Chapter 16: Bad days
A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you guys are doing great! Can't believe we're already in fall weather. Feels like the beginning of summer was yesterday. Where has the time gone?
As the title implies someone is going to have a bad day. Sadly we all have them and fiction is no stranger to that. Wonder how bad of a day Rachel is going to have. And if there's a way to make her day better.
Let's find out!
Also got a question for you all. If I were to do some drawings for this story would you guys be interested? Let me know!
Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil; I just own my characters.
Enjoy!
/
It seemed Ethan wasn't scared of Isabella's threat because he went back to calling Rachel. She tried her best to ignore him-he had done that to her all their life so it shouldn't have been hard.
She could have blocked his number but she knew he would have gotten a new number to call her.
Why couldn't he have taken the hint already? She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't want to see him. What was his deal?
Good thing she was at class now cause she could be away from her phone a tiny bit. Her future was more important than her severed relationship with her brother.
He had all this time to connect and that ship had sailed.
She tucked her phone deep within her bag so she wouldn't have to see it. She was really starting to hate this stupid thing.
Her professor was going on with his lecture about the nervous system and how it was vital to how the brain worked. Without it humans would be giant piles of mush.
"For this week's assignment I want you all to write an essay on which organ is the most important in the body and your reasoning behind it. While all of them are essential for the body to function there are some who have a bigger role than others. And don't forget that your project will be due in a few weeks. I want to see a final draft of your research and all the references you used to complete it. Class dismissed"
A couple students grumbled at the fact that they had an essay on top of finishing their project. If they couldn't handle multiple big projects then they shouldn't be doctors.
Rachel understood what their professor was trying to do. He was trying to see what they thought would be vital in saving a person's life. If someone was in a serious accident with multiple injuries they needed to know what they had to treat first. If they tended to one injury when they should have tended to a different one, that person may not recover properly or might die. One minor mistake could cause a chain reaction when trying to save someone.
She was kind of looking forward to this essay. She like testing her brain and seeing what she thought would be a good answer.
Least she knew what she was doing tonight when she got home. Who needed to go out partying when you could see if you were smarter than your professor?
Some might think she had no life outside of studying but at least she would get farther in life than her other peers. You could only get so far with doing body shots off of someone.
She pulled out her phone and went to turn it on so she could tell Isabella she was out of class. She had to go into work since someone called off so she missed class. Luckily their professor didn't seem to mind since most of his students worked in the medical field. You can skip his class if you were trying to save lives but he would kick you out if you were late to them. It didn't make a lot of sense but they learned to live with it.
Not surprising, she saw she had a couple missed calls from Ethan as well as a few text messages.
"Can you please call me back?"
"This is urgent"
"I know you have school but I really need to talk to you"
All the messages were pretty much the same thing. What was so important that he needed to talk to her in person and not over the phone? Was she getting money from their father's will? Did he need a kidney?
It didn't matter to her. If he couldn't tell her over the phone then it wasn't important.
She was lost in her thoughts that she didn't see one of the floor tiles were sticking up slightly. Her foot caught it and she ended up rotating her ankle as a result. She yelled out in pain and started to fall forward but someone caught her.
She looked up about to give her thanks but froze when she saw Jeremy was holding her.
The bastard had the nerve to have a smug grin on his face.
"Careful now. Wouldn't want you to damage that pretty little face of yours" he said.
Rachel glared and pushed herself as far away from him as she could with her bad ankle.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she spat.
"Is that any way to thank someone who helped you?" Jeremy scoffed.
"I just so happen to have classes in this section of the campus too. I'm allowed to go to my classes"
"Then move along then"
She side stepped him and began to walk away but he held his arm out to stop her. Since they were within school walls that meant his uncle didn't have eyes on him. He didn't need to listen to that old man anyway. He was a grown ass adult and if he wanted to talk to someone then he would. And right now he wanted to talk to Rachel. After seeing her get injured and being vulnerable it made his body shiver with excitement. There was just something about her looking pitiful that did things to him. He couldn't get enough of it.
He wanted more.
"About that incident a little while ago…I am sorry"
He tried to sound remorseful but Rahcel was no fool. The look in his eyes were a dead giveaway.
"The only thing you're sorry about is that you were caught. You're not sorry that you harmed me, you're sorry that everyone got to see what you really are" she spat.
Jeremy's hand twitched. He wanted to lash out and grab her but he held himself back. He couldn't risk making himself look worse. He needed to play this cool. Otherwise his plans would go down toilet.
"I'll admit I shouldn't have done that. I tend to lash out when I've had bad days and I'm in a bad mood. Surely you've had bad days that make you want to snap?"
"I don't lash out at innocent bystanders when I've had a bad day. That sounds like what an abusive psychopath would say" Rachel said.
"Now you're just being a bitch. I'm trying to apologize for being a brute and you're taking things out of hand" Jeremy said icily.
Rachel growled.
"Why don't you tell that to everyone on the internet who saw the video of you manhandling me in front of the entire campus?!" she snapped.
"I don't know what I did to have you target me but this ends now. Since you're so stupid to not read signals I'll just spell it out for you. Stay away from me. I want nothing to do with you, I don't want to be your friend, I don't want to hang out with you and I for sure don't want to date you. When a girl tells you they are not interested that doesn't mean they're saying 'take me, I'm yours' it means get lost. You have no problem telling girls off when they confess they have feelings for you so it shouldn't be an issue when a girl tells you the same thing"
She shook a little as she finished speaking. Everything she had bottled up since meeting Jeremy finally poured out. She was tired of being quiet and timid. It seemed hiding didn't do the trick when dealing with him so now it was time to be loud and brash. If he had a thing for meek girls then she was going to be a bitch and throw him off.
"This is going to be my last warning. Stay away from me for the rest of the semester"
Jeremy didn't seem to realize how serious she was cause he just laughed. The look in his eyes could make one shiver when he stared at her.
"Oh Rach. Who knew the quiet nerdy girl could be such a feisty little bitch" he said.
He started to walk towards her as if a predator was stalking its prey.
"You're not fooling anyone with that tough act. Say as much as you want but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words. You're nothing but a scared little mouse when someone corners you and-"
He gasped in pain when she swung her leg and kicked him right in the family jewels. He fell down to his knees and grabbed his neither region as if it would take the pain away.
"I told you to stay away from me but as usual you don't listen" she said.
He coughed and dry heaved. Looking up, he glared at her with so much hatred.
"You fucking bitch" he growled.
Rachel returned the glare, not intimidated by him. She was done being scared.
"That's right, I am a bitch. And this bitch is telling you to stay the fuck away from me or else there will be a round two" she said.
"Come at me again and I'll rip them off so you won't be able to procreate. I'm sure I'll be doing all the girls on campus a favor"
She spun on her heel, purposely having her bag smack him across the head as she stormed off. She wanted to scream cause her ankle hurt from being rotated but she wouldn't let Jeremy see her being weak.
Jeremy glared daggers as he watched Rachel walk away. Who did she think she was? She wasn't supposed to get the last laugh. She was supposed to cower in fear and do what he said. He was so angry that he wanted to break something.
A female student rounded the corner from the other end of the hallway and gasped when she saw Jeremy. She quickly hurried over to him and knelt down to see if he was ok.
"Oh my god! Are you ok, Jeremy?"
Jeremy looked at the girl. She had a pretty face that was dolled up in makeup. That didn't caught his attention. What did was that she had strawberry blonde hair like Rachel. As she looked at him with concern, something within him snapped and his eyes seemed to glaze over.
/
Limping over to the nearest bench, Rahcel sat down and slammed her bag to the ground. She propped her leg up to examine her ankle. She hissed in pain when she felt a stinging sensation after touching it.
"That's just great. And I have to be on my feet tomorrow at work" she muttered.
"Good thing I have a date with Tylenol tonight"
Her phone buzzed in her bag. Groaning she dug around in her bag until she found the stupid thing. Looking at it, she wasn't surprised to see that it was Ethan calling her yet again.
That groan turned into a growl. She was having a bad day already. First she had to deal with one prick who wouldn't listen to her and now she was dealing with another one.
This went on long enough. If Ethan didn't get the hint by now then there was no hope for him in life.
She accepted the call and gripped her phone tightly.
"What. Is. It?" she said icily.
"Rach, will you please just let me-"
"I'm going to stop you right there" Rachel said.
"You have not once tried to see me let alone talk to me since dad died. No 'how's it going?' 'Happy Birthday' nothing. Fuck, even when dad was still alive you acted like I was invisible. It wasn't my fault mom and dad decided to have another kid much later on when they were raising a teenager. I get it older siblings not getting along with their younger siblings but you just took it to a whole different level"
"I know I was a prick as a kid. I'm trying to-"
"I'm still talking, don't fucking interrupt me" she snapped.
All the anger and pain she felt towards Ethan came out. After all these years it was time to tell him how she truly felt about her brother.
"You were never there for me. When I wanted to spend time with you as kids, you pushed me aside. When I wanted help with homework you would act like I was a bother to you. When dad died, you acted as if I was dead as well and didn't acknowledge me. When I needed you to protect me from that monster of a woman you weren't there to save me. Why would I want to see you let alone talk to you after how you treated me all these years? You think I'm just going to forget everything and let bygones be bygones cause my brother suddenly wants to see me after not being in contact with him for fifteen fucking years?!"
Ethan was quiet on his end. He didn't know what to say to that. What even could he say? Everything she said was true. He wasn't there for her and didn't act like how a brother was supposed to be. She had every right to be mad at him.
"I know you hate me" he said quietly.
"And you have every right to be. I'm trying to fix what little bond we have left. That's why I need to see you in person. Will you please just give me this chance?"
There was a time Rachel would jump at the chance to spend time with her brother. It was something she always wanted growing up. But now, when she looked back at that, all she could think of was those horrible, dark moments in that house where Ethan let their mom be a monster. Now when she thought of Ethan, she didn't think of him as her brother. She just saw a stranger.
She let out a shaky breath.
"It's taken me a long time to heal from that day. I'm finally at a point in my life where I'm back to normal and functioning like a normal person. Meeting up with you is going to cost me the progress I've made to returning to my old self. Whatever it is that you wanted to meet up about, it's not so important that you waited fifteen years to finally talk your sister that you acted like didn't exist. Just do us both a favor and continue thinking like that"
She didn't bother to hear Ethan's response and hung up. She dropped the phone next to her and buried her face in her hands. This day was turning to shit. First she rotated her ankle, dealt with Jeremy and now her brother was trying to reopen old wounds. Could this day end already?
She could sense someone was nearby and looked up. Leon stood a little ways off looking worried. She felt her mood sour even more when she saw the agent. She could tell he heard her conversation.
"How much of that did you hear?" she sighed.
"Enough to learn you have a mouth on you when you're angry" he replied.
Rachel hung her head. She was proven wrong. This day kept getting worse.
Leon slowly approached her.
"Is everything alright?"
"If I said yes would you believe me?"
"Nope"
"Then no. I'm actually having a shitty day"
Leon sat next to her on the bench.
"What happened?"
"Well for starters I rotated my ankle and then Jeremy ran into me and tried to play off that incident from before"
That caught Leon's attention.
"He was near you?" he asked seriously.
"Unfortunately. The prick tried to play off like what he did wasn't a big deal. So in retaliation I sent little Jeremy on a much needed vacation because hey, it's no big deal. Actually, I did him a favor cause I'm sure his little buddy wasn't that impressive" Rahcel said.
Leon made a face when Rachel kept talking about Jeremy's privates.
"He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
"Considering I kicked him where the sun don't shine, no he didn't do anything to me. Couldn't really since he was writhing in pain on the floor"
"Good girl" Leon said.
He secretly sent a message to Benford letting him know about Jeremy breaking the no contact restriction that was placed on him.
"And then of course you caught me talking to my brother. Sorry you had to hear that. Didn't realize I had an audience" Rachel continued.
"You have nothing to apologize for, Sunshine. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I thought I heard your voice and came over to see if you were ok. Thought someone was bugging you" Leon said.
Rachel laughed bitterly.
"I guess I was bugged in a way" she said.
"You don't get along with your brother?" Leon asked.
"I don't have a connection with him period" Rachel replied.
"We've never been close. Never have and at this point we never will. Obviously there was a huge age gap between us growing up so it was hard for us to form a bond. He was ready to start his life and go to college while I was still in elementary school. Kind of hard to be close when your brother is going away for college. It got worse when our dad died. He just moved on and acted like I was gone too. He didn't call me to see how I was doing or keep in contact. We just became strangers and lived our own lives this whole time. And then recently he calls me after going no contact all these years to want to meet up and act like nothing has happened between us. Why would you want to hang out with a sister that you acted like was not there?"
"Maybe he wanted to fix things?" Leon offered.
Rachel gave him a cold look.
"He's had fifteen years to do that. That shipped sailed a long time ago"
"Had something important to tell you?"
"Could have said that over the phone"
"Money?"
"If a grown ass adult had such bad money problems that he would go to his broke college age sister, then he's really hit rock bottom"
"Then I don't know why he would reach out to you"
He felt stupid playing these twenty question games but he was trying to gather information about Ethan secretly. If Isabella was willing to ask Nathan to look into him then he must have been up to something. But what? He had to be sneaky about getting this information without her knowing.
"So as you can tell, I haven't had a nice day. Now I'm going to go home and spend the rest of my night putting together an essay so I can forget how shitty this day has been"
"It must be a horrible day if the highlight of your day is doing homework" Leon deadpanned.
Rachel chuckled a little.
"I actually enjoy doing my homework. Working, studying and projects help me take my mind off of everything and lets me forget about the stressful things. I'm sure you have a way of coping with stress considering what your job is like"
Leon made a face and looked away.
"Yeah you could say that"
She didn't need to know that he drowned his sorrows and stress by downing bottles of whiskey.
Rachel got up from the bench and swung her bag on her shoulder.
"Well, I'll let you get back to work" she said.
"Try not to work too-ACK!"
She took a step on her bad ankle buckled from the pain. Leon quickly jumped up and grabbed her before she could fall over.
"You ok?!"
Rachel flinched but masked the pain. Sadly she dealt with much worse pain than this. But he didn't need to know that.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to ice this when I get home"
She put weight on her bad foot to see if it would buckle again. It stung as she put pressure on it but it was manageable.
Leon saw the pain in her eyes and knew it wasn't a good idea for her to walk on it.
"I'll give you a ride home. You shouldn't be walking on it" he said.
Rachel's face went red with embarrassment.
"I'm fine! I'll just call a cab to take me home. You need to watch Nathan while he's in his classes"
Leon looked at his phone and typed something in it real quick.
"He's got other guards that are keeping an eye on the campus. My shift is about to end anyway" he said.
"Well, then you should go home and relax then. I'm perfectly capable of getting home on my own, thank you very much" Rachel said.
Leon tucked his hands in his pockets and leaned forward a bit so he was eye to eye with her.
"May I remind you that there's still that issue about a few students going missing? It's not a good idea for you to walk home with a bad ankle and you shouldn't ask for a ride from a creepy old cab driver. Let me be a gentleman and make sure you get home safe. Please?"
Rachel bit her lip. Why did he have to be so nice? And why was he using those baby blue eyes to charm her?
"Fine" she groaned.
"But just this once. I don't want you getting in trouble for being away from Nathan all the time"
Leon stood back up and smirked when he won.
"Don't worry about me, Sunshine. I can handle getting my hand slapped for getting in trouble every now and then" he teased.
He held out his hand and gestured to her bag.
"You shouldn't be carrying too much weight with a bad ankle"
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"You're not going to run off with my bag, are you?"
"Yeah, that's what I was really planning to do. I secretly enjoy stealing medical textbooks from students" Leon teased.
Rachel snorted and offered him her bag.
"Then by all means, feel free to add these to your collection"
Leon was surprised by how heavy her bag was and almost dropped it.
"What do you even have in here? Bricks?"
"Just two of them" Rachel joked.
Leon propped the bag over his shoulder and gestured for her to follow him.
"They make you pay an arm and a leg for these things?"
"That might have been back when you went to college. Prices have increased since then. Now you have to give up your first-born child for these stupid things" Rachel said.
"Gotta love inflation"
/
Leon pulled up to her apartment and parked near the front of the building.
"Hopefully your day will get better from here on out, Sunshine"
Rachel gave him a lopsided grin. Somehow it did get a tiny bit better since she talked to him. Must have been those eyes of his. You just seemed to forget your worries when you looked into them.
"I won't have anyone bothering me so there's that. I plan to spend the rest of my night watching crappy tv and working on this paper while drinking cheap beer"
"You really enjoy crappy beer" Leon deadpanned.
Rachel stuck her tongue out at him and got out of the car. She reached into her bag to grab her keys. She made a face when she couldn't feel them. Opening her bag, she tried to see where the darn things were but she couldn't see them. Leon raised an eyebrow and lowered his window.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't find my keys. I know I had them in here before"
That wasn't good. If she didn't have her keys she wouldn't be able to get into her apartment.
She hung her head when she saw that the keys weren't in her bag. She must have dropped them when she was pulling her books out for class or something.
Now she was really having a shitty ass day.
Leon parked the car and stepped out.
"Does your landlord have a copy?"
Rachel made a face.
"He does. The big question is will he answer his damn phone when I call him and if he's even home. That guy only shows up when rent is due otherwise he fucks off to who knows where" she said.
Leon made a face. He looked at her apartment. It was an older building so that meant it must have had older locks.
"Are you comfortable with me seeing where you live?" he asked.
Rachel made a face.
"I mean, you know where my apartment building is since you're here" she said.
"Why do you ask?"
Leon pulled something out of his belt that was next to his gun and ammo bag.
"I think I know how to get you back inside"
Rahcel raised an eyebrow.
/
"Sooooooo, do they teach you how to break into college dorms when you were training to be an agent?"
Leon smirked as he focused on picking her lock.
"I learned this back when I was in the police academy. There were many times where I lost or forgot my keys to my apartment that it got to the point where my landlord threatened to kick me out if I asked for another copy of my key. And it was great practice for when we had to learn how to unlock cars"
It was also helpful when he need to get to things when he was on dangerous missions, but she didn't need to know that.
"I guess everyone needs a hobby" Rachel sighed.
She looked around to make sure they were alone. She didn't want to explain why a man was breaking into her apartment for her.
After hearing a click, Leon put his lock picking kit away and turned the handle. Like magic, her door opened up.
"There you go. Home sweet home" he said.
Rachel sighed with relief. There was still the issue of when she had to leave for school and work tomorrow and she would have to lock the place up but for now she would be able to sleep in her own bed.
"I don't know how I can thank you for this" she said.
"Just being a gentleman and helping you break and enter your own home, Sunshine" Leon teased.
"And they say chivalry is dead" Rachel deadpanned.
She paused as she was about to step into her apartment and looked at Leon. She kind of felt awkward just leaving him standing there when he was kind enough to help her get back inside.
"Did you…want to come in for a bit?" she offered.
She mentally smacked herself in the head. Why would he want to go inside a college students apartment? He should be heading home and relaxing after a long day.
Before she could take back what she said she was surprised to see Leon smirk.
"Sure. I'm curious to see what this cheap beer your planning on drinking is" he joked.
Rachel flipped him off.
"It's not bad beer!" she snapped.
"I'll be the judge of that" Leon snorted.
Rachel opened the door some more and gestured for Leon to step inside. The agent looked around the place, curious to see what the med student's life was like outside of school. There was the basic furniture setup as well as a tv. An alarming amount of textbooks were stacked up next to her couch where it was obvious this was where she studied. He didn't recall having this many books when he was training to be a cop let alone be an agent. There were a bunch of photos on her bookshelf that showed what she looked like as a kid. There were some of her with Isabella and others of her with an older man. He looked a lot like Rachel. He had the same colored hair and eyes.
"That's my dad" she said quietly.
"It was one of the last pictures we took together before he passed away"
Leon had a somber look on his face when he looked back at the picture.
"You look just like him" he said.
Rachel smiled weakly.
"A lot of people say that. Everyone used to say I was his mini version. I would follow him around, walk the same way he did, try to mimic him. I would even wear his fire helmet around the house pretending to put out fires. He always got a kick out of that"
Leon smiled a little picturing Rachel doing that as a kid and running around the house acting like a fireman.
"He seemed like a nice guy"
"He was. Couldn't have asked for a sweeter man to have in your life"
Leon just looked at the photo, wondering what kind of person her dad was. He noticed that there was part of someone that was poking out on the side of the photo. It looked to be a woman with how slender the arm was and that the hem of a skirt was present. Whoever took the photo must have missed this other person-or rather the photo was cut up to get rid of this person in the picture. He wondered why that was.
The handle to her apartment door suddenly rattled. They both whipped around to see that someone was moving it from outside.
"Do you have a roommate?" Leon asked.
Rachel quickly shook her head.
"No"
Just then they heard a key being entered and the lock slowly turning.
/
A/N: Crap! Someone has Rachel's key! This isn't good at all! Looks like Leon is going to have to go all agent in a few seconds.
Why is Ethan still bugging Rachel when he knows she wants nothing to do with him?
Hope this was a fun read.
Please let me know what you think! And also let me know about if you want to see any drawings or not!
Take care!