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“I’m sorry, Rhee. I’m just so worried about you.” His voice is low, his dark eyes filled with pain as he stares at Rhys, who looks like she’s about to do a runner. She stays quiet, eye locked with Marcus for what seems like forever, then her face falls.
“I’m a bitch.”
“No, you’re not.” Marcus steps towards her, and she falls into his chest, throwing her arms around his neck.
“Yes I am. I’m sorry.” Her voice is muffled and pained, and it stabs the centre of my chest hearing it.
Lexi starts conversation up again behind us, taking everyone else’s attention away from us, and Garrett, Simon and I step up closer to Marcus and our girl.
“I don’t mean to be pushy. I’m just worried. It’s not healthy to keep everything in Rhee, and the four of us want to help somehow.”
“I just…” Rhys pulls back, gripping Marcus’ shoulders, her dark eyes glassy. “I need to forget for a while.”
“Can we compromise?” Garrett asks, and she turns her eyes to him.
“How so?”
“Maybe you can give us a rundown on what happened, and then we can better understand how to best help you forget.” Garrett reaches past Marcus and brushes her flyaways back off her forehead.
Her eyes dart frantically between the four of us as she contemplates Garrett’s suggestion. It’s easy to see that she really doesn’t want to talk about her visit to the prison, and if it weren’t so important for us to know what’s going on, we would just leave it be. The thing is, it’s more important than ever that we know what’s going on. Not just to give her support, but to prepare for her highs and lows and look out for any signs that she’s heading down the wrong path with her choices.
“Ok.” She whispers.
I hold my breath. Did she really just agree to tell us?
“Ok?” Marcus asks, and she nods.
“Ok, but I want to get it over with now, and I don’t want it mentioned for the rest of the night.”
“Of course, Kitten.” I catch her eyes as I speak and see her pure discomfort at the thought of talking about today. It’s a lot for her to do this.
“You want to go somewhere private?” Simon asks, but she shakes her head.
“No. I need to tell the girls, too.”
“Listen up!” Marcus steps away from Rhys and turns to everyone in the room. “Rhys would like to talk to us all about today. Then she wants to forget about it for the rest of the night.” He turns towards his cousin. “Can you turn the music down?”
Ayden nods, and Rhys mumbles.
“Is it too late to change my mind?”
Garrett pushes past Marcus, this time to console our girl while we take our seats. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but it looks caring yet intense with the way he cups her face and looks into her eyes like he’s trying to hypnotise her. They stay that way for a couple of minutes, and then he takes her hand and sits down on the armchair, pulling her onto his lap.
“Ummm… ahhh…” Rhys shifts uncomfortably. I think it’s the first time she’s hated all the attention on her.
“Rhys, how about I ask you a couple of questions? It helps to get things going.” Lexi offers, her blue eyes concerned yet determined as she looks at her friend.
“Okie Dokie, Sexy Lexi. Ask me something.”
It’s hard not to grin at Rhys’ playful nature. Even in the face of a conversation she’s dreading, she tries to lighten the mood.
“Did Officer Zimora meet you at the prison?” Lexi asks, and Rhys shakes her head.
“No, we met him, Officer Fredricks and the Allansdale Crimes Against Children team at the Allansdale Police Station. Julie sent me another message this morning, and she made a comment about seeing me walking into the prison today, so the cops are working under the theory that she would be somewhere nearby.”
“Shit. Was she there? Did they catch her?” Tillie asks, and Rhys shakes her head.
“No, not that I could see. But the cops wired me up with this button camera on the collar of my t-shirt, so I believe they are reviewing the footage in case there’s something we missed.”
