Defender
Chapter 7—When it Rains…It Pours!
Author's notes: This story is getting much longer than I had originally estimated (about 4-5 chapters) and so I've decided to title the chapters. Makes it easier for me to find what I'm looking for when I need to quote or check facts. /sweatdrop/
Comments:
Daewen98: Thanks. /grins/
.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.
Sunday morning Karen dutifully got out of bed and joined the family at the dining room table. Amanda's mother had prepared a lavish breakfast and everyone was cheerful and merry as they ate. Everyone, except Karen, that is. She sat quietly and sombrely, slowly chewing her sausage and trying not to think about Ellie.
Suddenly, the room got quiet and Karen looked up to see what had happened.
Everyone was staring at her.
"Are you okay?" Amanda's mother asked her.
She nodded and forced a semi-believable smile. Amanda's mother studied her a moment longer and then seemingly dismissed the incident from her mind. She did not fail to notice, though, that Karen quickly finished eating and slipped out the front door with Dreizehn close at her heels.
.oO0Oo.
Having freed herself from the watchful eye of Amanda's mother, Karen allowed her depression to dictate her steps. She walked slowly down the sidewalk, kicking at a pebble, her shoulders slumped and her arms crossed against her chest. For half an hour, she wandered around the city until she found herself in the park. Lifting her head, she spotted a bench nearby and walked over to it. She sat down and pulled her knees up under her chin and Dreizehn sat quietly on the other side.
"I'm glad you came with me," she said to Dreizehn. "Not like I thought you would stay at the house, but still…this time I'm genuinely glad that you came. Guess I just need an ear to talk to and you're great at not interrupting." She grinned at the slight humour and laid her head down on the back of her hands as they rested on the top of her knees. Then she sobered.
"Ellie is really rotten, isn't she? I mean, to have the gall to get upset with me for being sad about my own parents' death? What does she know about it, anyhow? Has she lost anyone dear to her?" She smirked. "I doubt she's even lost a dog or a kitten! And yet, she gets upset with me for being sad over not just one parent, but both and a cousin who was practically a brother! Totally rotten, I tell you."
She sighed.
"But I guess I shouldn't get mad at her. Not like I've been in her position…though…if she asked, I gladly trade!" She rolled her eyes. "But you know what's really stupid? She won't even talk to me. She gets all upset about me not talking, but then she won't talk. Little mmm!
"What did Amanda say? 'What's really eating her is that I won't talk about it and, instead, pretend that everything is okay.' Now if that isn't four kinds of hypocrisy, then I don't know what is! She pretends that everything is okay. She doesn't talk about what's bothering her. But me? Oh, I have to talk about it." She rolled her eyes again. "Hypocritical little mmm, that's what she is!"
She sat up with her back against the bench and crossed her arms with a huff. "Makes me mad! I'd love to just go over to her house and give her a big piece of my mind. Heck, if she so much as hints about Edward or my parents or house fires, for that matter, I'll just give her a piece of my mind anyhow. She wants me to talk? I'll talk to her! I'll tell her how two-faced she is, how inconsiderate and deceptive and…and…unfriendly! What do you think of that?"
When she turned to Dreizehn, her anger quickly transformed to shock. He was not the canine that she had thought had followed her out the door. He was the German soldier.
"Dreizehn!" she whispered.
He smiled slightly.
Her eyes widened in surprise and then involuntarily closed in disbelief. When she opened them again, he was a dog.
"Mm. Should've known that would happen," she stated flatly. "And you probably think I'm nuts. Yes, you do. No sense in denying it." She blinked at him. Then, cocking her eyebrow, she stared off into the distance as if at herself. "Okay, now, I know I'm nuts! Talking to a dog as if he's arguing with me? Yup! I'm nuts!"
She stood up and started back toward the house. As she walked, she mused over her dog's dual forms. She thought she had merely imagined him that way last night, but now she wasn't so sure it was mere imagination. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't really paid him any attention all morning. How long was human? she thought to herself. Did I totally miss it because I was depressed?
.oO0Oo.
When Karen arrived at the house, she found Amanda in her room. Her friend stood up from her chair and started to say something, but Karen was in too much of a hurry to notice.
"Amanda, would you mind watching Dora-chan while I go to Aaron's house?"
"Watch Dora-chan? Uh…."
"Thanks!" Karen called over her shoulder as she ran back out the room.
Amanda took one look at her crush and then ran after Karen.
"Karen! Wait!"
"What?"
"Does Aaron know you're coming?"
Karen tipped her head to one side. "No?" she answer with a lilt to her voice that transformed the word into "So?"
"Well…" Amanda frowned. "Never mind." She opened her mouth again, but Karen was already out the door. "Dora-chan doesn't need watching," she told the shut door.
.oO0Oo.
When Aaron opened the door, Karen saw him for a brief moment in a way that she had never seen him before. He was relaxed, leaning against the door frame with his hair hanging in uncombed locks around his face. His eyes were tired, but his smile was genuine. When he saw her, though, he stood up and slouched back on one foot with his left hand resting lightly on his hip. With an expert toss of his head, his hair seemed to line up the way it had been trained. The weariness was gone, but the smile was carefully measured, now. The only thing that was real was his surprise.
"Hello, Karen! What brings you here?"
"Oh, nothing of great importance," she answered with cute smile. "Mind if I come in?"
"I don't see why not." He stepped aside and directed her to the living room.
Karen surveyed the spacious room with awe. Everything was white or clear glass, from the leather sofa sitting on plush carpet to the calla lilies in the porcelain vase on the etched glass table top. The sheer curtains let in the afternoon sun, which shined on every smooth and highly polished surface. Even the sofa seemed to sparkle in the brightness.
"Wow!" Karen breathed. "It's so…"
"Sterile?"
"Heavenly!" She stepped into the room and turned around with her arms out at her sides. "It's like angels should be sitting here discussing the politics in Heaven."
Aaron shrugged. "I'm not sure Heaven has politics."
Karen laughed. "Or whatever angels talk about. Look at me! I'm the only spot of colour in this room!"
Aaron stared at her, unsure what to say. And a large spot at that, he thought. Makes you look like you're in a commercial? At least we won't have to apply bleach to remove you.
"Oh, come here, Aaron," Karen said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room. "I can't be the only red and brown thing here."
"And blue," he stated.
"Blue?"
"Your eyes."
She smiled and blushed. "To tell you truth, I guess I did kind of have a reason for coming."
All girls do, he thought, but again held his tongue.
"I was in the park earlier," Karen began, "and had the strangest feeling that I'd been letting too many good things go unnoticed. Guess I didn't want to do the same thing with you."
Well, now you've noticed me.
"Well, now you're here," he said with smile. "I guess you want to talk?"
"I don't know. I really just wanted to spend some time with you."
"Well, mom gets home pretty soon. If we want any privacy, we'll have to go to my room."
He stood up and guided her through the rooms of the house until they came to his door. Karen noted, with a perplexed frown, that he had a large swastika painted in red over his name.
"You like…the Nazis?" she asked.
"I like peace symbols. This is about the most public place I can display that one without getting lynched." He opened the door and ushered her in with a sweep of his arm.
Karen took one look at the black room and chuckled. "I can see why you dislike the living room so much!"
He smiled. "Want to see something else?"
"Sure, why not?"
He stepped over the clothes and computer paraphernalia littering the floor and pulled his curtains shut. Returning to Karen, he shut the door and pulled a cloth snake over the open space near the floor. Then, he turned off the lights, engulfing both of them in complete darkness.
"You better not do anything weird," Karen warned.
Aaron smirked. "Just give your eyes a minute to adjust."
As Karen stared into the darkness, she slowly became aware of yellow and white shapes forming on the walls and ceiling. "Peace signs?" she guessed.
"As many as I could find over five years of research."
"It's amazing!" Karen breathed. "How do you sleep at night?"
"Usually, I close my eyes."
She tried to punch him, but didn't see him move in the dark as soon as he had spoken. "That's no fair!" she protested. Stumbling over a stack of books, she found her way back to the door and turned the light back on.
Aaron was seated on his bed, a mischievous smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Karen picked her way over and around the litter and sat beside him.
"Why do you like peace signs so much?" she asked.
Aaron lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head. "It started as a small project a few years back. I was looking for a certain symbol for…some friends, and started noticing how many peace signs there were. Before long, I'd collected quite a few and started grouping them together according to country and derivative. By the time I'd found all the easy ones, I guess I was hooked. I like researching stuff, especially at night. It's something of a hobby, I guess."
"What kind of stuff do you research?"
"Oh…cars, animals, rockets, aliens…pretty much whatever suits my fancy at the moment. Peace signs, though, was my first and probably the most extensive research I've done. I still find myself looking for them sometimes…out of habit."
"That's cool! Can I get you to do my English paper for me?"
Aaron threw her a displeased look. "I research, not write."
"But surely you document what you find."
"That is entirely different from writing an English paper."
"I know that," she said with a chuckle. "Just teasing you." She lay down beside him and kicked her shoes off. "Really, it is cool. Do you plan to do anything with it other than hobby stuff?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure what kinds of jobs require that. Lawyers, I guess."
"And detectives, I'd think."
"But both of those require so much other stuff, too. I don't think there's such a think as a professional researcher."
"A librarian, maybe?"
Aaron scoffed. "Oh yah, I can see that one flying!"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, the parents. They want me to be someone 'respectable', but that really just means it has to be glamorous…like a lawyer or detective. Librarians just don't see any press time and certainly don't make it to the history books."
"That's a pity. Certainly limits your options."
"Mm hm!"
For several long minutes, they lay in silence, staring up at the ceiling. Aaron was reliving the many arguments that he'd had with his parents, while Karen was trying to invent a job that would require mostly research, but would still be glamorous.
Suddenly, Karen bolted upright. "I know!" she exclaimed. "You could be a historian. If you were really good, you'd be famous and people all over the world would come to you to check their facts."
Aaron grinned. "Ever optimistic, I see."
"Well, that's what girlfriends are for."
He chuckled and propped himself up on one elbow. "It's the thought that counts, right?"
"Actually, I was serious, but whatever."
She reached down to retrieve her shoes, but only found one. Putting that one on, she got down on her hands and knees and started searching for the other one.
"What are you doing?" Aaron demanded.
"Just looking for my shoe," she answered as she picked up a jumbled stack of papers and balanced them on top of his open book bag on the chair.
"Well, quit."
"Huh?" Karen looked up at him in astonishment. "But I need my shoe."
Aaron scowled at her for a moment, but then relaxed. "Whatever. Go ahead. Guess I'm just touchy because my folks are always nosing around my room."
She grinned and tossed a pair of dirty socks onto a wadded up shirt. "It'd help if you cleaned up."
"Actually, that's why I keep it messy. Makes it hard to find stuff."
She looked up at him again, her eyebrows lowered in confusion. "And I thought girls were complicated…."
"They are. They don't have reasons for the weird stuff they do. I do."
"I have reasons for everything I do," Karen insisted.
"Uh huh…"
She ducked under the bed.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Aaron exploded, grabbing the back of her shirt. He pulled her back roughly, banging her head on the bottom of the bed brace.
"Ow! You jerk!" Karen returned. She rubbed her head and held up her shoe. "I found it, no thanks to you." She started to put it on, but stopped. There, poking out from under the dust ruffle, was a zip-lock bag full of white powder.
"Aaron?" she said timidly. "What's that?"
He took one look at it and shoved it back under the bed. "Nothing."
"Is it what I think it is?"
He scowled at her, daring her to pronounce what was on her mind.
"I'm not stupid, Aaron," she said softly. "I know kids have been selling that stuff around school."
"Well, it's none of your dang business! I told you not to mess in my stuff! You mention one word to—"
"Aaron! You're the one stupid enough to mess with that stuff!"
She slipped her shoe back off and chunked it at him. It rebounded off the side of his forehead and hit the flour on the other side of the bed. Aaron twisted around to snatched it up and Karen found herself unconsciously backing up. The moment his hand grasped the shoe, he threw it back at her, but hit the wall across the room instead.
"Get out of here!" he yelled. "And take your stupid shoe with you!"
Karen turned, tripped over the junk on his floor, and grabbed her shoe. Slamming the door behind her, she ran down the hallway, crying.
.oO0Oo.
"Are you still depressed about Ellie?" Amanda asked as she sat in bed, waiting for Karen to finish dressing and turn off the light.
Her guest slowly finished buttoning her nightshirt.
"I just wondered. You've hardly said anything all day and you've kinda avoided everybody, too."
Turning around, Karen leaned against the closet door's frame and stared out the window at the city lights. "You were right about Aaron," she said.
"Huh? What do you mean? Right about what?"
"That he's an unsavoury character."
Amanda blinked in surprise. "Wow! So the rumours are true?"
Karen shrugged. "I'm not certain what the rumours are, exactly, but…"
"But what?"
Suddenly, Karen turned and walked toward the door. "I'm going to bed."
"Wait, no!" Amanda banged her fists on the mattress and sat upright. "You can't do that to me! What happened? Did he say something? Do something?"
Karen turned off the switch.
"Kareeen!"
Her friend carefully made her way back to the bed in the dark. Amanda followed the sound of her footsteps until she had climbed into bed. Then she protested.
"You big meany!"
"I found something in his room," Karen stated, unfazed by Amanda's reactions.
"What?" the other girl whispered, now on her knees and grasping Karen's arm in suspense.
"Cocaine."
Amanda released her friend and sat back abruptly.
Silence settled over the room. Somewhere in the neighbourhood a small dog yapped at a jogger. A car drove by with the bass jacked, stopped at a red light, and then preceded down the street. The wind picked up a little and tossed a handful of early fall leaves against the window.
"Wow!" Amanda finally exclaimed. "That's a shock…and yet, I'm not surprised."
Again the silence took over.
"Are you sure it was cocaine?"
"It was white powder in a zip-lock bag, just like what they sell at school."
Amanda furrowed her brow. "Huh? They're selling drugs at school!"
"I've seen them passing it around in the halls," Karen answered with a shrug, "and put two and two together. I'm not stupid, you know."
"I never said you were." Then after another moment of reflection: "Wow!"
"Yeah…"
"And you're absolutely positive that Aaron's white-powder-in-a-zip-lock-bag was the same white-powder-in-a-zip-lock-bag that they have at school?"
"Well…I wasn't entirely sure until he blew up at me when I asked him about it."
"Wow! Did he break up with you?"
"No," Karen sighed as she settled in under the covers. "I really don't want to talk about it any more, though."
Amanda processed the information for a little longer, and then also crawled back under the covers.
.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.
Last notes/twiddles thumbs and mutters under her breath/ Okay…here's the deal. The last sentence in the original story is, "Since that day, he's never spoken a word, but Karen's fierce and handsome bodyguard is still ever at her side." Would you all be terribly mad at me if I kind of ignored that little clause, "he's never spoken a word"? Meh meh meh…no promises if you're okay with it. I can see it going in that direction, but I've actually made no plans for that, since I've been trying so hard to keep him silent. So…tell me what you think and then I'll see what happens.