Summerguard

CHAPTER 10: Be With Me

~PAXTON~

The Snack that Smiles Back, GOLDFISH! My head jolts awake and smacks against the wall. Crud, I must have dozed off. I open my phone which had fallen to my side and the time read around five-thirty in the afternoon. I sluggishly pick myself off the floor and shake out my cramped limbs. When I go outside, Chrysos is sprawled out on her side watching TV while Bennet is in the kitchen cooking dinner. I sit at the kitchen island and smile when Bennet greets me with a hearty grin.

"Ah, Miss. Iustus, I heard you were feeling topsy-turvy this morning and had a rest. I am making a simple English dish for you and Miss. Beaumont. I think you will like Chicken Florentine soup and a scotch egg."

"Oh, thank you. I am feeling a little sore, but I'm quite fine now," I said and hop off the chair to join Chrysos. She was watching ABC 7 News New York.

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"Good evening, this is David Muir with World News Tonight. A targeted attack on the recent Beaumont Youth Pitch Competition has people raging in anger at how two young contestants were sent to the hospital following the consumption of Fentanyl. They have since been released from the hospital. Reports say that the two suspects who were brought into police custody are now deceased. An eighteen-year-old college freshman from Brooklyn, Richard Castus who was the server that night died by strangulation. Forty-four-year-old Anthony Driver was also found dead by strangulation and sustained knife wounds to his shoulder, where the visible insignia of the SS Tribe used to be. Skepticism and alarm have arisen from the business world as well as the general public fearing that the recent news of former business tycoon now convicted mafia lord, John Morris and the notorious gang is connected to such attacks and that his daughter Chrysos Beaumont has assumed his legacy as heiress. Cellphone footage obtained by witnesses show the man Anthony Driver going on a rant at bystanders about the SS Tribe's responsibility for yesterday's attacks. We warn you, viewer discretion is advised..."

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In haste, I grab the remote and click the TV off. My heart is pounding out of my chest and I look to see Chrys' reaction, but she is just staring up at the empty space with somber tears rolling down her cheek. I kneel down to her and am about to remove those heart-wrenching droplets, but she slaps my arm and shoves me flat on my butt. I grimace at the impact and look up at her in shock. Why did she do that? Chrysos' hands fly to her mouth in shock as well and she looks in fear like a deer caught in the middle of route eighty.

"I-I-..." she stammers and scurries away, violently slamming the door to her room.

I jump to my feet, running after her. I pound on the door and try the knob, but it is locked. I call to her softly, "Chrys, please talk to me", but she snaps back at me, "GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Please, let me in. I'm here for you. Please," I plead to her.

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE A LIAR!" she bangs her fist making me topple back and collapse on the floor. I pick myself up and argue back, "I care for you and know that you're hurting. None of what they said is true and you know it. If they saw what I see in you every day, they would see a queen, not a monster. Someone who is dedicated to her job, works to give charity to brilliant kids, and makes everyone around her feel happy even when the sky is gray. Come on, please don't shut me out."

For a minute, there is a brief pause and I don't hear anything. I am this close to breaking down the door when she  wails out, "Please, leave me alone."

I set myself a foundation and brush off her remarks, "I won't because I promised to always look out for you and your wellbeing. I promised to always be by your side."

"NO! Shut up! I HATE YOU!"

Those words really stung and I felt like I just got stabbed right in the neck. My breath is stolen from me, but NO I won't cry and run away. Not this time. I'ma finna kick that door wide open and show her I am telling the truth. I will make her forget about those cynical critics and liars. I roll up my sleeves and breathe a deep breath in. I close my eyes and walk a few distances before charging straight at the door.