But here's the next chappie, it is a little bit shorter than my others and it doesn't get as far time-wise as the other chapters do, but please review anyway! If you don't like something and think I should change it, tell me, because I have a few ideas for this story and it's just a little hard to combine all of them. Happy reading!
Elaine let go and got off the couch, pulling Scott from the bleary sleep he had fallen into. He didn't feel comforted anymore. The events that had just occurred replayed over and over again through his mind. Elaine didn't seem to be any different; she dressed as if she had just woken up from a long nap. How long had they been sitting there? He didn't know. All he knew was that he would spew the contents of his stomach all over his father's expensive oriental carpet if he didn't find a bathroom.
Elaine hummed triumphantly to herself as she prepared breakfast. She hadn't taken the time to learn how to cook from her mother, but she could whip up a mean bacon-and-egg sandwich. Martin had told her that Scott usually ate bacon for breakfast because he needed the protein for practice. Today, he would probably need it to keep up with her.
Scott slowly pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of comfortable sweatpants. The dizziness had returned as soon as he got up from the couch, but luckily his stomach had waited until he made it up the stairs. He knew his father would be pretty angry about vomit that now covered the floor at the top of the staircase, but he wouldn't show it because he'd feel guilty about yelling at his sick son.
That's it, I'm just a sick little boy, he thought to himself. A dirty sick little wuss.
He wanted to shower so badly, to get her smell off his body, but he was afraid that he would collapse in the shower and she would do something to him while he was there. He needed to get away from her, away from that house, but he didn't know how. His legs felt like lead underneath him, big blocks that would not move. Maybe he could take the car.
Elaine put Scott's breakfast on a tray and took it up the stairs to him. She winced when her foot hit something wet on the floor, and she looked past the tray to find it covered in vomit.
"Ewwwww! Oh goodness..."
Her squeal jerked Scott away from his thoughts. What the hell was she carrying on about now? He stopped pacing when she opened the door and put the tray on the floor. She disappeared from view, hopping down the hallway to the bathroom. He peeked out the door and saw that his little mess had been disrupted. At first he held back the urge to laugh, but oh, what the hell. It served her right.
She was still scrubbing her foot half an hour later. He could hear the shower from where he lay on his bed. It was the background music for his hand puppets. His mother had taught him how to make funny little animal shapes with his fingers, and had used them to get him to sleep when he was a child. In his depressed and weary state he had formed a rabbit and a dog. The dog chased the rabbit around and bit into it, but the rabbit was using tae-kwon-do to kick the dog's butt. It may not have been too entertaining to an outsider, but it kept his nausea at bay.
Up to the age of seven years old, rabbits had been his favorite animals. That was before he learned that rabbits weren't cool, and that boys liked dogs and dragons. His friends liked the dog that he pretended to beat up. They teased him constantly about how hot she was.
He dropped his hands when the door opened abruptly. Elaine looked disapprovingly at the plate of food left uneaten by the door, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead she wandered around the room, gazing at the trophies and pictures that lined the walls.
Scott watched her from where he lay. He felt oddly uncomfortable and exposed, in spite of the fact that two layers of clothing shielded his body from her prodding eyes. He wanted her to get out of his room and stop looking at his belongings. He remained silent, unable to voice the anger that built up inside of him.
Elaine picked up a picture and walked over to him. "Who's this?"
Scott gave the photograph a lazy glance. "My mom."
Elaine turned the picture back towards her and studied it for a second. "Tell me about her."
"There's not much to tell."
She rolled her eyes at this. "Sure there isn't. What was she like?"
"A mom."
"My mother drank a bottle of whiskey in between her council meetings and choir practice. Was your mother like that?"
Scott's eyes moved from the ceiling to her face. "No."
"So..."
He sat up. "Why do you wanna know anyway?"
"Just to see what she was like."
"You mean so that you can figure out the soul you're supposed to replace?" He paused, taking a deep breath to control himself. When he looked back at her, his blue eyes flashed angrily. "I don't need another mom. I already have one. And Dad obviously doesn't need her because he decided to marry you instead. So don't get any ideas."
Elaine looked at him sadly. She softly touched his cheek, and then grabbed his hand. "Scott, I don't want to be your mother. I think I'm a little too young to be a mom. I just want to be your friend. You can talk to me, you know."
No, he couldn't talk to her. If he could, he would have told her that he didn't want to have sex with her, and if he could talk to his dad, he would have told him what happened. He couldn't talk to anyone, he had forgotten how. No one ever wanted to talk to him about anything besides football anymore. His mother was the only one who ever asked him about how he felt, not about the number of points he scored.
Elaine watched him expectantly, picking the conversation back up when he didn't speak. "Your father told me that you two were pretty close."
Scott sighed. "Yeah."
"It must hurt that you guys don't talk much anymore."
He stared out the window. "I guess."
"Do you still feel sick?"
"A little."
"Why didn't you eat anything?"
"I'm not hungry."
"You barely ate anything last night. You have to eat, in order to stay healthy and strong. Otherwise, you're going to keep getting sick."
He shrugged. He didn't really care about eating. There was no way he could go to football practice anyway, his school had a rule about being in school in order to play.
"Scotty..." She turned his head back to face her. "You have to eat breakfast now, okay?"
He pulled away from her hand. "I'll eat whenever the hell I want to."
It was Elaine's turn to sigh. "Alright then."
She fetched the plate and set it on Scott's nightstand. She sat on his bed and crawled into his lap, stretching one of her slender legs over his hips to the other side of his body. She picked up a piece of bacon and tried to put it in his mouth. Scott jerked away from her and put his hands up to push hers away from him. Elaine laughed lightly and forced him down until he was lying flat on the bed, then pressed his nose and held it until he opened his mouth to breathe. She pushed the bacon into the back of his throat and he gagged on the rubbery meat.
Scott wriggled his way up the bed to get away from Elaine's controlling hands. He had almost gotten away when a piece of bacon got caught in his windpipe. He gasped for air, but it was stuck. Elaine giggled, happy that she had overpowered him yet again.
He got scared. He was choking and Elaine would hold him there until he died. She was lifting up the pillow. What was she doing? She would kill him, and then she could take all of his father's money.
Elaine playfully placed the pillow over his face and pressed down gently. He would realize soon enough that he had to listen to her every word. His arms were flailing against her, hitting her arms and the sides of her body. She would have to make him pay for those.
Fear traveled through every nerve ending in his body. His stomach turned in circles and the dizziness that had temporarily left him swung back in full force, increasing his anxiety. He hadn't had an attack this bad since his parents first told him that they were separating, but then no one had been around to witness it. He felt like he was going to pass out, but his lungs kept forcing air up into his mouth, trying to dislodge the offensive cuisine from his body.
Elaine's anger gave way to concern, and she removed the pillow from his face. Scott immediately sat up and pounded at his chest until the chunk flew out of his mouth and onto the floor. He panted heavily in an effort to regain the oxygen that he had lost.
"Scotty, are you alright?" Elaine wrapped her arms around him to calm him down.
He tried to pull away, but her grip was too strong. The fear was still there, wrenching at his heart and clawing at his mind. He couldn't stay in that house. She would suffocate him while he was sleeping. His life depended on him getting away from her.
Scott pushed her off him and ran for the door, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto the bed. "Scotty, where are you going?"
His only reply was to jerk his arm back towards his body, releasing her hold on him. He got up again, but this time Elaine grabbed him around the waist and emphatically dragged him back down. She kept a firm grip as she lay down on top of him. She felt the rapid heart beat underneath his shirt and heard his shallow breaths.
He attempted to relax, but it was impossible. He knew that getting worked up about things gave him headaches, but the muscles in his body would not unwind. Now Elaine was lying on his bed, he was lying on his bed, and he was praying that what he knew would happen somehow did not. He felt her muscles shift as she lifted her face to be even with his.
"Sshh, close your eyes," she whispered softly into his ear. He did as he was told, his panic level increasing by the second.
Her hands went into his hair and massaged his scalp soothingly. His neck muscles stiffened at first, then unwound. He drifted off into a dazed sleep as she hummed softly.
So what did you think? Am I moving a little too slow? Besides the downfall into frugs, is there anything else you guys would like to see before Horizon comes into the picture?