He moved towards the door, then froze as we heard footsteps coming towards us; horror visible on his face.
“Shit,” he muttered as he ran into the bathroom. A few seconds after he closed the bathroom door, my room door opened and my mom walked in, looking tired. She moved towards the bed and glanced once around the room.
“Mom?” I spoke, and she sat on the bed beside me. She turned her eyes to me, her face full of pain and sorrow.
“Bailey, I’m sorry. I know how hard that must have been for you today.” Her eyes met mine and I nodded knowing what she meant. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and she did something out of character; she reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Tell Cooper to go back to his room. I’ll let today slide because of what happened, but if I find him in your bed again, I’ll tell Shawn.” My mouth opened with a pop as she stood and walked out, closing the door after her.
I walked over to the bathroom and opened the door. Coop wasn’t there and I shook my head, heading over to the sink to splash some water on my face. A hand shot out from behind my shower and grabbed me and I almost screamed.
“Bails, they fixed the tile. They know.” His face was pinched, and he met my eyes in the mirror. “I couldn’t get out.”
“I know. My mom knew you were in my bed.” His eyes widened in horror as I spoke.
“Wait, what?” he asked as he backed away from me.
“Shit, Bails. She’s gonna cut my balls off.” I moved towards him and pressed my hand to his chest. I lifted my eyes to see the unfettered panic in his eyes.
“Coop, it’s okay. She’s gonna let today slide because of Zane, but if it happens again, then she’s gonna tell your dad.”
He nodded and jumped as my mom called us.
“Cooper, Bailey, Shawn’s on his way.” Coop backed away in terror. He shook his head and turned heading out of my room. He made his way downstairs without looking back and closed himself in his room for the rest of the day.
I stayed away from Cooper and he avoided me at all costs. He went out with his friends and barely stayed home and each night I went to sleep thinking about him and wondering if he was okay.
The day Zane was discharged he was given the address of the local drug rehab center, but he didn’t bother. A batch of badly cut cocaine had been doing the rounds and a few kids had died from taking it. Zane was lucky he hadn’t had that much, but they’d needed to be sure because of his head injury that it was the cocaine that had caused the seizures.
In the days following Zane’s release, Coop stayed as far away from me as possible, but we spoke via text every day. He’d message me in the morning: Good morning, beautiful
And I smiled as I replied before going downstairs to see him for a few seconds as he made the coffee. When our parents went back to work, I’d told him about their conversation in the pantry, and he stared at me in shock for a moment, before he reached out quickly squeezing my fingers before walking away from me.
The following morning,I’d gone down to the kitchen to see Coop had gone out to stand on the deck. As soon as the coffee was ready, I poured us both a mug, before taking it out to him.
When I’d reached him, he’d turned to glance in my direction and I placed our mugs on the table. I wanted to be drawn into his arms so badly that I’d wrapped my arms around myself to stop myself reaching for him. He didn’t move and I stood there for another second, contemplating going back inside, but Coop turned and strode away from me, leaving his untouched coffee sitting on the table.
I sat down and curled into one of the chairs, sipping my coffee as I watched the sun move across the water. He went for a run and I saw him again running across woods by the lake. He didn’t stop and I watched him until he was out of sight. I sat a while longer, enjoying the sunshine, only going back inside when I was famished. As I walked through the door to the kitchen, I saw Zane slumped at the table, so I rushed over.
“Zane,” I called out in a shaky voice. “Zane,” I called again shaking his shoulder, but there was no response. I moved my hand to his neck, trying to see if I could feel a pulse when his hand closed over mine. He pulled my hand away from his neck and his chair clattered to the floor echoing loudly in the kitchen.
He bent my wrist and I screamed in pain, but he didn’t seem to hear me and his free hand shoved me against the wall between the kitchen door and the pantry. My head bounced against the wall hard and my eyes watered, as he dropped my wrist but before I could say or do anything else, his hands closed around my neck, and he pushed me up the wall roughly.
Lights appeared in front of my eyes as I gasped for breath. I clawed at his hand and he held tighter. A loud noise broke the quiet and I slipped suddenly down the wall, crumbling to the floor as Coop hovered over Zane. Coop had him pinned to the floor and was hitting him. I tried to call out for him, but all I could manage was a hoarse whisper.
“C… Coop…” I managed, but he didn’t hear me because Zane managed to get free and charged for me again, grabbing my hair while I gasped for breath. He punched me twice before Coop charged at him again and slammed him into the island. I held my throat as it burned, and blood poured from my lip and a cut above my eye. I tried to swallow, but each swallow was like flames shooting down my throat.
Tears ran from my eyes, but through my watery vision, I saw Coop standing in front of me, shielding me from Zane. My pulse sounded loud in my ears and as Zane flew at Cooper, knocking him to the side, nausea rose in me. He advanced on me again and Coop grabbed him around the waist, throwing him against the island again.
Coop glanced at me once, before turning back to face his brother and Zane started shouting at him.
“She’s a demon. She’s possessing your soul and you can’t fucking see it because she has you under her spell.” He moved towards me again and Coop stepped to the side, shielding me from view.
“She’s not a demon, she’s our stepsister.”
Zane growled and agony shot through me, something was seriously warping his mind.
“Zane, calm down. Think about this logically.” Cooper was trying to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen.
“So, is that it, then? You choose her? Over me? Your own brother?” Zane’s voice was tough as steel as he spoke through his teeth to Coop and Cooper’s face blanched. He glanced at me on the floor holding my neck, staring at Zane in abject horror to his brother who was pacing around and shooting evil stares in my direction.
“Zane, please stop,” Coop begged, hurt evident in his quivering voice, but Zane wouldn’t hear it.
“No, you’ve chosen that slut over me.” He moved before Coop could do anything and punched out, catching Coop on the side of his face, sending him flying in my direction. Coop landed a little away from me, unmoving.
Zane glared at me once, screaming.
“I hope you’ll be happy with your demon slut.” He turned and rushed upstairs. I crawled across the floor to Coop and saw him bleeding from a cut on his head. I pressed my hand to his head, trying to stem the bleeding, but a wave of dizziness overwhelmed me, and I collapsed onto his chest.
For a few hours, I drifted in and out of consciousness, waking up to find myself on Coop’s bed surrounded by my mom, Coop, and Shawn.
“Bailey, what happened?” Shawn’s furious face was above me and I shrank back against the bed, willing myself back into unconsciousness. Cooper’s voice sounded overhead, and he sounded tired, “Dad, I already told you. Zane flipped out and attacked Bailey.”