Troubled

SIXTY ONE

CORA PHILIPS

My heart drummed loudly in my chest as I ask him to repeat himself.

"What?" My voice sounded stronger than I was feeling.

"I'm not saying we visit any more therapists than you have already, they have proved useless so far. I'm saying we do our research." His voice was calm as he explained. His voice soothed my thrashing heart.

"Do research? Research where? I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in the world with this thing, there's no paper work we can read to find out more about it or another specimen, except I write a book about it myself, then we have nothing to do our research with."

He gave me a big grin.

"Exactly. We have you."

I blink at him.

"Look, other psychiatrists have tried to get rid of this thing, they all failed over and over. The only way to have a shot at it, is by knowing it."

My eyes widen in understanding.

"Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer." I whisper.

Hi snaps his finger like I solved the biggest puzzle yet. With a huge grin on his face he says,

"That's exactly it. We have you as our case study. We have you as the paper work. We have you, no offense, as the specimen. With you, we will have no issues, every data we collect will be pure facts."

I take a deep breath.

"I never tried to understand it before Kyle. This thing.. it's very dangerous."

He puts his hands on my shoulders, peering into my eyes.

"There's a first time for everything Cora, who knows what we could find? Who knows the adventure waiting for us?"

"It's no adventure Kyle, you saw what happened with Margaret. It could have been you. It happened to my dad before, it could have been Cory."

"I understand that, I honestly do, you really have to stop reciting the disadvantages to me every two minutes. I know what I'm getting into, I will still do it."

His eyes hold the most sincere expression I ever seen. I avert my gaze before his intense eyes swallow me whole.

"Come on, you have to say yes or the ship will never sail." He says with a sense of urgency.

When I still don't respond he bites his lip, I could hear him plead that I shouldn't say no. I finally release the breath I was holding.

"There has to be rules." I start.

"Yess!!! Whooooooo!!!" He already fist bumped the air.

It was hard to ignore the infectious celebration.

"One, we stop as soon as it gets too dangerous."

He frowns, as he opens his mouth to speak I place my fore finger, shushing him before he managed to convince me.

"I don't want to hurt you Kyle, it would kill me if I laid a finger on you. Not even a strand of hair on you should go awry on my account."

A flicker something passes in his iris, it passed so quickly it was hard to discern what it meant.

"Okay, deal."

"And. If it's too much to handle, if it's not just the headache, or going unconscious, if it's something like what happened to Margaret. You run. You can't argue about this. I don't want to hurt you, so you must run as far as away as you can."

His face fell. My stomach churned, I hated seeing an expression on his face that wasn't a smile.

"I will come back after ten minutes. Or five. I have to make sure you're okay."

Butterflies swarm around in my belly.

"One person will come out of it okay. And it will be me. Always."

"You don't know that, if Margaret had a gun she would have shot at you for sure. What if the person has a gun?"

I hardly thought of myself in situations like that, it was always the victim. But he was here thinking of me, in a situation where I was the favored one, thanks to the stupid disasters. Although the stubborn expression on his face wasn't going to change if I didn't let him do what he wanted.

"Okay then. You can come back to check on me."

His face broke into a relieved expression, it made my own heart swell, he wasn't wearing that sad expression again at least.

"So it's on? The operation know your enemy?"

"Is that what we are calling it?"

He chuckled. The sound warmed my insides.

"Yeah, that's exactly what we will be calling it."

"It's too long, how about OKYE?"

He laughed silently. I loved looking at his laughing face.

"That's even longer. But it works too."

I looked away from him. When I sat in the dark classroom where he called the cops on his grandma, I thought he was crazy. I still think he is crazy for diving head first into a mess like me.

A month ago I dreamt I had friends, real friends. Then it was just a laughable dream. Now? I had two friends, that cared about me enough to come in the middle of nowhere. And also to dive into a crazy mess that is me and try to sort it out. I felt good. It felt good to have someone in your corner.

"I have a feeling we will regret staying up late, in the morning." He says while laughing.

"You'll regret forming OKYE in the morning?"

His eyes grew wide and I laugh.

"No no no, that is not what I meant, not even close."

"I got you, I know that's not what you meant, of course I know. I was pulling your legs, and you fell for it."

Slowly, realization spread across his face.

"You think you got jokes?" He says while smiling.

"Oh I know I got jokes."

He shakes his head, his grin still imprinted into his face.

"We have to go to bed. It's getting late. We also have Xander's thing tomorrow."

"Yeah, it's true.." my stomach sinks at the thought of him leaving, even if it was for a few hours.

He rose up from the stair we shared, I instantly miss his body heat.

"Good night Cora, see you tomorrow."

"Good night Kyle."