Moving In With R5
~Chapter Twelve~
Rydel fidgets nervously in her seat. She subconsciously pulls on the ends of her flower print dress and bites the inside of cheek. Her pretty face is stained with worry.
Laura's chirpy laugh cuts through the uneasiness in the air. "Would you relax? It's not like you've never met his parents before." She shakes her head at her friend's behavior, laughing to herself.
But Rydel is still chewing her bottom lip raw and wiping her sweaty palms on her skirt. "Yeah, but this is the first time I'm having dinner with them as his girlfriend!"
"Stop squirming or your make-up is gonna be a mess," Laura says and laughs. She grabs Rydel's face and tilts it in the proper position before going back to doing the girl's make up -some of which has been smudge and will have to be redone. Laura sighs and grabs for another cleaning wipe. "You're gonna be fine, Delly. Ratliff's parents love you and just because you're dating doesn't mean you have to be nervous."
Rydel makes no response, but instead begins to bite her nails. Laura, noticing this, grabs Rydel's hand and reprimands the girl. "Don't do that! I spent an hour doing your nails!"
"Ugh!" Rydel screams in agitation. "I'm a nervous wreck! I can't do dinner tonight! Tell the Ratliffs I came down with a terrible illness."
"Yeah, it's called Diva Fever," Laura mumbles to herself. She puts down the make-up brush and remover pads and leaves Rydel to start weeping on the counter of her dresser. Laura journeys downstairs to the kitchen.
Ratliff and Ross are sitting at the table, talking about something that Laura could definitely care less about.
"Tell your girlfriend that she's being ridiculous and she has nothing to worry about," Laura commands to Ratliff when she enters the kitchen.
Ratliff turns around in his seat to face the brunette and gives her a raised eyebrow in response to her demand. "You talking to me?"
"No, I was talking to Ross and his imaginary girlfriend," Laura snaps at him.
Ratliff looks taken aback at the harsh tone of her voice. He shares a look across the table with Ross, who just shrugs and gives him a look that says 'women, what are you gonna do about 'em?'. Ell puts his hands up in surrender, looking slightly scared. Even though he had a good four or five inches on Laura, the young woman could be quite intimidating. So instead of asking questions, Ratliff hightails it upstairs to his girlfriend's bedroom in an attempt to calm her down.
"Knock, knock," he says, rapping his knuckles against the wooden door frame. But Rydel is too busy worrying herself sick, thinking up all these scenarios were something could go wrong and ruin her new relationship with Ell.
It had taken so long for them to even work up the nerve and admit to themselves (let along each other) that there were more than platonic/ best friend feelings there. Now they were finally together and if this dinner didn't go well then there entire relationship could be jeopardized.
Maybe it was silly to worry about things like that. Everyone else seemed to think so, but Rydel couldn't help but let the anxiety bubble up inside her chest until she was shaking and breathless and red in the face.
Ratliff, upon hearing no response from his girlfriend, takes it upon himself to enter the room.
"Relax," Ell's soothing voice whispers into her ear as his hands rest tenderly on her shoulders.
Rydel turns around in shock, so caught up in her own thoughts she didn't even realize he had arrived. She turn in her seat and looks up at his friendly face smiling down at her and offering comfort.
She's quick to wrap her arms around his neck and drag him down into her. Her cheeks burn red, feeling embarrassed he had caught her in such a vulnerable state. Maybe she was being kind of ridiculous and worrying for no reason.
"I'm sorry. I'm just really anxious I guess," Rydel explains when she pulls away from him, wringing her hands together.
He encompasses her delicate hands in his own to stop her frantic nervousness. He notices her hands are shaking. "I'm worried too. Worried about you."
She blushes again and ducks her head, whispering a shy, "I didn't mean to worry you."
Ratliff sighs. "Look, I know things are different now, but they aren't, like, drastically different. We're still the same old cat and sloth." Then he adds as a cheeky remark. "You're still the same goofy girl who almost burned my house down at Christmas."
"That wasn't my fault! Those cookies were out to get me!"
"Yes, those evil cookies," Ratliff comments, smirking.
Rydel shakes her head. "And since when were our nicknames 'cat' and 'sloth'?"
Ratliff just laughs. "I'm mixing it up, ya know? Keepin' it fresh."
Once again, Rydel shakes her head and a delicate laugh escapes her lips.
"Look," he starts, adopting a tone of seriousness, "things are gonna be okay. I promise. My mom told me she was really excited to see you again." At this, Rydel smiles, some of the tension falls off is her and dissipates into the air around them.
"Thanks, Ell," she says warmly.
"No problem, kiddo," Ratliff teases and his kisses the tip of her nose which causes her to grin and giggle.
Laura, who had been standing in the doorway for a minute or so, clears her throat and grabs the couple's attention. "Are you ready to try this again?"
Rydel gives a nervous glance to Ellington. He squeezes her hand in reassurance and then let's go of it so he can leave the girls to their business.
Rydel almost pouts at the loss of touch. Her hand yearns to be held in his again.
"Alright, let's make you beautiful," Laura says, grabbing a brush off the counter. "Well, more beautiful that is."
One last supportive glance to his girlfriend (who he thinks doesn't need the make-up to look like an angel) and then he bounds down the stairs.
…
Dinner was almost underway, and even though everything was going perfectly fine, yet Rydel couldn't seem to calm her jittery nerves.
She bounces on the balls of her feet, biting the inside of her cheek and nervously fixing her hair for just about the millionth time that night. Everyone was in the dining room waiting for her, but she couldn't care less about any of them. She was too busy stressing herself out about this dinner. And it didn't matter what anyone else said. None of them could stop the anxiety that was eating away at her.
She sighs, slumping down onto the toilet and checking her make-up in a compact.
A sharp knock brings Rydel out of her own thoughts.
"Rydel, it's me, Laura," Laura's soft and patient voice comes from the other side of the door. Rydel knew that was just a rouse though, the brunette may have been friendly and bubbly most of the time, but Laura could loose her patience pretty easily.
"Rydel, open up the damn door!" Ross's not-so-patient voice boomed through the thick wood door isolating her from the rest of the house, and the keeping the rest of the people from her.
She hears Laura reprimand him in a harsh whisper to be "calm and understanding to Rydel's situation". The two of them bicker like an old married couple about it some more before Laura speaks to Rydel again.
"Come on, Delly. Everyone's downstairs waiting for you."
Silence came from both end. No one said anything. Laura and Ross stood on one side waiting for Rydel to react to the situation; to realize how ridiculous her own behavior was and unlock herself from the bathroom.
Likewise, Rydel waited on the opposite side for any sign that Ross and Laura had given up and retired back downstairs. Didn't they understand she was very nervous about this whole thing? And that poking and prodding her would only make matters worse? She just needed some time to compose herself and no one would give it to her.
Finally someone broke through the static in the air.
"Rydel, if you don't come downstairs I'm gonna tell everyone that you're waiting for the results of your pregnancy test!"
"You little bitch! Don't you dare!" Rydel yells at her second-to-youngest brother. She's quick to unlock the door and she rips it open with such force, Laura is surprised it doesn't fly off the hinges.
And poor Laura almost gets trampled by Rydel who dashes like a madman, down the stairs in a rampage after her brother exclaiming a hearty "get back here you little shit!" as she does so.
Laura doesn't have time to react before she hears two screams, a clatter of noises (like people falling down the stairs) and then someone moaning in pain.
Everyone quickly scrambles to the scene to examine the damage. And what they all see us horrific. A tangle of limbs. Ross and Rydel's bodies contorted into painful positions, looks of agony on their faces.
"Fuuuck," the moan emits from some where deep in this throat as he struggles to get his disheveled self off of the stairs.
It's moments later that everyone quickly springs into action -the shock finally wearing off- instead of standing aside and watching with jaws dropped to the floor. Stormie grabs her son's hand and helps him to his feet. He staggered for a second, looking weak and like he might fall back on his knees. But he doesn't, he stands strong and tall and fights through the pain.
"Damn, I think I hit my head." Ross's hand flies up to the back of his head in search of a bump, but he finds is much worse. His hand flinches away from his scalp as a sense of panic sets into his system. His fingertips are stained red. Scarlet droplet drip off of painted skin and onto the ward wood surface beneath him.
It's in that moment that Laura notices the handsome gash on the back of Ross's head. His hair is sticking to the skin. Gold fused with crimson. It's a nasty sight really. So beautifully horrific.
And then there's Stormie, poor woman, as white as a sheet, pale like she's not even human but some ghostly apparition. Her hands flies up to her mouth as she suppresses the urge to cry. She's fighting back tears, but she knows she doesn't have time for any of that. Her son (her leukemia ridden son) is bleeding and if she doesn't do something to stop it soon, things while only get worse.
"Come on, Ross. Lets go get you cleaned up," Mark says as casually and calmly as he can. He knows he has to keep it together. For both Ross and Stormie. He ushers them both to the bathroom and they leave everyone else as if they were the only three in the world. Everyone else stands around like stony statues. Rocky and Riker looked panicked. Ryland and the Ratliff's are looking at each other hoping to offer some help to the situation but aren't sure how.
Laura pretends to look only concerned, and not show the fact that, on the inside, she's freaking out. Ellington seems to be the only one who remembers that there were two victims of this accident.
He rushes to his girlfriend's side and makes sure she's okay.
"Are you hurt? Are you alright?" He asks very quickly. He wonders if she can hear his heart beating because to him his sporadic heart beat sounds very loud.
"I'm fine. Glad at least one person cares about me," she mutters. She tries not to sound bitter, knowing damn well that the situation is much more dire in Ross's case than hers. Besides, she wasn't bleeding.
"Did you hit your head or anything?" Her boyfriend is still throwing questions at her at a high speed race, but Rydel can't keep up with him. She's still trying to breath regularly because, quite frankly, plummeting down the stairs kind of took her breath away.
"I'm fine, really. Ross pretty much cushioned my fall. I think I might have sprained my ankle though, and I banged up my knee pretty badly. Of coarse stupid Ross gets all the attention." That was a joke of coarse. She felt the need to lighten the mood, but maybe that joke was in poor taste. Especially at this moment in time.
Ratliff, though he knows she's only kidding, gives her a stern look. "Rydel, you know that he can't afford to take injuries like that. It's not good for his health. It's just his dumb luck that he'd end up bleeding also."
Rydel nods her head. Suddenly a bitter taste swirls around her mouth, almost like the taste of metal. She cringes at the sour taste. "Yeah, I know." A big lump of dread settles in the pit of her stomach. Her brother was severely hurt and it was all her fault. Why did she tackle him down the stairs? What if he died from this? Or at least landed in the hospital again? She remembered what it was like last time he was in the hospital. That wasn't good for anyone's health.
Oh, dear lord, what if she killed her brother? Tears prick her soft brown eyes and she chokes in sobs.
"Rydel, it's gonna be okay." Ellington wraps his arms around the sobbing girl, holding her tightly. She was so stressed out today, this cry wasn't just brought on by the stress of tonight's dinner or her tumble down the stairs. It was a mixture of everything. Maybe a good cry was exactly the kind of therapy she needed. A cry to get all of that heavy emotion out of her system.
She looks up timidly from her boyfriend's chest. Ratliff notices how much she resembles a child in that moment; a scared, scared little child.
"I... I r-ripped my dress, Ell."
"Well, that's okay, Princess. That's okay." She places a soft kiss to her head. If she couldn't hear his heart beat before, surely she can feel it thudding against his rib cage now
"I'm... I-I'm gonna go c-change it."
"Okay," Ellington answers in a ghost of a whisper. He's hesitant to let her go so quickly though. He'd never admit this to her out loud, but she was quite delicate, and with the way she'd been acting today, he was worried their might be a deeper rooted problem there.
Eventually he lets her go, and watches her, watches her walk up those stairs that moments ago she and her brother had been victimized by. And then she's gone. She slips out of his vision and he has to remind himself that she will be back.
Laura walks over to Ratliff, her legs feeling like jelly as she does. Her face is now showing her true feelings. The mask peels away. The porcelain chips away. The facade comes to an end.
"What do you mean he can't afford to be taking injuries like that?! What the hell do you mean Ell?!"
Ratliff holds onto her forearms, after that she'll go into hysterics over this. He chooses his words carefully, for Laura's benefit. And maybe a little for his own.
"Laur, when you... when you have leukemia -like Ross does... sometimes...," he cuts himself off. Laura's facial expression scares him. She's hanging on to every last word, she's shaking in his arms, she can feel her stomach churn around uncomfortably inside of her, twisting and contorting in painful knots.
"Sometimes what?" Her voice is barely audible, a desperate whisper. The words slip out from two dry lips.
That was a good question. Sometimes what? The blood doesn't clot properly and sometimes you die from too much blood loss? What was he suppose to tell her.
He sighs, and then wraps this girl in his arms similarly to before with his girlfriend. "Ross is gonna be fine, Laura. He's one hell of a fighter."
Laura nods and sucks in a shaky breath.
They all knew. Ross was gonna make it through the night. He was gonna live to see tomorrow, but for right now they would all worry themselves sick over it because there was always that slight chance something would go wrong, and the scales would not tip in their favor.
…
The night was still young. The moon was a now a silent guardian, like an angel watching over them. Watching over Ross and his recovery.
With the stair scare far behind them and Ross all bandaged up, and Rydel in a new outfit (not a dress, but a pair of sweats and a tee shirt) dinner was well underway.
Though no one really had the stomach to eat much of anything. Save for Ryland and Rocky who could eat no matter what the circumstances. Ross pushed his food around the plate with his fork, as awkward and forced conversation floated around him. He didn't participate in it though.
He wanted to yell at everyone. 'I'm okay! I'm not going to die! I never was going to die!' He love that people worried about him (it meant they cared) but he hated that he had a reason to worry them.
Every now and again he could feel someone's gaze fall on him. He would look up from his dinner just in time to see them turn their heads quickly.
"Well, Rydel, it was... great to see you again," George Ratliff says hoping to get the awkward tension that surrounds the table to dissipate into thin air. Being the jokester he is, he's not a fan of uncomfortable situations.
"Thanks," she smiles warmly.
His wife Cheryl chimes in her agreement. "You looked so beautiful. I'm sorry you had take that tumble down the stairs." She then turns to the other Lynch. "And Ross, I certainly hope you're okay."
'Dammit, I'm fine!'
"Thanks Mrs. Ratliff. I'm fine, really."
But Laura would beg to differ. She sees the ugly purple brownish spots on his skin. There's one on his arm and one on his wrist. Every time she looks at him she notices another one.
"How's your ankle, Della?" Ratliff asks, trying not to sound so concerned and more casual. Rydel's ankle had swelled up tremendously. It was definitely sprained. They had out it on ice for awhile (as it was still resting in a bag of ice right now) but it was still hurting like a bitch.
"It's fine. Still sore, but manageable," she answers, and grabs for her boyfriend's hand, having sensed his uneasement.
Laura looks one more time at the blond boy sitting next to her. She almost gasps in shock and horror. She notices a nice bruise forming on his neck, right below his jaw line.
She knows that something is right about that. She knows that even though he took a tumble down the stairs, he shouldn't be bruising as much as he is.
Even Rydel's knee, which landed right smack on the edge of one of the stairs, hadn't bruised as much as any of Ross's bruises. And the more she examined his flawless skin, the more flaws she found. The tender flesh was turning ugly shades of brown and purple with a blueish green tint to it. It was hard to explain, but even harder to look at.
When Ross lifts his head up from staring at his food he'd lost interest in a long time ago, Laura's eyes shy away from the bruises. She knows she can't say anything. He can't know she knows. But dammit, her resolve is slowly breaking and she's not sure how much longer she can stand by, idle, and pretend to be ignorant to the problems at hand.
The reality was, Ross was sick. He wasn't indestructible, like he'd have people believe. He had fallen down the stairs and now he was bruising like a peach.
"May I be excused?" He says, his first words all dinner.
"Are you not hungry, Ross?" His dad asks him.
"I don't know." He just shrugs his shoulder. His parents look at each other, as if communicating through mind-speak.
"Are you not feeling well?" Stormie asks carefully.
Gee, that was an understatement. The boy looked horrible. Why did Laura feel like she was only one who noticed how terrible he looked right now?
"I guess I'm still a little shaken up. I'm just gonna go to bed."
"Okay." His mom nods gravely and Ross scoots his chair back and gets up out of his seat.
"Hey, Ross, be careful up those steps," Rocky says in a joking manner. It was kind of funny, in a twisted kind of way.
Ross laughs, but its in vain. He grabs his plate and fork and takes them into the kitchen. Laura can't help it and she follows him in there.
He leaves the dishes in the sink and then pushes his way past the petite brunette, but she grabs onto his wrist (the one without the bruise) and doesn't let him go.
"Laura." He says her name in a tone that she doesn't quite understand and as her chest aches and her knees buckle beneath her, she's worried this isn't going to end well.
"Are you okay, Ross?"
Irritated, he says, "Yeah, I'm fine." A cope-out answer for anyone who's clearly not fine.
"Don't lie to me Ross! You don't look fine at all!"
"Well I am!"
She's shocked by his tone of voice. He'd never yelled at her before, not like that. They've now gained an audience from everyone in the other room, but they pay no attention.
"I don't know what to tell you Laura, because I'm fine."
"No you're not!" She's so close to tears at this point.
He sighs. But she continues, she doesn't let him speak.
"You've got bruises all over you! They just keep forming!"
"I feel down the stairs. That's liable to happen," he reasons with her.
She shakes her head, like a difficult child. "Rydel feel down the stairs too. She's not as banged up as you are."
He bites his lip, worry spilling into his hazel orbs. What does she know that she's not telling him?
"I'm fine, Laura," he repeats. He's a broken record.
"You need to do something about that!"
"There's really nothing you can do about it. They're bruises. They'll form, they'll heal, they'll go away." He slips out of her grip but he doesn't get very far before a sharp pain rips through his abdomen. He falls to his knees, clutching his stomach and crying out in agony.
"Ross!" Laura shouts and she rushes over to his side, leaning over him and trying to figure out what's wrong. "Ross?! Ross?!"
She flips him over onto his back and pulls his shirt up. There were he had his hand on his stomach is a large bruise, about the size of a baseball. In a myriad of colors, too. Purple with deep splotches of black, tints of green and dark orange, with a ugly mustard brown ring around it and the skin surrounding a sickly yellow color.
"Oh my gosh," she says, her hands covering her mouth and eyes wide as saucers. "Oh my gosh, Ross."
He gets up off the floor, pushing away Laura's helping hands. He pulls his shirt down as well.
"I'm fine," Ross insists once again. His voice is broken, his face a look of pain and fear. Suddenly he feels like that seven year old boy again, his peers laughing at him, pointing out his bruises, and calling him names.
"Ross, I think you should go to the hospital," Laura says, sounding calm and trying to be reasonable.
"Why the fuck do you care so much?!" He explodes at her. Anger and rage from the spin he felt so long ago come back to him, wash over him, and poor Laura had to get caught in the store.
"Because I don't want you to die Ross!" She yells back, with rage all her own.
He looks at her, unbelieving. "I'm not... I'm not gonna... die."
She sighs, biting her bottom lip and taking his hands in her own. They feel so cold and clammy. He's shaking slightly.
"Ross, I know about your cancer."
"W-what?"
The whole entire building goes quiet, it feels, for a second, like the world does, but its only those eleven people who do.
"I know you have leukemia."
Ross shakes his head. "N-no, you... you can't know that. You can't know that because... because I never told you!"
"No, no you didn't tell me." She gives a final look to Ratliff, who looks like a deer caught in headlights. She shrugs to him, as if saying a pathetic 'I'm sorry'.
"Ratliff told me."
Laura feels a gust of wind fly past her and suddenly the blond boy in front of her is gone.
She hears a slam of a door from somewhere upstairs and that's it.
Static silence once more.