Whispers

Chapter Seven

7

Her arms wrapped around me tightly as I buried myself in her embrace. Her smell, her warmth, the way her chest would rise and fall with every breath, it was all so familiar. It was home.

"I missed you," I whispered, burying my face in her shoulder. It hadn't even been a week but after everything that happened- Daren, Danny, the closet, the man in my window, Chelsea, everything- I had wanted nothing more than my mother. I had wanted this- this hug, this comfort. And now that I had it it was hard not to start crying in relief. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Christie." I could feel her hand moving behind me, stroking my hair in that comforting way she always did.

I wanted to keep hugging her forever, I wanted to just close my eyes and pretend everything was normal and we could just go back home after we separated but I knew that couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. Eventually, I was forced to open my eyes and step away once again.

Mom smiled once we had distanced ourselves, blinking back the hint of tears in her eyes. "You wanna introduce me?" she asked, gesturing back to the two girls who had been standing just off to the side, watching our tearful reunion unfold quietly.

"Right." I cleared my throat of the remaining emotions and turned back to the others. "Mom, this is Chloe Gutierrez and Samantha Green," I gestured to each in turn and they both returned my introduction with a friendly smile, "my friends."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Thompson." Chloe politely stuck out her hand for my mother to shake.

With a friendly smile of her own, she accepted her gesture. "I hope Christine's been behaving well."

"Thompson's a great kid," she reassured.

"Maybe a bit too ballsy for her own good, but sweet," Sam muttered softly under her breath.

Chloe cast a quick sidelong glance at the girl. She smiled cheekily in return.

With a loud clap of her hands, Sam stepped forward and entwined her arm with Chloe's. "Welp! While I'm sure we'd all love to stand around and get acquainted, I'm sure you two have plenty to chat about. You know, talk about how prison school is going, all that jazz. We both should be looking for our own families anyway. Visitation only lasts so long."

Granted, Sam was acting a bit rude but I agreed with what she was saying. I did want to sit and eat and talk with my mom like the old days before I went full on arsonist delinquent. Even if the only way to do that was to sit in a room crowded with other juveniles trying to do the same. With my okay, she gently dragged a sputtering Chloe away and soon they were lost in the sea of troubled teens and their families.

"So, those two are your friends, huh?" Though she was still smiling I could hear the nervous lilt in my mother's voice when she spoke.

"Yeah, kinda. I mean, we haven't known each other that long but I'd like to think of them as my friends."

"What are- or rather... Do you know why they're in here?"

"I didn't ask," I replied. "If they want to tell me why they're in here then they will."

"I'm happy to know you're making friends but maybe you're taking things a little fast." My mother continued to calculate the best steps to take to dance around the issue but I knew what this was all about.

"They're good people."

"You don't know that, Christine. I mean, those girls could've done something really bad to land themselves in a place like this."

"Like blowing up a car and setting themselves on fire?" I inquired.

"Christine, that's not- that wasn't-"