Cheating Death – Chapter 22

By MyNameIsCAL

"Dinner?" Iggy frowned. "All of us?"

I told Max I would deal with telling Iggy, and now I was wishing she had done it instead. She had always been better at handling everyone else's feelings.

"Just for a couple of hours," I told him. "And you can cook and we can enjoy ourselves, and try to forget, just for a while. C'mon, Ig, we're doing this for Mom and Ella."

"I don't want to talk to Nudge."

"Then you don't have to, but just promise me you won't get angry, that you'll try to get along. It's going to be hard for all of us, especially because…well Mom and Ella don't know anything."

"It's better that way, isn't it?" Iggy shook his head. "Alright, but only for them."

"Thank you."

"I'll go ask them what they're interested in eating," Iggy sighed, getting out of his chair. "And then you'll need to take me to the grocery store."

"Of course."

He walked past me, just barely dodging the side of the doorway before making it to the hall.

Gazzy came slowly into the house holding a box of soda. He shifted his weight, staring up at me.

"Hi…" He handed me the box.

"Thank you for coming," I told him, trying not to make him anymore anxious than he looked. He was probably still afraid that I was angry at him even though I never really had been. Max said he barely said anything to her on the phone, that he had just agreed to come without much protest. He just stared at me for a while, nervously playing with the buttons on his shirt. It looked like he had attempted to look nice, but his hair wasn't brushed and he looked like he hadn't been getting any sleep.

"So…where's Ella and everyone?" he finally asked, eyes falling to the floor.

"Iggy's in the kitchen cooking. Ella is with Mom in the TV room." I started to head to the kitchen. "Nudge should be here soon."

Gazzy followed me. "Are they still not talking?"

"Yeah, but we're hoping tonight might change that too."

"I hope so," Gazzy agreed. "Nudge comes over to check on me a lot now. I think…I think she's lonely."

He grumbled a hello to Iggy and trudged to the TV room. I sat at the kitchen table, wondering if I should have accompanied him or not. Then the doorbell rang. I got up and went back to where I had been only minutes before.

"Hey, Fang," Nudge said as a opened the door, a shaky smile.

"Hi, Nudge." I let her in.

"Where's Ella?"

"With Mom and Gazzy. They're watching TV."

She nodded and took off down the hallway, avoiding the kitchen entirely. I guess she was talking to me now.

I went back to the kitchen, Max now helping Iggy get food out of the oven.

"So she's here?" Iggy asked gruffly.

"Yeah, she is."

He sighed and let Max take the food to the table.

"I'll talk to her after dinner," he said quietly. "I…"

Iggy trailed off and didn't finish.

"The food's ready, why don't you get them all in here?" Max said.

I headed to the TV room. Ella and Nudge were carrying a conversation, Gazzy just had his eyes locked on the TV.

"Food's ready," I announced.

Mom pushed Ella towards the kitchen, Nudge following behind, still talking, but Gazzy sat there for a while.

"Gazzy?"

He looked up at me. "Yeah, I'm coming."

I stood there for another moment and then turned towards the kitchen. He came a few minutes later, taking a seat between Iggy and Nudge. We started to pass the food around, Mom opening up the pack of soda that Gazzy had bought. It seemed like we were struggling to keep up conversation. Not everyone was exactly speaking to each other. Gazzy hadn't said a word to Max since he got here. Nudge made it seem like that both her and Iggy weren't talking to each other even though we knew she was desperate to have him back. I found myself talking more than usual, and I wondered if it was obvious to Mom or Ella that something was wrong.

"I never want to eat hospital food again," Ella remarked, finishing the last of the food on her plate.

Iggy gave her an amused look before going back to pushing the food around on his plate. "We have pie for dessert."

"I think I'll help myself to seconds," Ella said.

We let them eat, but I wasn't really up for eating, watching all of them. My throat closed up every time I thought about how everyone was here really to say goodbye and Mom and Ella didn't even know it.

"Fang." Max rested her hand on my arm. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I insisted. "You?"

She bit her lip and I took her hand under the table.