Burdened (A Burdened Novel) (46 page)

“Yea
h. When I drop you off tonight, I’ll talk to your dad about that. But, before we go, washing my hands and arms aren’t enough. I need a shower, and you do too.”

“And put on what
? She doesn’t have any clothes,” Taylor condescends.

“Yes she does, and
stay out of our business,” Nathan responds, pulling me from the table quickly.

“What? Nathan!” Taylor yells behind us as we rush from the kitchen.

I laugh at them as we run to his room.

His room is nice and cool
, welcoming me in a different way than before. It feels more like home than my own room.

Nathan goes to the bathroom and turns the water on. I walk over to the drawers Nathan designated for me and start to pull out some clothes.

He comes up behind me, pulling me to the bathroom with him. His energy is rolling off of him. He is happy—relieved.

He peels off my sticky clothes and I step in the shower. I stand under the
hot water for a while, wanting to get Rose’s black liquid out of my hair and erase the disturbing images of Nathan from my mind. I wash my hair and scrub my body until I’m satisfied. As I get to my back, Nathan helps me, not getting in the shower with me.

I leave the water on when I finish as I prepare to
step out of the shower. “Don’t get out yet,” he says, stepping in, right under the water.

All the slimy black liquid
and sweat, slowly starts to roll off him, revealing more wounds that I couldn’t see before.

“Can you heal me?”
he asks softly, water rolling down his face from his hair.

I clean hi
m first, starting with his front. He winces from the soap cleansing his wounds. He turns around so I can clean his back. Once satisfied, I rub my hands over his wounds. There are so many. My tears fall, seeing the extent of his injuries, imagining the pain he must have experienced, and remembering the state he was in.

I know he can feel me crying
, through his own emotions, but he says nothing as I keep it under-control. But he turns around and, seeing every hole and slash, sobs break loose against my will.

He grabs my face in his hands
, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. I rub my hands over the wounds and they seal, and out of the three holes, bullets push out, along with more black fluid, glistening with shards of pearl.

“Thank you
, Tracey.” He kisses the tears under my eyes. “Don’t cry.” He hugs me to him and I break down, crying in his chest.

Not
from being upset but from feeling happy that he is okay, proud of what I did, and relieved that we made it—all of us. He lets me cry against him until I pull myself together.

I pull away from him a little
, and he grabs my chin to kiss my lips. “Let me finish up. I’ll be out in a minute.”

I step out
of the shower, avoiding looking at our black clothes that are lying on the floor. I walk past them quickly—as if, if I walked by slowly, they would grab my legs. Grabbing two towels from the rack by the door in the bathroom, I wrap one around me and use the other to dry my hair.

I walk out
of the bathroom, back to the drawers, pulling out a pair of jeans, a long-sleeve t-shirt, undies, and a pair of socks.

I put on
the clothes. Pulling the shirt over my head, there is a knock on the door. My hair is still wet, and I hate people seeing my hair messed up. I crack the door open and there stands Mrs. Waturstrom, the school nurse.

She smiles at me. “Why, hello
, Tracey.”

I open the door wider
, returning her smile. “Hi, Mrs. Waturstrom. How have you been?”

“I am well
. Is my nephew around?”

“Yes
, ma’am. He’s in the shower though.”

She looks
me over. “I assume you just got out of the shower.”

I point to
my hair lamely. “I did.”

“I
heard you rescued him tonight. I am grateful for that, and I have to say, that was very brave of you.”

“Thank you
. I had no choice; I couldn’t live without him. He holds my heart in his chest.” I look down, not wanting to talk about tonight anymore.

“I know how you feel. Most think badly of Nathan because of his past, but he is really a good person. He is genuine and loving when he wants to be, and even a blind man can see he loves you.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual.”

She grabs me into a hug
, before I can blink, scaring the crap out of me. I let out a breath of relief, realizing it’s an embrace.

She pulls back a little, her eyes beginning to flood. “I am also elated to
hear you have accepted our family. You make our Nathan very happy, and he has never been, not even as a child. Knowing that he has someone at his side who cares more about him than themselves, says a lot about the future that you two will have.” She hugs me again. “Thank you for choosing my nephew, and thank you again, Tracey, for saving his life.”

I hug her back. “You’re welcome.”

She pulls away from me and turns, making her way down a long hallway I haven’t walked down yet. What is down there?

“Hey
, Tracey,” Nathan calls from behind me.

I smile to myself before turning to look at him. He’s clean and smooth
, towel wrapped around his waist.

I close the door and make my way over to him
, quicker than I anticipated.

“Yes
?” I touch his shoulders as he leans down, wrapping me in his arms. He lifts me in the air and I stare at him. “You look so much better.”

He smiles
. “Thanks to you.”

I kiss him lightly. “I had no choice.”

“Hmm, yeah. I think I heard something about you waiting for me in hell if you didn’t see me in heaven.”

I raise an eyebrow at him
. “Yeah, something like that.”

“I couldn’t have that.”

“I couldn’t have me living without you.” I pause. “In life or in death.”

“So we stay alive together
, and then go to heaven together.”

“Sounds like a sufficient plan.” He lowers me.
He stares at me for a long time. I let him, without speaking.

“You fought for me. You were about to die for me. You lost control for me. You killed my sister and tried to kill my father for me. And you’re accepting my family for me?” His eyes are swirling.

“I love you, Nathan,” I say, factually.

“There are no words
, Tracey. I don’t know what to say, because ‘thank you’—for what did—is not enough.” He walks around me, over to his closet.

Someone knocks on the door all too lightly.

“Come in!” he yells from the closet.

A heavy
-set woman walks in, with the biggest bun I’d ever seen on top of her head.

She smiles at me when she steps fully into the room. “Hi
, I’m Pailan,” she says with a nod.

Finally
, Pailen! “Hi, I’m Tracey, Nathan’s girlfriend.”

She walks a little closer to me. “I think you’re a little more than that
, my dear,” she whispers.

Moving away from me
, she walks into the bathroom, opening a black bag. She must be getting rid of our ruined clothes.

I turn from her
, walking over to the closet, and lean against the wall next to the closet door. “Nathan, what are you doing?”

“It’s getting late.
You need to be in the house by eleven, right?”

“Yea
h, when my dad is home.”

“Is your dad home?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have to be in
your house by eleven.” He pauses, and there is shuffling. “Would you like to know what time it is?”

Probably not
, since you’re saying it like that. “Yes,” I sing slowly.

“10:50
.”

Panic rises
. “Are you serious!?”

“Yep.” He walks out of the closet. He has a bag on
his shoulder. “You ready to go? I don’t think we can make it there in five minutes if we drive.”

“Yea
h, let’s go.” How will we get there any quicker if we don’t drive?

“
Pailen, can you close this window before you leave?”
Window?

She puts a hand out
of the bathroom door, acknowledging him.

Nathan swoops me up
, and I wrap myself around him. He jumps out of the window, and my stomach drops to my butt. It was a high jump.

He runs us to my house and we make it way too fast.
I pull my hair into a bun, once we make it in front of my house. He leaves me to stash his bag in my room and comes back quickly.

We walk up to the front door.
He knocks and my dad answers. “Hello, you two.” He looks me over, noticing the change in clothes.

I quickly explain. “Taylor spilled her Slurpee on me and I needed to change. She was kind enough to buy me a new outfit.”

My dad nods. “We missed you tonight, Nathan. Taylor told me you got held up at the office?” It is like a statement, transformed into a question.

“Yes
, sir. Doing some work for a new building we’re opening in DC.”

“You and your father
, correct?”

Nathan tenses
. “No, sir. My father has removed himself from the company. It’s just me right now.”

My dad nods slowly.
“Umm, Dad. Are you going to invite us in to talk or just make us stand outside?”

He stammers
. “Oh, uh, sorry, ladybug.” He steps to the side and we walk into the house. He closes the door behind us. “So Nathan, where is your car?” We start walking towards the family room.

“My cousin stays a
few blocks away from your house. I was coming up the sidewalk when Tracey got dropped off.” He’s quick on his feet. I’m still trying to figure out the story, while he is finished telling it.

“Well
, I would say that was good timing. You didn’t know she hadn’t been dropped off yet?” He takes a seat on the arm of the couch, while Nathan and I remain standing.

“The last time I spoke with my sister
, she insinuated she was on her way to drop off Tracey, so I assumed she was already here. I was just stopping by to apologize to her, you, and your wife, for missing dinner.”

“Well
, Nathan, I’ll be honest with you.” Oh shit! “I have missed a many of dinners dealing with work. It is terrible at the moment, but pays off in the end.” That was unexpected. “Especially when you can have days off and take your family out, doing whatever they want and getting them whatever they need—or think they need.” He looks at us. “Not saying that I think you all should have a family,” he says, hurriedly.

“We didn’t take it like that
, Dad,” I say, annoyed. What is with adults and this whole baby-family thing?

“Just clarifying
, Tracey.”

“You’re right, sir. Tracey and I aren’t ready for a family. The thought hasn’t even crossed our minds.” He would know.

“I’m glad to hear it. So has Tracey met your family yet?”

“Yes, sir.” I like the way Nathan uses his deep voice when he speaks to my dad.

My dad’s eyes open a little wider and his eyebrows scrunch together slightly. He looks at me
. “And?”

I don’t understand the question. “I don’t get it
,” I say to them.

“How do you feel about my family?” Nathan says to me
, in a softer tone. My dad notices, and the corner of his mouth twitches.

“Oh, okay. Just say that
, Dad. ‘And’ is not a question.” I look at Nathan, then to my dad, trying to decide how I should answer the question. I know how I want to, but I want it to sound good to my dad. But, then again, I want to be truthful with myself.

“I love Nathan’s family. His mother is the sweetest
, and his sister is loving. He has three brothers—two younger and one older. But what pulls me is that they’re all together—like, live together—and they all love each other.” Well, now they do, anyway.

“All of you?” The question is directed towards Nathan.

“Yes, Dad,” I answer for him. “His older brother lives there with his wife and their two kids, his sister stays there with her…uh…fiancé, his two sets of cousins stay there with their ma— umm…fiancé and husband, his adorable grandmother and grandfather live there, his two younger brothers live there, of course, and then Nathan.”

“How big is your house?”
my dad asks in awe.

“
The house is
huge
.” I look at Nathan. He’s smiling at me. Looking back at my dad. “And his family is amazing. They are all welcoming and genuinely care for each other. I would join them, if time permits.”