In the few months I had known her, Lizz was a heavy sleeper, very hard to wake up. I pushed at her a few times and then her eyes suddenly flashed open, eyes scanning the room.
She sprung up, her body drenched in sweat. Her eyes nervously scanned the room. In an instant she realized where she was and acted as if she was trying to cover up anything that happened.
“You had a really bad dream,” I started out. “Want to talk about it?”
Lizz nervously raked a hand through her blond hair. She shook her head. “I don’t remember.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Yeah sure you don’t.”
“Honestly I don’t remember, can we just drop it?”
“Okay. So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” I asked, desperate to change the subject and the air in the room.
Sighing, Lizz stood up and walked towards the bathroom. “I think that after the furniture is delivered, we should go back to the mall when it opens that way we would avoid all types of crowds and then we need to go grocery shopping, there’s a ton of stuff we still need to do.”
“Don’t forget I still have to squeeze in my speech therapy at the hospital,” I reminded her. God I hated going back to the hospital, but it was something that needed to be done until my voice got better. My voice was my life, like it or not so basically without it I would be screwed.
“Yeah that’s right,” Lizz replied, sticking her head out into the hall, toothpaste foaming around her mouth.
“Ohmygod! Mad dog!” I teased.
“Ha ha ha, you are really funny. You should look for work as a comedian,” Lizz shot back sarcastically.
“Well, I dunno about you, but I’m gonna go back to sleep, I’m beat. Goodnight, Lizz.”
“Goodnight Jack,” Lizz replied.
‘Goodnight Jack.’ That struck me as being a little odd. Here we were, in an apartment all by ourselves and she insisted on calling me Jack. I shrugged it off. Maybe she was afraid if she didn’t practice, she would slip up and call me Nick again.
My arms were feeling a little “tingly” for some odd reason, but I brushed that off to being just tired. I drew the blankets up around my neck and burrowed my head into the pillow.
“Vinnie, I had an encounter with a hottie by the newspaper machine,” Marcus announced as he lumbered into the tiny apartment, newspaper folded under his arm, six pack of beer in his hand.
“Those are a rare thing in these parts my friend,” Vinnie replied as he reached for his beer on the endtable.
Marcus chuckled when he recalled the meeting with the stranger. “I think she thought I was gonna rape her or something, not like that didn’t cross my mind, but that’s funny.”
Vinnie smiled, the gold cap on his front tooth gleaming.
“You are a piece of work there Marcus.”
Popping open a beer and sitting down with a large bag of potato chips, Marcus lowered his frame into the stained lazy boy chair.
Vinnie watched as Marcus shoved a handful of chips into his mouth, the majority of them spilling down the front of his shirt.
“I dunno how you can do that to yourself,” Vinnie said as he shook his head.
Marcus belched. “Do what?”
“Eat like such a pig. Aren’t you worried about getting really fat?”
“Nah, it don’t matter to me, besides, I’m on the lam and the FBI would be looking for a thinner Marcus so the more I gain the better off I am. Just a theory, but it works for me,” Marcus replied as he patted his rounded stomach. “Besides you’re such a skinny wimp you couldn’t eva defend yourself.”
“I happen to like being skinny thank you very much,” Vinnie defended.
Morning seemed to have come all too quickly, Brian thought as he pushed the covers off his body. He laid in the bed thinking about the events over the past few days. His eyes fell on the pager, laying on the nightstand. Brian eagerly scooped it up and scanned through the messages, hoping there would be a new one from Nick. To his disappointment, there were none.
‘morning buddy’ Brian keyed into the pager. ‘hope all is good.’ Thinking for a moment, he hit send and then got out of the bed and stumbled slowly to the bathroom.
Once in the bathroom, Brian stared at his reflection in the mirror. The past few months had taken it’s toll. His face was a ghostly pale and his eyes literally looked dull.
“God, I need to get out more,” Brian smirked as he turned on the faucet and splashed warm water on his face.
After taking care of his morning ritual of shaving, Brian heard the distinct ringing of his pager. He quickly grabbed a towel and rushed over and grabbed the device.
‘morning full day ahead shopping and therapy.’
Brian smiled at the reply. He noticed Nick placed shopping first and then therapy second. Maybe it meant after spending time in the mall with Lizz he would need therapy.
“Okay, do we want to try American Eagle again?” I asked with a grin. This was a lot better going to the store at this early hour of the morning. The only people around were the dedicated ‘blue hair mall walkers’ and the walker wannabes that sat on benches with cups of coffee waiting for their spouse to finish walking the halls of the mall.
“I’m game if you are,” Lizz replied, smiling.
I started to enter the store but was cut off by two older women buzzing in front of me, hands pumping furiously back and forth in their quest for fitness.
“Whoa, what’s the rush?” I yelled out at them. They evidently couldn’t hear me and never slowed their pace.
“Hey Jack, would it be okay if I go to that store across the way over there? I really didn’t see anything I liked in my new size here and I wanted to check and see what they had there. You’d be okay by yourself for a few minutes, right?”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked in the direction she was pointing. “Tent and Awning shop?”
“Ha ha, so funny,” Lizz replied as she smacked me on the arm. “I’ll either meet you back here or you come to me, okay?”
“Yep,” I replied as I turned and entered the store.
You know how you get that feeling that someone is watching you but you don’t see them? I was getting that as I was looking over the jeans that were hanging along the wall of the store.
“Are you finding everything?”
I spun around and saw a petite Oriental girl standing in front of me. Her name tag read Sammy.
“Yeah, I think I got this covered Sammy, thanks,” I replied with my still so raspy voice.
“You sort of look familiar to me in an odd sort of way,” she pressed.
My heart was literally pounding in my throat. “Oh? Never been here before,” I lied.
“No, I didn’t mean it that way, I meant that you looked familiar. Like you could be someone’s brother.”
I kept my gaze on the clothes racks, nervously fumbling through my size and the next five sizes after that.
She snapped her fingers. “That’s it! You look like you could be Nick Carter’s brother!”
Aaron? I smiled. “I don’t really think so.”
“I know, silly of me wasn’t it?”
I was starting to feel sort of funny. Like the walls were closing in on me, but not in a panic attack closing. Something was happening to me, something I hadn’t felt in months. I turned to face Sammy.
“Oh god, are you alright?”
It hit.
“Oh god,” I moaned softly before I dropped to the floor.
I nervously peeked under the dressing room door again to see if there were any feet close by me. This bodysuit went all the way down to my ankles and showed underneath the door. It was flesh colored and looked like a wetsuit. Only tighter. Now that I was sort of starting to get used to it I didn’t loathe it quite so bad, but I still looked forward to when I would be rid of it. I twisted all around trying to decide if I liked the jeans I was wearing. Even though I was supposed to not dress in the same sort of style, I couldn’t bring myself to wear anything but lowrisers. I was just pulling the deep turquoise shirt over my head when I was hit with a horrible feeling of uneasiness. I couldn’t contain the gasp that escaped my lips as I flung the door open.
Without so much as a word to any of the employees I raced out of the store towards American Eagle. Behind me I heard the cries of the workers, yelling at me to stop. One of them even shouted “shoplifter.” If I wasn’t so scared I would have laughed at how ridiculous it would be for me to try to run out the store wearing their clothes and leaving my purse behind. What kind of shoplifter would I be if I did that? As soon as I got into the entrance of American Eagle I saw a small crowd of people. Mostly workers and a few old ladies. I pushed through the mob, my heart skipping a beat when I saw Nick on the floor.
“Oh my god, Nick!” I cried without thinking. I dropped down next to him. He was laying completely still and his eyes were closed. “What happened?!” I tried to keep the panic from my voice.
An oriental employee that almost reminded me of Kyung was also kneeling next to Nick. She looked up at me, her eyes wide with fear and shock. “I - I don’t know. I was talking to him and out of nowhere he got this funny look on his face and then he started to have a seizure.”
I nodded, my heart sinking. “Come on Ni-Jack. Open your eyes for me hun okay?” I patted the side of his face gently and held his hand with my other one.
“Someone should call 911.” What looked like a manager kneeled down next to me. I vaguely recognized him since I was a pretty frequent shopper.
“No, he’ll be ok.” I said quickly. “He’s epileptic is all.” I added, lying.
Nick finally started to stir. His eyes fluttered a moment. He darted his eyes back and forth wildly, realizing what had happened. They finally settled on me and relaxed a tad bit.
“Li-“? He started, but I cut him off before he could say something that would give us away.
“It’s okay Jack. Don’t say anything. You’re fine hun, but you need to stay quiet ok?” I said soothingly. I hoped he was coherent enough to figure out my underlying message not to say my real name or anything. This was going to be difficult. After a seizure he was completely zapped of strength and would end up sleeping for the next several hours. He was barely going to be able to walk for the next several hours. I felt a bunch of stares on us not to mention a lot of whispering and my temper flared. I turned around and looked up at all the old ladies obviously interested in the commotion. It was probably more excitement than they had seen in awhile.
“Okay, show’s over. You can go back to your speedwalking now.” I said shortly. Normally I wouldn’t be so rude, but I knew Nick was uncomfortable with all these people staring at him and frankly, so was I. Plus they seemed more excited by it all than concerned.
Most of the women broke up and started to leave with a little coaxing from the manager.
“We have a back room we can go to if that would help.” The oriental girl offered. “By the way I’m Sammy.”
I nodded. “Thanks. That would be best.” I thought a moment, trying to decide what the best option would be. I had worked in this mall some time ago and in the back room there was a door that led to the trash pickup outside. I wondered if this store had such an exit and if I could bring the jeep up to it so Nick would only have to walk a very short distance. I asked Sammy about it and too my relief there was one. The manager came back after clearing out the onlookers and between him and I, we helped Nick up and took him to the back room. They had a cot back there and we helped Nick to lay down on it. I sat on the edge.
“Jack, I’m going to go bring the car around so we can get you outta here okay?” I said softly. His eyes kept falling shut, but when I said that they opened a little wider.
“No...” He whispered, looking uneasy.
“Do you feel like it’s going to happen again?” I questioned.
He shook he head ever so slightly.
“You want to stay here for awhile?” I tried again.
He shook his head again. I could see the exhaustion in his eyes.
“You don’t want me to leave?” I said even more quietly.
He nodded and closed his eyes again.
“Okay, I’ll figure out something.” I wanted to smack myself on the forehead. Duh. Go figure he wasn’t going to want to be alone in an unfamiliar backroom after having a seizure. I stood up and poked my head out the door. Sammy looked up from where she was hovering nearby and walked over.
“Can I ask you a really huge favor?” I asked her.
“Sure anything. Is he okay?” Sammy said, glancing behind me.
“Yeah, but after a seizure he’s going to be really weak. I know this is a major favor but is there anyway, if I gave you my keys, if you could bring our jeep around for us?” I prayed she wouldn’t ask why I couldn’t do it and that she would say yes.
“Of course.”
I smiled with relief and told her where we were parked. Since it was so early, there weren’t many cars out so it would be relatively easy to find the jeep. When I reached into my pocket I realized I was still wearing the clothes from Express and my purse was in there.
“Shit.” I muttered.
“Looking for this?” A saleswoman from Express suddenly appeared in front of me, holding my purse and my own clothes.
“Yes thank you. I’m sorry about...” I started as I reached for my clothes.
She gave me an icy stare. “You are lucky that it was an emergency or I would press charges.”
My jaw dropped to the floor. What was it with these insensitive clods that I always seemed to run into?! “Well gosh, you’re lucky I have bigger things on my mind or I would get your ass fired for talking to a customer like that!” I snapped back. I reached behind me and pulled the price tag off the back of the shirt and then did the same with the jeans. The total came to roughly $80 for both things and dug that much out in cash and shoved it into her hand. “Thank you.” I retorted as I turned on my heel and went back into the back room where Nick was.
“Damn Marylin, have a little heart will ya? Her friend had a freakin seizure right here in the middle of the store.” I heard the manager of American Eagle say to her.
A few minutes later we were helping Nick into the jeep. He was so out of it and so disoriented that the manager practically had to carry him. He shut the door and I rolled down Nick’s window.
“Thank you both for your help. I’m sorry about all this, but thank you for being so great about it.
“It’s not a problem. I hope your friend is feeling better.” The manger said with a smile.
I nodded and pulled away from the back entrance. When I glanced in my rearview mirror I saw them watching us and it made my stomach flip flop. It was probably just me being paranoid though.
Not even fifteen minutes later we pulled up in front of the apartment complex. I had ahold of Nick’s hand the entire time trying to keep him somewhat awake. If he fell asleep, it would be almost impossible to get him up again for the next several hours and I wanted to get him inside first. Luckily there was a parking spot right in front of our apartment so we didn’t have as much trouble as I was afraid we were. With him leaning heavily on me, we managed to get in and get him onto our new couch. It was closer than the bedroom and I knew he wasn’t going to be able to be on his feet much longer.
Almost immediately after laying down, he crashed. I managed to get him his seizure meds before he zonked out on me at least. I sat on the coffee table facing him, rolling the small bottle of pills back and forth in my hand. Something troubled me and I finally looked at the bottle. I read the info on the outside with his new alias and his doctor’s name. Underneath it stated the date that the prescription should be refilled. I frowned and opened the bottle. There were too many pills left in there! I narrowed my eyes when it sunk in that he had been skipping. I wanted to ask him so bad why, but there was nothing I could do until he woke up.
I paced around the room, restless. I finally decided to go get a newspaper and see if we got any mail yet. There shouldn’t have been any unless something was overnighted for some reason. With us, ya never knew.
I took a last glance at Nick and satisfied that there was no way he would wake up yet, I was sure it would be okay for me to run that quick errand. He had three hours before his speech therapy appointment and I hoped he would get enough rest to at least be able to function.
The mailbox was empty except for a piece of junk mail inviting us to get a credit card. Already! How do these people work so fast? I stuck my hand into my pocket and fished out a couple quarters and started to drop it into the machine.
“Hey there hot stuff!”
The voice startled me and I dropped the quarter. Then the familiar voice hit and I could feel the color drain from my cheeks. That’s it! I was never getting another newspaper here again! I had to fight the impulse to run, but that would look really suspicious. What if he recognized me? I stood there frozen, unsure of what to do.
“I figured you would come out here again to get another newspaper.” He laughed nervously. “Not like I was waiting for you or anything.”
I turned around slowly and waited. There was no hint of recognition in his expression. There was only a stupid grin. Then my stomach churned. That was a pretty friendly grin.
“So, what’s your name hot stuff?”
Play it cool, just be cool. “It’s ah, Katie. And you?”
“Marcus. So, you just moved in?” He continued to grin.
Now I smiled. He really didn’t recognize me, but I still felt a little uneasy. “Ohio. Have you lived here long?”
“Nope. I won’t be here long either. I was just visiting some friends, but well, one of them died and so...” He trailed off with the sorriest excuse for a sad look on his face.
I wanted to be sick. “Gosh, I’m sorry. What happened?”
“It’s ah...hard to talk about. I think I will be staying in town to keep an eye on a friend of his though. Make sure he is okay and all.” He let his voice almost sound choked, then managed to sound concerned.
My mind raced. Brian! He’s staying here to keep an eye on Brian?! The sick feeling increased and I wanted to rip him to shreds right on the spot. “Well it was nice to see you. I better go now.” I gave him the best smile I could manage and turned around without my newspaper.
“Wait!”
I turned around, my heart threatening to pound out of my chest. “Yeah?”
He grinned again. “Maybe we could go out sometime?”
I wanted to scream. “Ah, I don’t think so. Thank you though. I gotta go, bye.” I said hastily.
I had to force myself not to run back to the apartment. All I wanted was to get back to Nick.
