Troubled

FIFTY SIX

KYLE GARCIA

Her father had said he didn't want the neighbors knowing that his daughter was missing, he said they hated his mother and were waiting for any little thing to go wrong with her so they could tear her into pieces with their words.

So we just walked around the neighborhood silently, instead of shouting her name like we desperately wanted to, like I desperately needed to. It felt like I wasn't doing enough, just walking around trying to find her, to get her attention we needed to call out to her.

"This is the reason I asked you guys to put her up for adoption, as soon as she became the devil's child, you should have gotten rid of her." A statement made by her grandma, I hated her because of that. I Know you're not supposed to hate, but hearing her say something like that about her own grand kid? Imagine what she must have said to the neighbors that made them hate her guts so much.

"Mother, please, let's find Cora, you didn't even have to come with us."

The father was exasperated, it was obvious he was tired. Tired of being the kindest one in the family, trying his best so everyone could get along. Because of that I don't say anything else, I just walk away from the mother and son duo.

After it was too dark out to see we went back in.

"I'll ring her mother, maybe she has new information."

Although everyone could tell he knew she didn't have any information. For some reason, we believed Cora would come here. I believed she missed her brother and was coming to see him, she couldn't live without him, that much was certain.

My knees bounced up and down, I was worrying about her, it was getting late, if she wasn't here where was she? My mind brought absurd possibilities, like her forgetting her stop on the bus, or going the wrong direction. Worse, she was running away permanently. I couldn't handle it alone I needed to smoke, I needed to feel calm, and smoking brought me unexplainable calm, thankfully Xander was upstairs with Cory, he had volunteered to stay with him while we went out to search for her.

I respected her father so I went outside to smoke inside, immediately I pull the handle of the door I come face to face with her. I want to hug her, i needed to feel her against myself to know she was real and not a product of my over active imagination. And so I do, I hug her tightly, holding her in place.

I felt elated, it was amazing. I felt thrice as high and I wasn't even smoking. I sent series of thanks to whoever was up there, telling them thanks for keeping her unharmed, safe, and bringing her back to me.

"What is it we need to talk about?" She asked me.

I had said I needed to talk to her, we needed to talk and went ahead to stare at her for at least ten minutes.

"Promise me that you'll never run away like that again?"

Her eyes looked at me in surprise. She wasn't expecting that, but I was not going to start questioning her. I already heard from Miss Suzie, I just needed to know more about it, so I knew how to handle the situation.

"Okay?" She drawled out slowly.

"I'm serious, do you know worried I was? Thinking something bad had happened to you. I prayed desperately that a phone rings and says you are okay, you're safe, none came. I'm also glad that no calls came from the police to identify you or something."

Her eyes held a mix of Emotions, they threatened to pull me in so I look away. I look at the ugly green walls of the house instead.

"I didn't know I worried you so much.."

"Well you did, it was not a nice feeling, hated every second of it."

She bites her lower lip and for some reason my eyes are drawn there.

"Okay.. I won't disappear again."

"Good, I wouldn't know what to do if you disappeared."

"What.." her eyes sweep around us, telling me she wanted to say something no one else could hear, I lean in closer.

"About Margaret.. what happened with her?"

She was worried, she didn't do it intentionally. That made my worries ease, it also tilted the scale to favor the personality disorder Miss Suzie diagnosed her with.

"I handled everything. Don't worry."

Her eyes flicker back to my face, they were still holding doubt.

"Are you sure? The wound must have been deep."

She wiped her hand against her jeans, I frown.

"Yeah, I cleaned it or tried to. I did see her take out the cleaning supplies"

She doesn't say anything else she just keeps wiping her hand against her jeans as if she was trying to clean something. It hit me that some of Margaret's blood spilled on her and she was trying to wipe it off, even if nothing was on her hand, she felt it there subconsciously.

"I also made sure she kept her mouth shut, turns out she loves money just as much everyone else."

Her eyes came back to my face.

"You paid her off?"

"Technically, I paid her rent, and she promised to keep her mouth shut. It was a win win situation."

Her eyes go back to the ground, pity, I liked looking at her eyes.

"Thank you." She whispered just before her dad came down the stairs. I wish he didn't, I really liked talking to her alone.

"I told her, we'll be going back home tomorrow morning. For now, I've worked out sleeping positions. Cora, you stay in your Nana's room." He winced like he didn't want that to happen but there was nothing he could do.

"The boys and I will take the room upstairs."

Cora just nodded like she was tired, of course she would, she had been up and about the whole time.

"Are you okay? Like okay?" I whisper to her.

She shook her head no before slipping away into her Nana's room.

Xander came out a few minutes after. His face was red.

"I am so happy I don't have grandparents." He says before crashing against the couch.

"Won't we be having dinner? Cora must be hungry." I say quickly.

"Yeah, I'll reheat some frozen slices of pizza. It's been a long day and everyone deserves to rest." Her father tells me.

I wasn't really hungry, but I know Cora should be. It was hours ago we had breakfast.

I pull my phone out of my pocket to start my research, I type into Google, Personality disorders.