Playing The Game

Playing The Game - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Mum came up to my room about an hour later to check up on me. She was surprised that I was still awake. In fact, so was I. Even though I was dead tired (and probably looked like it too), I was still too shocked to sleep. All the things that Joel had said to me, along with the million questions I had that were still unanswered, ran through my mind.

“Rubi? Honey, are you alright?” she asked me.

I just nodded my head slowly, numbly. I didn’t really have the energy to speak right now.

“Are you sure? Do you want me to bring you up some soup?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t eat either; I wasn’t sure if I could keep it down.

My mother frowned and pursed her lips. “Okay. I’ll be downstairs if you need me, okay honey?”

I nodded again, and she left the room, but not before sending me one last worried glance. I sighed and rolled over onto my back, a sharp pain shooting through my abdomen as I did so. I winced, and then started to relax as the pain left.

Suddenly my phone started ringing. Tears pricked my eyes as I listened to my ring tone. It was the song that Joel had written for me, which had since been perfected and released as a single. I began to wonder if any of the words in the song actually meant anything to him.

I grabbed my phone and punched the accept button, not wanting to listen to it anymore. I put the phone to my ear and heard Allie’s bubbly voice. It seemed like forever since I’d last seen her, when in fact I’d seen her only a few hours ago, at school.

“Hey Rubi! Whatcha doing?”

I sighed and cleared my throat, trying my best to sound normal so she couldn’t tell that something was wrong. “Hey Allie. Um, nothing much, just sitting on my bed. What are you doing?”

My voice sounded a bit croaky, but it was obviously convincing enough because Allie replied enthusiastically: “Well, I actually called you to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about our movie tonight. And obviously you did.”

I groaned. “That’s tonight?” I completely forgot that I’d made plans with her.

“Of course it is. I said Friday, didn’t I? Don’t tell me you’ve made plans with Joel.”

“No I didn’t. But…” I sighed. “I’ll meet you there in an hour, just like we planned.” I really didn’t feel like going out right now, but if I said I didn’t want to go Allie would know something was wrong. I never cancelled on her.

“Great! See you then. Bye.”

“Bye.”

When I hung up I caught a glimpse of the photo of me and Joel on my phone and growled. I turned my phone off and shoved it under my pillow.

Why did he have to do this to me?

I took a quick shower and got dressed. As I thought, there were bruises around the tops of my arms where Joel had grabbed me. I wore a long sleeved shirt to cover them up. I re-applied my make-up, making sure that the bruise there was completely covered before grabbing my phone and going downstairs.

“Mum! I’m going to see a movie with Allie. I’ll be back in a few hours,” I called out to my mum, who was sitting in the lounge room watching TV. She was in the hallway in a second, her hands on her hips.

“I thought you were sick.”

“I feel better now. I think it was just a headache.”

She looked me over suspiciously, but nodded. “Okay. Just be careful.”