“I really hope you two get your act together before you guys have kids,” I tease as I put myself the rest of the way in while they recover from head trauma.
“Ha. Ha. Funny,” Jesse says while he and Matthew get in the back seat.
Mom whips around. “You two are wanting kids? How sweet. Gabriel only wants that cat of his. He’s constantly over there coddling it and nursing it.”
“Nursingit? Mom!”
“Excuse me if you’re not, but you sure look like it when you have it over there cradled in your arms and bundled under a blanket,” she replies with a smug expression.
“Jesse only wants to nurse his tarantula,” Matthew says, sounding disappointed for some reason. Like what the fuck does he want him to nurse?
“Why did I get in this car with you guys?” Jesse asks, though their cars are at my house from where they were taking care of Lucille before my mom picked them up. I was informed that Butter is gone, which… honestly shocks me that Liam took him.
Did he grow a little bit of a heart from being with me?
It’s a possibility.
When we reach home, I get out before Jesse or Matthew can “help” again and head toward the house. The car ride was a bit hellish, and I could feel every bump in the road even though my mom was doing her best to avoid any potholes. Instead, I hugged the plush cat Liam must have gotten me while I slept, and wished away the pain.
I step inside and the instant Lucille hears me, she comes screaming toward me. She acts like she hasn’t seen me in weeks.
“Sweetie,” I say as I rush over to scoop her up, but before I can, Jesse does.
“You’re not allowed to pick her up, remember?” he asks, and I think Lucille is so shocked she’s momentarily frozen before she flips and flings from his arms. Somehow, he’s gotten away unscathed. “Sit down and you can hold her.”
“Right, right,” I mutter, having decided that the weight limit rules don’t apply to Lucille. I carefully stoop down and pet her since I’m not quite sure I can ignore her all the way to the couchwhile she tells me all of her woes. And I think part of the woes is that she misses Butter and Liam too, even if she won’t admit it.
I do too.
“Let me get to the couch and we can sit together,” I assure her once I stand up.
She nearly trips me as I take a step forward since she’s so eager to be rubbing against me. Then I see a letter on the table and wonder if the others have already read it. I head toward it, but Matthew just pushes it back like he might make me forget it exists.
“Give it to me.”
“No, just… fuck him. He didn’t even visit you in the hospital. He’s really pissed me off,” Matthew says.
“Yes, he did.” I lift the plush cat I’d woken up with that first day.
“It doesn’t count if you were asleep. He’s pissing me off,” Matthew grumbles. “What the fuck is wrong with him?”
“He stood outside my room on many occasions and was in the parking lot when my mom picked us up,” I say. Honestly, he’s been there more than anyone else. He was just refusing to show his face, but the nurses had told me more than once that he’d asked about me. And every time I checked his location, my phone showed that he was in the hospital.
“So he’s just going to stalk you?” Mom asks.
“Why didn’t you say something about him being in the parking lot? I’d have beaten the shit out of him for being a dumbass,” Matthew says.
We all stare at Matthew, who sighs and changes it to, “I would havetried.”
“Let him have his temper tantrum,” I say as I grab the letter and head over to the couch that I sink into. But now that I have the letter, I’m not sure how to even read it. Lucille climbs ontomy lap and starts making biscuits while her purrs fill up the room.
I pet her and she closes her eyes in bliss. “You’re a good baby, aren’t you?”
Instead of opening the letter, I pull out my phone and accidentally click a “There has been movement” icon that I know is just Lucille roaming the house last night. When it opens, I realize that it’s not Lucille. I slide it back to a couple of hours after Jesse left from feeding Lucille and click the recording. In it, Lucille is roaming the house crying, and it breaks my heart hearing her unhappiness. And then about fifteen minutes later, Liam enters the house.
Lucille comes running, expecting me, before seeing Liam. I assume he forgot something until I see him sit on the floor and turn to the cat.
“This is all you’re going to get,” he mutters.
