Awaysick - Scene of Chapter Eleven

Cokey lay still in her bed, the covers pulled up under her chin. Gazing at the ceiling, she felt almost paralysed. Her body still wrapped in the clothes of last night, she had gently pushed open the front door of her house, snuck up the stairs past Lehiff's bedroom, and then slammed her own bedroom door behind her. Her gasps were harsh and punishing, both from darting through the icy morning and the fear of escaping Thomas' car. She'd flung herself beneath her blankets without even removing her shoes and hadn't moved since. She didn't have an idea of how long she'd been there, but her brain had managed to figure itself out and manage thoughts properly now. Damn.
She felt like an idiot.
Last night, she'd been full of hope and then shock and then an unwinding to escape and forget. And she had, but by the way she had such a mistake that she hated herself for it.
She remembered running from the party, and slamming into Thomas' chest in the doorway. She'd looked at him, and something had taken over her. He was there, and he had looked at her, and that made her take him away and let him touch her, even initiate him touching her, because she'd hated Stephen but also wished that he was there. Wished that Thomas wasn't Thomas.
She questioned herself, and wondered whether she would have gotten into the car of any person who had been standing there, or who had been wearing a warm jacket that she could soothe her hurt, cracked face on. If she had found some unknown, random guy she'd never seen before in her life, would she have let that person touch her and make her feel better for a second within a second?
Probably not.
Sober from the crazy stupor she'd felt last night, she knew why she'd picked Thomas.
She wasn't stupid, and she wasn't oblivious. She was deliberately ignorant. Every day at Evers N' Afters, she had seen Thomas look at her, watch her as she walked by the kitchen, and make his vain attempts to talk to her. She had known that he liked her, but she had decided to push that thought away. Thomas looking at her was nowhere near as important as Stephen looking at her. Now, she regretted not telling Thomas that she was not interested in him in the least. Perhaps she had liked Thomas watching her, hoping to have a conversation with her. She was a girl, after all, and it felt good to be wanted by somebody she didn't want in return. She had probably known he wouldn't reject her, because being declined would have broken her in half even more.
She cringed inwardly as she remembered, Thomas had practically clarified how he felt last night. On top of her, he'd whispered things inside the car, probably accidentally, when it was just she and him. When he was doing things to her that she definitely shouldn't have been letting him do, he might have felt right saying them.
She'd been squirming in his car's backseat, and his head was smothered into her neck when he'd breathed hastily into her ear 'I've had this dream before.'
And then there had been when he was finished, and she was laying wide awake and he was starting to drift into a deep, contented sleep. He had been stroking her hair and whispering in a low voice to her as she avoided looking at him.
'I'll always take care of you'.


Alone with her thoughts, Cokey shifted in her bed and looked to the window. She'd only noticed how much light there was radiating inside her bedroom at this moment. Thomas would be at work for sure now, she thought. She imagined him in the kitchen, his hairnet and apron morphing him back in the cook at Evers N' Afters Eatery, not the boy in the big brown jacket who'd taken her last night. Then she imagined Stephen coming in at 1 o'clock and ordering his chilli and chesse fries, and took a deep breath. Would Stephen notice that she wasn't there?
Of course he would...
She hoped he would.

Too afraid to move, she registered that her bra was still undone. She instantly refused to turn an inch to fix it. Not wanting Lehiif or her parents to realise she was there, she stayed motionless in her bed, protected by her warm, comforting blankets for the rest of the day, vowing to herself that she would never go to work again.


***


The next morning, Cokey was caught in her bed by her brother.
'Get up,' Lehiff snapped bluntly, rousing her from depressing thoughts, 'I have to take you to work.'
'What? Why?' She replied drearily, pulling her blankets closer around her. She suddenly felt self-conscious. She hadn't showered for two days now, and still had staining mascara from two nights ago marking her cheeks. Lehiff folded his arms, frustrated. But after a moment, something seemed to change his mind, and he placed his hands in his pockets and spoke in a shockingly gentle voice to her.
'Mum and Dad know you're here, they want you to go. And a guy named Evers rang yesterday, wondering why you weren't there.'
Cokey groaned and covered her face. She considered her options. Deep within her mind, she didn't know what would happen when she reunited with Thomas at the Eatery, but she untimately guessed that it would not be as awful as dealing with her parents all day. Eventually, she concluded that, if her day was work really ws totally unbearable, she could always stow away and hide out at Katia's house.
'Hurry up... please' She heard Lehiff mumble from above her blankets at the doorway. Not nearly as much because she had decided to go to work, but mostly because she was so surprised and confused to hear her brother with manners, she emerged from beneath the warm sheets and stared at him.



Thankyou for reading! I'll be posting the section right after this today, I just have to finish some work I have to do today :(

Anywho, I very much appreciate anybody who reads this!
Love ket.
xx