Fateful Hindrance

20. I Miss You Like An Idiot Misses The Point

Chapter 20

I Miss You Like An Idiot Misses The Point

 

 

“You’re acting like a teenage girl.”

“So?”

“So, quite whining before I make you stop whining.”

“Yeah?  And how are you going to do that?”

“Well, there are several ways…some that involve duct taping your mouth shut…and then there’s pain…”

“But wouldn’t pain just make me whine every more?”

I crossed my arms over my chest, glaring down at Ryan as I sat in bed.  He was stretched out at the end, staring up at the ceiling as he heaved a sigh. 

“Ryan, you told me I could just have a day to myself, no running, no training, nothing.”

“But I’m so bored!” he whined. 

“Then go play with Aiden and Sterling!  They were trying to get you to all yesterday.”

“But I don’t want to get up.”

I groaned, kicking him.  “Fine!  Get up here and we’ll just watch a movie or something.”

A grin immediately lit up his face as he flipped over and crawled under my covers, burying himself in them.  I just rolled my eyes, playfully smacked his shoulder, and turned on the television. 

About an hour later, Aiden and Sterling came bursting into my room and jumped up into the bed.  Apparently, my room was the place to be then, because they were quickly followed by Tory, Jamie, and Jude.  Multiple times during the three movies we watched, I found myself wondering just how we’d fit everyone without one falling off.    

It had been almost two weeks since Ed had come to take John back to London.  Sure, I missed him more now than ever, but he’d kept his promise that we’d still talk on the phone.  It hadn’t been a few days after he left that I got the first call…it had been an hour after they landed. 

Most of the time, the calls were short. That was because he was back at the Raymond house where everyone fussed over him constantly.

“Elena’s smothering me more than you were,” he complained just two days after he’d been gone.  “She thinks I’m completely incapable of doing anything, even though I’m feeling fine.  I swear, if she tries to spoon feed me like a little kid one more time, I’m going to shove it down her throat.”

“Don’t you dare!  She might be carrying my future namesake.”

“And now I’m really hoping it’s a boy.”  I could hear the smile in his voice.  “And that he’ll be laid back like Grant.  If it’s a girl and she’s anything like you and Elena, I’m demanding a refund.”

Calls were also short because of John having to hang up when someone came into his room.  From what he’d told me, Ed didn’t mention anything about me still being alive and kicking to anyone.  Well, there were a few exceptions.

“He told them…though he didn’t tell them everything,” John had said, talking about Stella and Ren.  “Do you know how long Stella cried whenever I came home?  And it wasn’t just because of me being okay, but knowing that it was really you she saw.  She thought she’d been dreaming until Ren said that he saw you, too.”

“So, did he tell them everything?” I asked.  “Like where I actually was?  What I was doing?”

“No, just that you were in a place that you needed to be for a very important reason.  Stella, of course, fought hard to know what exactly that reason was, but he wasn’t giving in.  She’s been pestering me now.  I think she knows I talk to you, though, especially when I hang up suddenly whenever she appears…and then she hits me since I didn’t let her talk to you.”