face as hard as she could.
"Don't ever talk to me like that again. And don't touch her again. Get out of MY house," Caitie stated, her words shaky. She was amazed at her own braveness.
Jake looked awestricken, and touched his face lightly. He turned towards Sarah and said, "You're lucky you've got the slut to keep you safe and warm. And by the way; I liked you a whole lot better when you had a few beers in ya."
Jake grabbed his jacket off the side of the couch and stormed out of the house, slamming the front door behind him.
Caitie crouched down beside her mom, looking for bruises. "Where did he hit you?"
"Oh Caitie, I'm sorry-"
"Where did he hit you?" Caitie asked again, firmly, not wanting to hear her lame apologies.
"My stomach...and he threw a bottle of wine at my arm."
Caitie pulled her arm up and saw a huge gash from her elbow to her wrist. She gently laid it back down and pulled up her shirt. A purple bruise was beginning to form across her abdomen.
"Hold on."
Caitie left the room for a minute and came back carrying medicine and bandages. She knelt down again, and sprayed the wound with disinfectant spray. Sarah winced in pain, but managed to keep her arm held out. Caitie then put ointment on the cut and wrapped it with gauze. She picked up a sling off the floor and strung it over her mom's shoulder, afterwards putting her wounded arm inside of it.
"Where did we get a sling?" Mrs. Roth asked, slowly trying to stand up.
"The last time you were in the hospital," Caitie said coldly, staring her mother hard in the eyes.
"Oh."
Caitie helped her mom to the couch, and set a blanket over her. "Here's the phone, and the TV remote. I'm going for a walk. I'll lock the door, and if he comes back you call 911. Do you understand?"
Sarah slowly nodded, feeling weak and helpless. Caitie watched her mother quickly fall asleep, and she stormed out of the living room and into the hallway. She opened the front door and stepped out into the fall breeze. Caitie silently shut the door behind her and walked down to the end of the driveway.
Caitie turned back behind the house and raced through the trees, branches slapping at her. She ran as hard and as fast as she could, finally emerging at the other side of the forest. She was next to a coffee shop. Caitie stopped and caught her breath, gasping for air.
She leaned against the side of the old building, shutting her eyes tightly. Tears started filling her eyes, and she opened them to let one roll down her cheek. Caitie sniffed and wiped her eyes, trying carefully not to wipe her makeup off. Life was such a disappointment.
Caitie woke up suddenly, listening intently for the sound she had heard just moments earlier. There it was again: Something hit her window. Caitie jumped out of bed and walked to her window, peering cautiously down at the ground. Jamie was standing on the grass, a pebble in his hand, his arm ready to throw again.
Caitie pulled the window open as the pebble came flying up and hit her in the nose.
"Jeez!" Caitie muttered, massaging her nose. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to see if you were okay."
Caitie turned and looked at her alarm clock. The red letters glowed 11:45. "Well, believe it or not, dreams can't hurt you. I'll be getting back to bed now."
"No! Come out! Please?" Jamie asked, staring up at the tired girl.
Caitie sighed. "I'll make you a deal. I'm not coming out there; but you can come in here. Take it or leave it."
"Alright."
"Meet me at the side door."
A few minutes later, Caitie swung the door open to come face-to-face with Jamie. "Why did you want to know if I was okay?"
"Because I called eight times and no one picked up."
"Oh," Caitie eyed him skeptically, and then swung the door open wider. "Come in."
Jamie followed her upstairs to Caitie's bedroom. She pushed her door open and collapsed on her bed. Jamie hesitantly walked in after her, looking for a place to sit. Caitie buried her body in the covers, and Jamie asked, "Do you have a chair in here?"
"In my bathroom down the hall; but don't worry about it- just get in the bed."
"What?" Jamie asked, his heart hammering against his ribcage.
"Jamie, just because I ask you to lie in a bed with me does not mean that we're going to have sex. Besides, we've barely dated long enough to do so if that was my intention. Just get in the damn bed."
Jamie kicked off his tennis shoes and pulled his jacket off, awkwardly joining Caitie underneath the blanket. He wrapped his arms around her waist, her back facing his chest.
"Are you okay?" Jamie asked.
"I don't know." Caitie took a deep breath and recalled the events of that day. She ended with turning towards him, making Jamie adjust his hold on her waist. "I feel like I'm the mother and she's the child. I'm so sick of it."
"You're just lucky you got home in time," Jamie said, gently kissing her forehead.
Caitie looked up at him, her eyes linking with his. Her lip trembled and she whispered, "I was so scared."
"Oh, baby, I know you were," Jamie said, stroking her hair and pulling her body to his. "But it's going to be okay."
Normally, Caitie would've let the words breeze by, but because Jamie spoke them, and the way he said them, Caitie really did believe that everything would turn out okay.
Caitie woke up because of two things: One, the sun was glaring at her through her open blinds, and Jamie was up and moving around.
"What are you doing?" Caitie grumbled, squinting at him through the sunlight.
"Getting up because I'll be dead if your mom catches me in your bedroom."
Caitie sat up slowly, and rubbed her face. "Jamie, we didn't do anything. Grow up; my mom is probably too asleep to know if the house came crashing down."
Jamie yanked his shoe on and glanced at her. "I don't care. I'm dead if anyone over the age of 18 finds that we spent the night together last night."
"Jamie! Must I need to repeat myself? We didn't DO it, we slept. That would be why its called 'sleeping together'; you sleep. Imagine that," Caitie finished sarcastically.
"Jeez you're cranky in the morning," Jamie said, getting an evil eye from her, "Sorry, sorry, I've just never seen you in the morning unless you've had coffee. But anyway, we can't PROVE that we didn't do anything, and it's not like us sleeping together is going to make our parents ecstatic."
"Since when do you care what your parents think?" Caitie asked, somehow managing to drag herself out of bed into a standing position. She yawned and stretched her arms.
"I don't. I just care about what happens after they find out, because I don't want to be in trouble again; my bike might get taken away."
Caitie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. See you at school."
Before Jamie had a chance to open the door leading into the hallway, they both heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Shit," Caitie muttered, quickly locking the door.
"Caitie? Are you awake? Who are you talking to?" came Mrs. Roth's voice from outside Caitie's door.
Jamie looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. "No," Caitie mouthed silently to him, motioning for him to stay still.
"Yeah, I'm...er... getting dressed."
"Can I come in? I want to talk about yesterday."
Caitie searched for the words she needed and ended up saying, "I'm naked."
"It's not like you haven't got anything I haven't!" Mrs. Roth laughed timidly, and Caitie turned bright red as Jamie raised his eyebrows at her and smirked.
"Mom, no, ew, that's gross. I'll be out in like 10 minutes."
"If you insist," Mrs. Roth sighed, "I mean, it's not like you're hiding any boys in there." She laughed again, and Caitie tensed. The two waited until they heard the footsteps travel back down the hall and Mrs. Roth's door shut until Jamie breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was close," Jamie said, raising his eyebrows and pushing his way past Caitie.
"Where are you going?" Caitie asked.
Jamie looked around and said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm going to school."
Caitie incredulously looked at him and then at her clock. "It's only 8:00. You have 20 more minutes. And I need a ride."
"Well, see, I don't think giving you a ride is more important than the fact that your mother could catch us and I would be in so much trouble that I doubt if I would ever see the light of day again."
Caitie rolled here eyes and said, "Give me 5 minutes. Wait outside. I'll be out in no time- please?"
Jamie looked at her desperate eyes. How was he going to say no? "Fine. But hurry or I'm leaving without you."
Caitie nodded and Jamie, after listening intently to noises in the hallway, crept out of Caitie's room and out of the house.
Caitie quickly threw on a black long-sleeved shirt with 'Evanescence' printed across it, and then dark blue jeans. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and put on eyeliner, then hurried down the stairs and out of the house.
Jamie was waiting for her, as promised, at the end of her driveway. Caitie climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, and he sped off.
Caitie tapped her pencil against the desk and glanced at the clock again. 26 minutes until the last period of the day. Caitie watched the second hand slowly tick around the old fashioned clock and sighed.
She looked around the room. Almost everyone was asleep except for the nerds, who were watching the lesson and taking descriptive notes, obviously engrossed in algebraic formulas. Caitie sighed again and glanced back up at the clock. 25 minutes. Didn't time move any faster?
"Hmm... let's see...Caitie. How about you come and solve for x?" Mr. Williamair said, looking up from his seating chart.
"Uh..." Caitie looked around, and all eyes were on her. She slowly stood up and walked to the front of the classroom, taking the chalk from the teacher's hand. "Well, first..."
Caitie stared at all the numbers. She couldn't figure out what the significance was, and she tried again. "Well, first you would-"
The intercom beeped and a scratchy voice came over the PA system. "Mr. Williamair?"
"Yes?" The teacher asked, looking up at the small brown box as if it were a person.
"Can you please send Caitilyn Roth to the office?"
"Sure thing."
Mr. Williamair smiled at the box and turned back to Caitie. "I think you're wanted at the office," He laughed wholeheartedly, as if he was the only one who heard the intercom.
Caitie gave him a weak smile and dashed out of the room. She made her way down the hall nervously. Had she done anything bad recently? No... Had she failed something and she needed to repeat it next year? She didn't think so.
Just as she was about to enter the office door, Jamie's voice rang through the hallway. "Caitie?"
She turned and looked at him. "Oh, hey, What are you doing?"
"I'm in the bathroom," Jamie smiled. "What are YOU doing?"
"The office called Mr. Williamair's room for me."
"Why?" Jamie looked as surprised as Caitie did when she first heard the call.
"I have no idea. I'm about to go find out."
"Well good luck if you did something bad," Jamie winked at her.
"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you I murdered someone and now the police want me and my reward money is 1,000,000 dollars," Caitie said sarcastically.
Jamie smiled. "I'm sure you did."
Caitie sighed and rolled her eyes, pushing open the office door. She walked to the counter and the lady handed her the office telephone.
Jamie watched intently from the window outside the office. Caitie's look turned from curiosity to sheer terror as she muttered something into the phone and placed it back on the hook. Caitie dug her nails into her arm and tried to keep her eyes dry as she walked, as fast as she could, to the office door. She swung it open and passed Jamie, tears brimming her eyelids.
"Caitie- what happened?" Jamie asked, following her.
Caitie bit her lower lip and looked up, trying to think of anything but what she had just heard over the telephone.
"Damn it, Caitie, what's going on?" Jamie asked, finally catching her arm and spinning her around.
"Let go of me!" Caitie screamed, spinning away from him, causing him to lose his grip on her arm.
"Caitie, will you please tell me what you're doing!" Jamie tried one last time.
"She was in an accident. A car accident. She's at the hospital; I need to go. Please just leave me alone!" Caitie said, tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Who was!?" Jamie said, following her as she raced down the hall again.
"MY MOTHER!" Caitie yelled as she started to sob. "My mom. Okay? Now will you please leave me alone!"
"Caitie- let me just give you a ride; you're not going to get anywhere fast on foot."
Caitie gave in and sobbed, "Okay- just please hurry!"
The hospital was always as Caitie remembered it. Smelly and silent. Beeps went off every now and then from rooms cluttered down the hall, and nurses hummed while traveling down the corridors, but other than that the hospital had an incredible lack of noise.
Caitie nervously cracked her knuckles, although by that point in time they were probably about to break from being cracked every five seconds. She gave up in her knuckles and dug her fingernails into her palms to keep herself from going mad.
Jamie was seated right next to her, nervously glancing at Caitie every couple of seconds. The doctor finally came out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He walked over to the anxious teens waiting across the hall. Caitie jumped up, Jamie behind her. "Well?" Caitie asked nervously, trying to keep her voice steady.
The doctor hopelessly looked at her and said, "I'm sorry; we did all we could, but we lost her a few minutes ago."
The world seemed to be closing in on Caitie as she stared at the doctor and heard what he was saying. He said some more things, but they couldn't reach Caitie. She only thought over and over again: My mom is dead.
Caitie slowly turned to Jamie and whispered, "Jamie- she's gone." And with that, Caitie collapsed in a heap of tears in his arms.
A/N: Hehe... You've read, you're a good little boy/girl! Yay for you! Now review!
The motorcycle's engine slowly droned down to a steady chug as Jamie stopped the bike. Caitie swung her leg over the side and handed the helmet to Jamie. "Thanks for the ride," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Jamie nodded at her and tugged his helmet on, then sped off around the corner.
Caitie walked down her driveway and then pushed open her front door. At first she only saw her mom, sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest, looking frightened and weak. Then she saw him. Her dad was in the middle of the living room, his fist raised high as if he was about to strike Sarah Roth. Caitie first stood back in fear, tears brimming her eyelids. Then the reality of the situation hit her in the face.
The 11-year-old girl whimpered in the corner of her room as she heard the worst sounds from her parent's room. Her dad grunted and swung again. Caitie couldn't see it, but the sounds of her mother's screams of pain after each groan caused Caitie to flinch and sob harder.
"Jake... please stop! I love you! I'm sorry!"
Caitie never knew what the apologies were for; her mother hadn't done a thing!
"Shut up, bitch!"
Caitie flinched and tears poured down her face as she heard another cry of antagonizing pain from her mother.
The hospital was gross. It smelled like soap and rubber gloves. Caitie stood beside the hospital bed, staring at the bruised woman in it.
"Mom?"
The woman slowly rolled over, revealing a black eye and a gash across her check. "Caitie... oh my sweet, sweet girl...I'm so sorry this is happening...I love you so much."
The 13-year old watched as Sarah's head dropped back onto the pillow and she fell back asleep. Her skin was so pale and bruised she almost looked dead.
"NO!" Caitie screamed, slamming the door behind her and tearing through the hallway to her mother.
Jake turned at the sound of his daughter's cries. "Get out of my house, slut. Go mess with some boys."
Before her thoughts could take over her actions, her actions won and she slapped her father across the face as hard as she could.
"Don't ever talk to me like that again. And don't touch her again. Get out of MY house," Caitie stated, her words shaky. She was amazed at her own braveness.
Jake looked awestricken, and touched his face lightly. He turned towards Sarah and said, "You're lucky you've got the slut to keep you safe and warm. And by the way; I liked you a whole lot better when you had a few beers in ya."
Jake grabbed his jacket off the side of the couch and stormed out of the house, slamming the front door behind him.
Caitie crouched down beside her mom, looking for bruises. "Where did he hit you?"
"Oh Caitie, I'm sorry-"
"Where did he hit you?" Caitie asked again, firmly, not wanting to hear her lame apologies.
"My stomach...and he threw a bottle of wine at my arm."
Caitie pulled her arm up and saw a huge gash from her elbow to her wrist. She gently laid it back down and pulled up her shirt. A purple bruise was beginning to form across her abdomen.
"Hold on."
Caitie left the room for a minute and came back carrying medicine and bandages. She knelt down again, and sprayed the wound with disinfectant spray. Sarah winced in pain, but managed to keep her arm held out. Caitie then put ointment on the cut and wrapped it with gauze. She picked up a sling off the floor and strung it over her mom's shoulder, afterwards putting her wounded arm inside of it.
"Where did we get a sling?" Mrs. Roth asked, slowly trying to stand up.
"The last time you were in the hospital," Caitie said coldly, staring her mother hard in the eyes.
"Oh."
Caitie helped her mom to the couch, and set a blanket over her. "Here's the phone, and the TV remote. I'm going for a walk. I'll lock the door, and if he comes back you call 911. Do you understand?"
Sarah slowly nodded, feeling weak and helpless. Caitie watched her mother quickly fall asleep, and she stormed out of the living room and into the hallway. She opened the front door and stepped out into the fall breeze. Caitie silently shut the door behind her and walked down to the end of the driveway.
Caitie turned back behind the house and raced through the trees, branches slapping at her. She ran as hard and as fast as she could, finally emerging at the other side of the forest. She was next to a coffee shop. Caitie stopped and caught her breath, gasping for air.
She leaned against the side of the old building, shutting her eyes tightly. Tears started filling her eyes, and she opened them to let one roll down her cheek. Caitie sniffed and wiped her eyes, trying carefully not to wipe her makeup off. Life was such a disappointment.
Caitie woke up suddenly, listening intently for the sound she had heard just moments earlier. There it was again: Something hit her window. Caitie jumped out of bed and walked to her window, peering cautiously down at the ground. Jamie was standing on the grass, a pebble in his hand, his arm ready to throw again.
Caitie pulled the window open as the pebble came flying up and hit her in the nose.
"Jeez!" Caitie muttered, massaging her nose. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to see if you were okay."
Caitie turned and looked at her alarm clock. The red letters glowed 11:45. "Well, believe it or not, dreams can't hurt you. I'll be getting back to bed now."
"No! Come out! Please?" Jamie asked, staring up at the tired girl.
Caitie sighed. "I'll make you a deal. I'm not coming out there; but you can come in here. Take it or leave it."
"Alright."
"Meet me at the side door."
A few minutes later, Caitie swung the door open to come face-to-face with Jamie. "Why did you want to know if I was okay?"
"Because I called eight times and no one picked up."
"Oh," Caitie eyed him skeptically, and then swung the door open wider. "Come in."
Jamie followed her upstairs to Caitie's bedroom. She pushed her door open and collapsed on her bed. Jamie hesitantly walked in after her, looking for a place to sit. Caitie buried her body in the covers, and Jamie asked, "Do you have a chair in here?"
"In my bathroom down the hall; but don't worry about it- just get in the bed."
"What?" Jamie asked, his heart hammering against his ribcage.
"Jamie, just because I ask you to lie in a bed with me does not mean that we're going to have sex. Besides, we've barely dated long enough to do so if that was my intention. Just get in the damn bed."
Jamie kicked off his tennis shoes and pulled his jacket off, awkwardly joining Caitie underneath the blanket. He wrapped his arms around her waist, her back facing his chest.
"Are you okay?" Jamie asked.
"I don't know." Caitie took a deep breath and recalled the events of that day. She ended with turning towards him, making Jamie adjust his hold on her waist. "I feel like I'm the mother and she's the child. I'm so sick of it."
"You're just lucky you got home in time," Jamie said, gently kissing her forehead.
Caitie looked up at him, her eyes linking with his. Her lip trembled and she whispered, "I was so scared."
"Oh, baby, I know you were," Jamie said, stroking her hair and pulling her body to his. "But it's going to be okay."
Normally, Caitie would've let the words breeze by, but because Jamie spoke them, and the way he said them, Caitie really did believe that everything would turn out okay.
Caitie woke up because of two things: One, the sun was glaring at her through her open blinds, and Jamie was up and moving around.
"What are you doing?" Caitie grumbled, squinting at him through the sunlight.
"Getting up because I'll be dead if your mom catches me in your bedroom."
Caitie sat up slowly, and rubbed her face. "Jamie, we didn't do anything. Grow up; my mom is probably too asleep to know if the house came crashing down."
Jamie yanked his shoe on and glanced at her. "I don't care. I'm dead if anyone over the age of 18 finds that we spent the night together last night."
"Jamie! Must I need to repeat myself? We didn't DO it, we slept. That would be why its called 'sleeping together'; you sleep. Imagine that," Caitie finished sarcastically.
"Jeez you're cranky in the morning," Jamie said, getting an evil eye from her, "Sorry, sorry, I've just never seen you in the morning unless you've had coffee. But anyway, we can't PROVE that we didn't do anything, and it's not like us sleeping together is going to make our parents ecstatic."
"Since when do you care what your parents think?" Caitie asked, somehow managing to drag herself out of bed into a standing position. She yawned and stretched her arms.
"I don't. I just care about what happens after they find out, because I don't want to be in trouble again; my bike might get taken away."
Caitie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. See you at school."
Before Jamie had a chance to open the door leading into the hallway, they both heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Shit," Caitie muttered, quickly locking the door.
"Caitie? Are you awake? Who are you talking to?" came Mrs. Roth's voice from outside Caitie's door.
Jamie looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. "No," Caitie mouthed silently to him, motioning for him to stay still.
"Yeah, I'm...er... getting dressed."
"Can I come in? I want to talk about yesterday."
Caitie searched for the words she needed and ended up saying, "I'm naked."
"It's not like you haven't got anything I haven't!" Mrs. Roth laughed timidly, and Caitie turned bright red as Jamie raised his eyebrows at her and smirked.
"Mom, no, ew, that's gross. I'll be out in like 10 minutes."
"If you insist," Mrs. Roth sighed, "I mean, it's not like you're hiding any boys in there." She laughed again, and Caitie tensed. The two waited until they heard the footsteps travel back down the hall and Mrs. Roth's door shut until Jamie breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was close," Jamie said, raising his eyebrows and pushing his way past Caitie.
"Where are you going?" Caitie asked.
Jamie looked around and said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm going to school."
Caitie incredulously looked at him and then at her clock. "It's only 8:00. You have 20 more minutes. And I need a ride."
"Well, see, I don't think giving you a ride is more important than the fact that your mother could catch us and I would be in so much trouble that I doubt if I would ever see the light of day again."
Caitie rolled here eyes and said, "Give me 5 minutes. Wait outside. I'll be out in no time- please?"
Jamie looked at her desperate eyes. How was he going to say no? "Fine. But hurry or I'm leaving without you."
Caitie nodded and Jamie, after listening intently to noises in the hallway, crept out of Caitie's room and out of the house.
Caitie quickly threw on a black long-sleeved shirt with 'Evanescence' printed across it, and then dark blue jeans. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and put on eyeliner, then hurried down the stairs and out of the house.
Jamie was waiting for her, as promised, at the end of her driveway. Caitie climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, and he sped off.
Caitie tapped her pencil against the desk and glanced at the clock again. 26 minutes until the last period of the day. Caitie watched the second hand slowly tick around the old fashioned clock and sighed.
She looked around the room. Almost everyone was asleep except for the nerds, who were watching the lesson and taking descriptive notes, obviously engrossed in algebraic formulas. Caitie sighed again and glanced back up at the clock. 25 minutes. Didn't time move any faster?
"Hmm... let's see...Caitie. How about you come and solve for x?" Mr. Williamair said, looking up from his seating chart.
"Uh..." Caitie looked around, and all eyes were on her. She slowly stood up and walked to the front of the classroom, taking the chalk from the teacher's hand. "Well, first..."
Caitie stared at all the numbers. She couldn't figure out what the significance was, and she tried again. "Well, first you would-"
The intercom beeped and a scratchy voice came over the PA system. "Mr. Williamair?"
"Yes?" The teacher asked, looking up at the small brown box as if it were a person.
"Can you please send Caitilyn Roth to the office?"
"Sure thing."
Mr. Williamair smiled at the box and turned back to Caitie. "I think you're wanted at the office," He laughed wholeheartedly, as if he was the only one who heard the intercom.
Caitie gave him a weak smile and dashed out of the room. She made her way down the hall nervously. Had she done anything bad recently? No... Had she failed something and she needed to repeat it next year? She didn't think so.
Just as she was about to enter the office door, Jamie's voice rang through the hallway. "Caitie?"
She turned and looked at him. "Oh, hey, What are you doing?"
"I'm in the bathroom," Jamie smiled. "What are YOU doing?"
"The office called Mr. Williamair's room for me."
"Why?" Jamie looked as surprised as Caitie did when she first heard the call.
"I have no idea. I'm about to go find out."
"Well good luck if you did something bad," Jamie winked at her.
"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you I murdered someone and now the police want me and my reward money is 1,000,000 dollars," Caitie said sarcastically.
Jamie smiled. "I'm sure you did."
Caitie sighed and rolled her eyes, pushing open the office door. She walked to the counter and the lady handed her the office telephone.
Jamie watched intently from the window outside the office. Caitie's look turned from curiosity to sheer terror as she muttered something into the phone and placed it back on the hook. Caitie dug her nails into her arm and tried to keep her eyes dry as she walked, as fast as she could, to the office door. She swung it open and passed Jamie, tears brimming her eyelids.
"Caitie- what happened?" Jamie asked, following her.
Caitie bit her lower lip and looked up, trying to think of anything but what she had just heard over the telephone.
"Damn it, Caitie, what's going on?" Jamie asked, finally catching her arm and spinning her around.
"Let go of me!" Caitie screamed, spinning away from him, causing him to lose his grip on her arm.
"Caitie, will you please tell me what you're doing!" Jamie tried one last time.
"She was in an accident. A car accident. She's at the hospital; I need to go. Please just leave me alone!" Caitie said, tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Who was!?" Jamie said, following her as she raced down the hall again.
"MY MOTHER!" Caitie yelled as she started to sob. "My mom. Okay? Now will you please leave me alone!"
"Caitie- let me just give you a ride; you're not going to get anywhere fast on foot."
Caitie gave in and sobbed, "Okay- just please hurry!"
The hospital was always as Caitie remembered it. Smelly and silent. Beeps went off every now and then from rooms cluttered down the hall, and nurses hummed while traveling down the corridors, but other than that the hospital had an incredible lack of noise.
Caitie nervously cracked her knuckles, although by that point in time they were probably about to break from being cracked every five seconds. She gave up in her knuckles and dug her fingernails into her palms to keep herself from going mad.
Jamie was seated right next to her, nervously glancing at Caitie every couple of seconds. The doctor finally came out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He walked over to the anxious teens waiting across the hall. Caitie jumped up, Jamie behind her. "Well?" Caitie asked nervously, trying to keep her voice steady.
The doctor hopelessly looked at her and said, "I'm sorry; we did all we could, but we lost her a few minutes ago."
The world seemed to be closing in on Caitie as she stared at the doctor and heard what he was saying. He said some more things, but they couldn't reach Caitie. She only thought over and over again: My mom is dead.
Caitie slowly turned to Jamie and whispered, "Jamie- she's gone." And with that, Caitie collapsed in a heap of tears in his arms.
A/N: Hehe... You've read, you're a good little boy/girl! Yay for you! Now review!