“The usual spot, an hour.” The line clicks, and I turn around to let Sarah know that I’ll be going out. But she’s no longer in the kitchen. She must have gone to her room. When I get to her room, I see I was wrong and I start to worry. There’s sound coming from the bathroom. I get closer to the door and put my ear against it. I hear a pair of scissors blades grinding against each other.
I worry a little.
“Sarah?” I knock on the door. “Are you okay?”
No answer.
“Sarah, open up, please.”
Still no answer.
I freak out.
“Sarah!” I bang on the door with hammer fists. I can no longer hear the scissors. It doesn’t matter how hard I knock; the door won’t budge.
“FUCK!” I take two steps back and raise my boot to kick the door open. Before I can do that, the door lock clicks and starts to open slowly. As soon as I see her, I grab her wrists looking for cuts or injuries along her arms. I find nothing but the old scars and markings I made in the past. I look up to meet her eyes. She’s crying. And that’s when I see it. Now it all makes sense. The sound of the scissors was not from her wanting to inflict damage upon herself— she cut her hair. It rests at shoulder length, and she looks fucking beautiful.
“You can’t think I’m going to hurt myself every time you turn around, Bruno.” She has a point.
“I know, I’m sorry… I thought that… I’m just…” I sigh loudly, feeling relieved. “It suits you, I like it.” She looks down and runs her right hand through her hair, tucking it behind her ear, and then blushes. That’s a good sign.
“You can thank Carter, he gave me the idea.” She lets those words slide with poison. She knows I felt that low blow.
Dammit!
She walks past me with a plastic bag full of her hair and leaves for her room. I can only think about two things— either she did it to please Carter, which is making me jealous again, or she did it because she needed a change. I hope it’s the second one, I really want it to be the second one. “Sarah… I’m going out.” She turns around. Her face is filled with stoutness and anger. I really don’t want to leave her alone again. “I thought that maybe you wanted to tag along,” I lie and hope she doesn’t accept the offer.
“Of course, I’m coming.”
Shit.
Who is this person, and where is Sarah?
Chapter Nineteen
Fucking Santa Claus.
Sarah
While I was cutting away more than half of my hair with a pair of old scissors, Carter told Bruno about a person of interest and that they needed to meet. Out of shame for acting up, Bruno asked me if I wanted to go. I guess he never thought I’d say yes. After arguing for a couple of minutes about whether I should really go or not, he decided I could attend this meeting, under a few conditions:
1) Wear something to disguise myself. Which I agreed upon.
2) Carry a gun. I said yes, even though I don’t know how to handle one.
3) Stay in the car at all times. I’ll go ahead and let you guess the answer to that one.
If your guess was ‘fuck, no’, you’d be right.
The ride to the spot was boring at first. Even though it was just under an hour, he wouldn’t talk to me while driving on the highway. I could see something was bothering him, and he’d only look at me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. I grew tired of that game and started asking questions. “Who is this person we’re meeting?” He said nothing. “Bruno…”
“It doesn’t matter who he is. What matters is that when we get there you don’t talk or argue. You need to stay hidden and protect your identity. You are here with me because you insisted, and I’m still trying to understand how I agreed to do this. It’s imperative that you don’t show your face around this place. Got it?”
“Yes… I’ve got it four times now,” I answer with sarcasm. Something’s up with him. He’s nervous, or at least out of his usual character. I wonder why’s that.
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll keep repeating it until you get it. You don’t…”
“…talk or argue, stay hidden, don’t breathe, blah, blah, blah. I fucking got it, alright!?” I yell out that last part. I shouldn’t, but I’m starting to feel anxious. He laughs at my reaction.
