Color Outside The Lines || l.t.

Chapter 14 - A New Dawn Has Come

It was just a couple of hours before sunrise when my father entered his home. As he closed the garage door behind him, it was hard for him to imagine the events that took place since he was last in this house: a baby was born and a relationship was broken. It was shattered in such a cruel and unfair way. He let out a loud yawn as reached over to the light switch. With one flick of his hand, the kitchen lit up and Louis stood there, staring into the room with a vacant expression. It wasn't until he heard a small rustling noise in the living room that he came out of his daze.

Turning his head toward the open room, he saw Naomi fast asleep on the couch, nearly hidden under a black fleece blanket. He stood there a moment to take in her appearance. All he could think was, 'How dare she! How dare she sleep on my couch, under my blanket, in my house. How dare she...' And yet, even though he couldn't stand to look at her, her peaceful demeanor as she slept seemed to diminish the ill-feeling he had for her. Louis stood there awkwardly, his eyes fixed upon the small portion of her body that wasn't engulfed by the blanket.

He glared at her, as if to send signals to her brain, demanding she get up. He could have went upstairs and left her in peace, worried about it in the morning, but he didn't want to go to sleep angry. In fact, there was a good chance he wasn't going to be sleeping very much at all if he didn't confront her. He took a deep breath, braced himself for what was to come, and cleared his throat as loud as possible.

Naomi rose with a jolt as her eyes squinted at the light that was streaming in from the kitchen. It took a couple seconds for her eyes to focus on the figure that looked down coldly at her.

"Oh, hey hun." she said as she sat up, blinking her sleep away. "I must have fallen asleep waiting up for you to come..." she glanced at the clock across the room. "...at 4:52!" Fully awake now, she looked incredulously up at Louis' stone hard face. "Where have you been?"

Louis shrugged. There were more important matters at hand. "Around." he said. "Where have you been?"

"We left the hospital about an hour ago, and I've been here ever since. Where were you? I came back to the hospital room and no one knew where you were! We were looking all over for you and I called your cell phone I don't know how many times. I was worried sick about you!"

"I went looking for you. Sofie said you went out to take a phone call and when I went out into the hallway I couldn't find you. I went all around the hospital looking for you, and I accidentally left my phone at one of the nurse's stations as I did so."

Sure, it was a lie. Louis knew it, and eventually he would tell Naomi the truth. But first, he had to get the truth out of her.

"Oh, well that explains a lot." she said as she folded the blanket and put it aside.

"So where'd you go when I went looking for you? Sofie said you were out in the hallway."

There was a noticeable hesitation as Naomi stared into the blanket, searching the fabric for a believable lie.

"Oh... my phone didn't get very good reception in the hospital, so I went outside..."

Louis stared at her. Normally, Naomi would look him directly in the eyes in a conversation. If this wasn't a giveaway that she was lying, he didn't know what was.

"And all those times you said you called me while you were looking for me? Did you go outside all those times too?"

There was another small pause as Naomi fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. "Uh, no, I used Sofie's phone to call you when I was inside."

"Hmm..." Louis reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "So, if I look right now, I won't find 13 calls from you?" he asked, showing Naomi the call log that proved her wrong. Naomi's face instantly dropped as did her eyes. She kept them focused on the floor as Louis came a step closer. "Where were you, Naomi?"