The Wanderers

Chapter 16

In the morning there was a frantic knock on the door. "Ella...Ella," I heard Josie whisper. I rolled over, forgetting I was on the couch, and fell right off with a loud oomph. "Ella?" Josie opened the door letting herself in. She took one look at me on the floor and in my underwear and said, "I'm not even going to ask."

Tristan, now waking up, looked down at me. "What are you doing on the floor?"

I rolled my eyes and stood up, brushing myself off. "What is it Josie?" I asked while I got dressed.

"Huh?" she mumbled. She was staring at Tristan, shirtless, too distracted to remember what she came here for. Tristan noticed her expression and sat up. He stretched his arms above his head, and then brought them down, pausing slightly to flex his muscles. He winked at Josie and she gave him a half-cocked smile.

I threw a pillow at him and turned back to Josie. "Josie! Focus!"

"Huh? Oh yeah, your mom."

"What about my mom?"

"She's here."

"What?" I yelped.

Josie shushed me and closed the door. "She's in our room, with my mom too."

"What are they doing here?" I asked panicked, looking for my shoes.

"Well since you never called her back, she decided to come here and inspect things for herself and brought my retched mother with her."

"Great," I said.

"Leave your shoes."

"What, Why?" I asked confused.

"I told her you were in the bathroom," Josie said, looking nervously over her shoulder. "Hurry up before they decide to look in the closet."

"What's wrong with them looking in the closet –" I started, then realized. "You didn't."

"What was I supposed to do? They just showed up, unannounced," she said, throwing her hands up, flustered.

"I can't believe you stuck Billy in the closet," I said, making my way to the door.

Tristan laughed at poor Billy's misfortune. "You better not tell anyone," Josie threatened. He just smiled and imitated zipping his lips.

I left without another word.

Once at our room, I took a deep breath before opening the door. "Mom, hi."

"Well it's nice to see you're okay," she said, eyes narrowed. "You know if you had just called, I wouldn't have had to drag poor Mrs. McNaughton all the way out here just to make sure our daughters were still alive."

I stifled an eye roll. I knew it was just an excuse she used to convince my dad to let her come here. She was quite aware that I was alive and well. Dean had told me he called her when he got back to school letting her know everything was fine. "Well don't just stand there, come give your mother a hug." I walked over and wrapped my arms around her. Despite her need to be overbearing, I was happy to have my mom. I squeezed her a little tighter, holding on a little longer, inhaling her sweet scent.

I felt her exhale at the embrace. When I pulled back she gripped my hands and her face instantly frowned when she saw my bandaged hand. "What happened?"

"Oh it's nothing. I accidentally broke a glass and cut my hand. It's fine, really," I said, pulling my hand away and hoping she was buying it. It wasn't a complete lie. I brushed it off like it was nothing so I could avoid a million questions.