Chapter 23 Excuses of an Abuse Victim
November 6, 1:27 P.M.
Fabian's P.O.V.
When we got on the bus several hours ago everybody quickly divided themselves into their own cliques, either by choice or reluctantly. Obviously Nina and I sat together as did Mara and Jerome. Amber practically through Alan out of his seat next to Tori to she could sit next to her, leaving Alan and Michael to sit together.
On the way down Nina and I tried to make conversation but Amber's voice only seemed to be getting louder and more desperate as Tori said minimal to Amber. Nina finally swooped in to fix everything like she usually does and whispered in Tori's ear to talk to Amber about the town. Tori looked somewhat reluctant but I guess she likes Nina enough to follow her advice, much to Amber's joy. Alan looked like he was also about to jump into Amber and Tori's awkward conversation but Michael wisely stopped him.
When we finally arrived everybody piled out of the bus with Amber already talking about what shops she wanted to go to first. Obviously Amber was expecting us to all follow her, though Tori had other plans.
"I don't like the shop that you want to go to Amber." Tori said calmly. Amber chuckled softly, though looked like somebody had just punched her in the gut.
"Then where do you want to go Tori?" Amber asked, unaccustomed to such denial of her shopping plans.
"There are some nice Italian stores on the other side of town," Tori said, pointing in the direction, "they give me a discount there because I can speak Italian, but regardless their prices are much better."
"Well… I guess we can go there." Amber said almost sadly. Nina stepped in to alleviate the situation.
"Why don't you guys start with Tori's shops then make your way back to look at some of Amber's? That way we can all meet up at the bus at about two." Tori didn't put up a fight and agreed with Nina, while Amber also agreed though looked depressed about losing.
"I'll come with you girls!" Alan said running forward to join Tori's side. Tori rolled her eyes while Amber smiled, upset that somebody would be spending time with Tori. They quickly departed, leaving only a group of five.
"Jerome I must take you to 'The Brew'." Mara said smiling, "It's such a quaint coffee shop that so peacefully and calming. They even have a chess set that we can play on!"
"Sweet Mara, we just started this relationship. I don't want to embarrass you with a crushing defeat." Jerome smiled jokingly. Mara laughed and playfully hit him on the arm.
"We'll be seeing you guys later." Mara said to us, then hooked arms with Jerome and skipped off with her boyfriend to her coffee shop. That now left Nina and I with an awkwardly displaced Michael.
"They should have some new movies and stuff," Michael said, "I think I'm going to go check those out."
"Michael-" Nina said, ready to start comforting him, though I really hoped she didn't. Luckily for me, Michael stopped her.
"Don't worry about me Nina. Have fun!" He said smiling. He turned around and began walking away into town by himself. Nina sighed and turned to me.
"I was afraid this was going to happen. Alan is crazy for Tori like Alfie is for Amber, it's no surprise that he'd ditch Michael for any chance to get in Tori's good graces." Nina said sadly.
"Well I'm sorry for Michael." I said as sincerely as I could. I did feel bad for Michael, though I do prefer him off on his own then acting as a third wheel for my time with Nina.
Nina smiled at me, "Enough about him. We have the entire afternoon to ourselves Fabian, I don't want to waste it." I smiled at her, kissing her softly on her red lips. She smiled incredible and for the first time in a while she was all mine. We hooked arms and moved off to participate in some of the activities that the city had offered. We went down to a local pond and looked at the birds swimming in the water before they had to go south for the winter. We then got on some boats and paddled around the pond, laughing as we both playfully splashed water at each other.
Afterwards we went inside to get out of the cold and stumbled across a nice restaurant, which I thought would be an appropriate place to use the credit card my parents gave me. We sat inside to the relatively empty restaurant and talked for a long time about the year so far and so many other things that we never had time to talk about anymore. Every laugh that Nina gave sounded like angels and every time we touched waves of love shot through my body.
Eventually we ended up back near the pond where we both laid down underneath a tree in the shade and proceeded to kiss. I don't know how long we did it but I couldn't keep myself off of her. She was so perfect, everything about her I loved. Our moment of peace and love was interrupted when my phone began to ring.
"Let it go." Nina said, grabbing my hand softly before I could grab my phone. She clutched it in her own and we began kissing again. My phone stopped ringing but shortly afterwards Nina's phone began to ring. Nina ignored her phone, tossing it aside a short distance away. It stopped ringing and then my phone began ringing again. Nina groaned.
"Answer it." Nina said exasperated. I angrily answered my phone, upset that they were ruining my moment with Nina.
"What?" I shouted into my phone.
"Fabian dear!" An alarmed voice came through on my phone, "What is with the attitude?"
"Oh god, Trudy!" I exclaimed feeling embarrassed by the voice. Nina shot up shocked and quickly picked her own phone and saw that Trudy had also called her. "Trudy I'm so sorry!" I apologized to Trudy.
"Never mind that, I wanted to call and tell you that I'm in town now because Alfie broke his arm. I think you guys should swing by and cheer him up." Trudy said, a slightly agitated edge in her voice.
"Of… Of course Trudy!" I said, "Well be right there." I hung up the phone and about twenty minutes later everybody from the original group was at the hospital. We were directed to Alfie's room and saw him lying on a bed with a broken arm and bruised faced.
"What the hell happened?" Jerome shouted, running up to his friend. Trudy didn't even correct Jerome on his language as she looked very upset. I bet some of it had to do with my tone, though most of it was because of Alfie. Trudy blamed herself when Alfie got wheeled off to the hospital last year and no doubt this was really hurting her as she probably felt she had "failed" Alfie a second time.
"I was trying to do a trick on the stairs and I fell down them." Alfie said.
"What trick?" Jerome said, "You don't even know any tricks on anything!"
"I've thought about taking up skateboarding like the Americans do," Alfie explained kind of slowly, "I think I'm going to stop now though."
"Oh you can bet that you're stopping." Trudy said, holding Alfie's unbroken arm. "I can't believe that I was so careless as to allow you do something so dangerous."
"You weren't even there Trudy." Patricia said, walking in the room holding a bag that looked like it came from the gift shop downstairs. "You can't blame yourself."
"She's right Trudy. What happened was Alfie's own fault, not yours." Joy said, walking into the room right after Patricia. Everybody started at Joy with venom in their eyes minus Trudy and Alfie.
"What are you doing here?" Amber said.
"I'm making sure that my housemate is alright, is that ok?" Joy said. "I actually do care about him."
"Ya right, you only care about yourself." Nina said.
"Nina!" Trudy said shocked. "How could you say something so bad to Joy?" I sighed, annoyed that Trudy didn't seem to catch on that the entire house hated Joy. Maybe she did, but as house head she had to remain indifferent and accepting to everybody. Not that Victor did that though.
"I don't know Trudy." Joy said, looking genuinely sad. "When was the last time that I did something bad to you Nina? Hm? Your pathetic, stop living in the past Nina and move on like I have. I realize when I'm beat and that I need to recover my friendship with my housemate. So far I seem to be a better job than a certain housemate."
"Where's Mick?" Amber said confused, "Is he at the gift shop."
"He didn't come with us sweetie." Trudy said, fluffing one of Alfie's pillows.
"Well what could possibly be more important than Alfie's well being?" Amber demanded.
"Or who." I heard Alfie breath. Everybody looked at him.
"What did you say?" Amber said.
"Uh, nothing!" Alfie said, "I'm just really tired and in pain. Yep! A lot of pain! Ow."
"Alfie," Alan said, "I'm sorry about what I said to you the other day. I, I want to be friends again."
"What? Really?" Alfie said, a wave a relief seeming to flush through his body.
"Of course Alfie! I've been pretty bored recently and I need a friend who's can fix that." Alan said smiling. Alfie smiled too and everybody knew that they were friends again. I felt Nina reach around the back of me and touch Michael who was on my left. He looked at me and then her and smiled weakly.
After about ten minutes of standing by Alfie's bedside we decided to start leaving. Alan and Joy stayed with Alfie while Trudy rounded us up to get on the bus. Nina came up to me and whispered, "I don't buy his story."
I was not really that surprised since it seemed shifty to me too, "Why?"
"Skateboarding?" Nina said, "That excuse sounded like an excuse used by an abuse victim if you ask me." I nodded my head in agreement.
"So who is he getting abused by?" I asked. Nina sighed.
"I think I may know who."
Filler I know, but i felt as though I owe you guys something.
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