The Double-Tap Accident

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Old Bat Was Evil.

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Old Bat Was Evil.

THE SOLID SNOW crunched beneath my feet when I got off of the bus. A second later Aven came off the bus as well, his tall figure walking next to me as we made our way over to the building at a far distance.

As if on cue for our scheduled calls, my phone buzzed with a call from my sister. I was greeted with a loud bark and immediately, I grinned, recognizing who that was. "Cooper! My baby."

"He misses you too," My sister said, shuffling in the background. "Are you heading to another day with Ms. Green? Or grocery shopping?"

We talked way too often. At this point, she could predict how long it would take me to go to the store and what I would get. "Ms. Green. And I'm going with a friend."

"A friend...what kind of friend? Do mom and dad know about this friend?"

"What kind of question?" I adjusted the black hat on my head with one hand. "Do you want me to die?"

"They aren't going to kill you for having a boyfriend."

They weren't. But they were going to bother me about it. Over and over and over--"You didn't show up with a man until you were, like, 21." Aven glanced at me but didn't say a word.

"You're 19."

"Two years makes a difference," I told her and I felt Aven's eyes on me once again. We were two years apart. Not that it mattered. It didn't feel like it mattered at all.

"I wanna meet this friend."

"What friend?" I heard her husband say in the background. Michael. A man I was so happy she chose to marry. He was a great conversationalist. A great addition to our family. But just like my sister, he was nosy. "Jaime has a friend? What kind of friend?"

"Can you both just--" I took the phone off, raising the device to Aven. "Say hi to my sister and her husband but don't say anything else."

Aven narrowed his eyes at me, "Uh, hi sister. Hi, sister's husband."

I brought the phone back to me just as the two were speaking on top of each other with the intention of embarrassing me. "Nope, not on speaker," I told them and their teasing reduced to grumbles.

"You're holding out on us." My sister said.

No. I was not. Whatever the hell was going on here was going to be told to my sister and likely her husband at the same time when I went back to Port Yonge. A part of me, while annoyed, couldn't wait to be pestered by both of them on every detail and every question they could think of.

The call didn't last long, ending with a promise of me texting her when I got home. Aven didn't question anything further as we walked into Sheppard Valley.

When we entered the recreation room, Ms. Green somehow saw me from across the room with her beady eyes. The woman walked faster than I've ever seen her move as she made her way over to me and Aven.

She grabbed my arm, a gesture that could have seemed so light and so gentle but in reality, she was gripping the hell out of me. I glared at her, and she hid my expression as she gave me the fakest hug I've ever received from her. "Jaime!"

"What the hell?" I mumbled in her ear, hugging her back. She smelled like perfume, flowery and a hint of talcum powder, a scent nevertheless comforting wrapped in deception. When she pulled back, she reached out to squeeze Aven's arm. And hold. And held for longer than she should have.

She was feeling his bicep. I frowned.

"What's your name, handsome?"

Aven was fighting the laugh from the attention she was giving him. His eyes dropped to where her hands laid on his arm before looking up at her with kindness. "Aven. You must be Ms. Green. I've heard a lot about you."