Momentarily forgetting what I’m holding, I lift it with a nod. “Stopped by to see if you were there. She sent me on my way with a delivery. Said this stuff was your favorite. Don’t think she packed bagels though.”
She rolls her eyes, but even that movement is lagging. “I don’t want a bagel anyway. My throat hurts. Is that cream of broccoli in the cup?”
Looking around, I find a spot to set everything down before grabbing the soup and plastic spoon Bea thought to pack. “What’s wrong with you?”
She sits up and accepts the food with a glare, plucking the top open and watching the steam billow from it. “I know your mother taught you better manners than that.”
I huff out a dry laugh and nudge her legs out of the way so I can sit on the edge of the mattress. “You like pointing that out, huh? You’re not wrong. Now answer the question.”
Blowing on a spoonful of the soup, she peeks at me through her lashes. “I caught a cold or something. I’m just run down, that’s all.”
“You sound like shit,” I agree with a single shoulder lifting. “Odd. I seem to recall saying that this would happen not long ago.”
She sips the warm liquid, but it doesn’t hide the small smile that begins tipping the corners of her lips upward. “You always were a smooth talker.”
I peel my eyes away from her to examine her room. If that’s what you can call the shithole with only a few pieces of furniture. It’s basically storage for all the trash they don’t want elsewhere. “You don’t belong down here, Chaos.”
Remaining silent, she focuses even harder on the soup wrapped in her hands. Something on her face shifts, darkening as she slips into her thoughts.
I don’t relent. “There’s gotta be shit growing in here that you don’t need to be inhaling.”
“Stop talking.”
“Start listening.”
She levels with me. “I’m not leaving.”
Figured as much. “Even if this place is making you sick? You can’t go to work or school if you’re feeling like—”
“Please don’t,” she cuts me off, eyes glazed but hard on my face. “Don’t show that you care. That makes… It’s hard for me, okay?”
My jaw ticks, but I nod in understanding. I don’t know what’s happening between us, but neither of us is stupid enough to believe that it’s nothing. It means a lot more than we want to acknowledge—Ivy more than me for some reason.
She nibbles her bottom lip. “It’s probably from the weather changing, that’s all. Everyone gets sick this time of year.”
“Do you need anything? Medicine?” My tone is rough from the rejection, but I know it’s better that I ask even if I can guess her answer.
“No.”
I stare at the soup she stopped sipping, thinking about what Coach said about distractions. I ignore his words though. “Keep eating.”
“Don’t boss me around.”
“Don’t be stubborn.”
We stare at each other, her eyes narrow into a glare, mine distant but firm. To my surprise, she backs down first.
I glance at the watch on my wrist that doubles as my fitness tracker and sigh at the time. I promised Everly I’d stop by this afternoon. His mother won’t be happy if I bail like I had to last time because of the shit practice I had that left me in a bad mood.
“I need to get going soon, but I can run to the store for some—”
“Just go,” she tells me roughly, spooning out more broccoli pieces and staring at them. “I don’t need anything from you except for you to leave me alone. Get the hint.”
I stand, stuffing my hands in my jacket pockets to hide them clenching. “Tough luck for you. I’m not letting you get your way that easily. If I didn’t have anywhere else to go, I’d stay here and bug you until you fall asleep.”
She deadpans. “Then what? You’d watch me snore?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Silence.
I know I’m not being fair, but when is life ever that way? We all have to come to terms with what we’re given, and the nights I got to watch her sleep peacefully beside me in bed were some of my favorites. When I dozed next to her, it was usually the best sleep I got. I wasn’t going to tell her I slept like shit after she left.
“I’ll check in on you later,” I tell her, grabbing one of the drinks Bea slipped into the carrier. I’m a few steps away when I turn to look at her again and ask what haunts me. “Did they ever do anything to you that I don’t know about?”
Confusion twists her face as she lowers her soup again. “Who?”
I drag the tip of my tongue across my bottom lip and shift my weight. “Your parents. Did they ever… I don’t know, did they hit you? Take things further than you let on?”
My blood boils from the thought alone, and simmers when she quickly says, “Jesus, Aiden. Never. They just always fought and said…things. Some people are better off not being parents, that’s all.”
Nostrils flaring, I give her a few short nods before rolling my shoulders back. “Needed to be sure.”
She’s quiet, refusing to look at me.
I quietly add, “I’m glad the assholes decided to be parents, even if they sucked at it.”
She doesn’t get a response in before I’m walking back up the stairs. Instead of returning the key to its spot, I slide it into my coat pocket and notice a few girls in the kitchen watching me from where they’re pulling food from the fridge.
Turning to the taller one, I ask, “Where is the head of the house at?”
The brunette from earlier smirks like she knows something nobody else does and points toward the door behind me. “You’re in luck. Sydney’s alone and I’m sure she’d love seeing you again after last time.”
I say nothing and knock on the door.
When it opens, I slip in wordlessly until the door clicks shut behind me.
Chapter Ten
Ivy
A week of an all-liquid diet and as much sleep as possible left me fifteen pounds lighter. I barely left my room until the cold meds a football player left me helped fight off the virus.
In and out of my fever dreams, I vaguely recall Raine and Caleb checking on me. But it was Aiden who I’d wake up to sitting in a chair someone brought down for him, reading a textbook, jotting down something in a notebook, or sometimes forcing water and medicine down my throat despite my protests. Sometimes, I’d feel his eyes on me and refuse to acknowledge his presence, choosing to sleep off the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach every time he was around. It never stopped him from sitting me up, making me eat and drink, or washing off my sweaty skin with a cold washcloth until the fever broke.
And when I finally came to and found myself alone, in clean, dry clothes that were too big to be mine, I found a note beside my table with scratchy handwriting I know is Aiden’s that simply said Raine helped change you so don’t think I copped a feel. Unblocked my number in your phone. Text me when you’re awake.
I could block his number again and ignore his request, but as I push myself out of the lumpy bed that’s been my prison for the past week and examine the Dragons football sweatshirt twice the size of me and pair of rolled up gray sweatpants on my body, I know I have to be better. Not for me, but for the person who’s clearly never given up on me when he should have a long time ago.