“Luckily,” she mocked my earlier comment, “there is good ol’ Zac always willing to do a little bit of cleaning.”
Zac stuck his tongue out at her before picking up a box and walking it out into the living room. “Ike likes to clean too,” he called from the hallway.
“I’m going to go get a trashcan so we can throw some of this junk away,” I told her. When I came back, she was sitting in the middle of the floor, picking up some of the pieces of paper off of the floor.
She looked up at me sadly. “This is your guys’ music room.”
“The whole world is our music room,” Zac responded.
“I’m intruding,” she argued.
“Casey,” I said sternly.
“Case, get over it. You’re staying.” Leave it to Zac to be straightforward. For some reason though, she typically never argued with him. He picked up some papers from the floor, scanned them, and then threw them away.
“I died just a little, but I hear you’re doin’ okay,” she read quietly from the paper of random scribbles she was holding. “Just a figure in a big monopoly game.”
“Struggle is the price you pay. You get just enough just to give it away,” I sang a little bit.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this,” she sighed. She looked so cute sitting in the middle of the floor with paper all around her.
“You’re right,” Zac said, not looking at her. Casey bit her lip in thought. “You’re pregnant and you're a guest. You should be sleeping, or watching TV, or just relaxing. Anything other than cleaning up our mess.”
“I shouldn’t be making a reason for you to clean out this room.”
“Yea well, there isn’t enough room on the couch for both you and Chris,” Zac responded, still not looking at Casey. I just grinned as she shot an unnoticed playful glare his direction.
“We were doing okay before,” she mumbled to herself.
The three of us silently cleaned. Well, Casey just went through stuff. She didn't know what she should throw away and what she shouldn't. Zac left the room mumbling something about needing boxes for junk.
“Um, Isaac,” she chuckled uneasily. I turned around quickly to the faint urgency in her voice. “I have to pee.”
“Oh…okay.” I was confused if nothing else.
She let out a giggle. “Can you help me up?”
“Oh! Yea, of course.” I tossed the notebook to the bed, and extended my hands down to her. I watched her exit the room, and that’s when it hit me how much I had missed having her around. Her personality brought a sense of serenity and lightheartedness at the same time. It amazed me how she could go through the worst possible situations, and still carry around a carefree vibe. What really amazed me was how anyone could purposely hurt her.
I distantly heard the phone ring. I was going to get up to answer it, but Zac had already beat me to it.
“Hey Casey,” Zac called, walking into the room. He stopped when he found no sign of her.
“Bathroom,” I informed him.
“Casey! Hurry up!” He called down the hallway. “She’s in the bathroom,” he said into the receiver. “She has to go.” He paused. “Because me and Ike say so.”
“Me and Ike say so what?” I asked him. “I haven’t said so to anything.” He raised a hand to shut me up.
“Okay, see ya in a little bit.” He hung up the phone and tossed it to the bed. “Hurry up,” he rushed as he looked down the hallway again.
“Have you ever noticed,” Casey said as she re-entered the room, “that things that waddle typically don’t move very fast?”
“Well, you’re going to be waddling through the mall today.”
“I’m going to be what?”
“Natalie is taking you and Chris to the mall today”
“What for?” I thought I saw a glint of anger in her eyes, but she quickly covered it up.
“Oh, I don’t know. Clothes, baby stuff. Whatever you need.”
“Did you ask me if I wanted to go to the mall?” Her hands went to her hips. Zac showed absolutely no emotion.
“Nope.”
“I know,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Then why’d you ask?”
“Why didn’t you ask?”
“She just called! She suggested taking you shopping. I agreed that it was a good idea.”
“And what makes you think it’s a good idea? Huh?” I’m not sure exactly why, maybe it was one of those pregnancy over emotional type things, but she was furious. For some reason, I didn’t think that Zac’s approach of not showing any kind of emotion or remorse was going to help the situation.
"You can get things that you need and spend time with her," he shrugged, starting to pick things up and toss them into the trash can sitting in the middle of the room. "She thought it would be a good time to catch up."
"I don't want to go shopping. If she wants to catch up she should come over here."
“Case, just get a few things,” I told her calmly. “There’s got to be something you need.”
“I don’t need anything,” she said, pointing her finger at me sharply.
“What about Chris?” Zac reasoned.
“I’m telling you that we’re fine!”
“What about baby stuff. How ready are you for another one?”
“Ready enough,” she snapped.
“Where?” He asked her. Despite her yelling at him, he managed to stay calm. “Where do you have all of this stuff hidden?”
“I have stuff back at home.”
“And you plan on going back sometime soon?”
“I don’t see why not,” she shrugged.
“Um, because your loser ex-boyfriend is an abusive asshole.” “And my other loser ex-boyfriend is annoying as hell!” She directed the insult right to his face. “At least when I’m being annoying or an asshole it’s because I’m trying to help you not hurt you.” “Don’t try to claim you’ve never laid a hand on me,” she spat. Zac’s eyes narrowed with disbelief as he shrugged past her out of the room.
“Casey,” I tried.
“Don’t,” she barked sharply, walking out of the room.
“Where are you going?” I meekly called after her.
“I have to go get ready.”
“Want me to get Chris?”
“If you want to.” I heard her in my bedroom getting her stuff, and then I heard the bathroom door slamming.
I glanced around the room and grinned to myself. “And she’s back,” I laughed uneasily.
In the living room, I found Chris in the chair watching cartoons, and Zac sprawled out on the couch. He was staring at the television, but he definitely wasn’t watching it.
“Hey Chris,” I said, picking him up. I sat down in the chair and sat him in my lap. “What are you watching?”
“Sponge Bob,” he answered. His attention was back on the TV.
“Here Chris,” Casey said, handing him some clothes. “I need you to go get dressed.”
“Where are we going?” He asked curiously.
“I’m not real sure right now.” Zac’s head popped up and he silently watched her with frustration.
“I don’t wanna go anywhere,” Christian whined.
'Like mother like son,' I thought to myself.
“We’re coming back,” she comforted quickly. I suddenly realized what he was talking about. “We’re just going into town for a little bit.”
Christian obviously wasn’t convinced. He made the maddest face he could make, but it was so cute that I had to laugh.
“We’re already in town,” he argued.
“You know what I mean,” she told him. “Come on, get up and go get dressed.” She grabbed the remote from the coffee table and flipped the TV off.
“Hey, I was watching that!” Zac protested. While it was probably the wrong comment to make, all it earned him was a death glare.
“Chris, please. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
“You remember Natalie?” I asked him, trying to help. He nodded. “She's going with you guys.”
“And Ezra?” He asked me.
“I don’t know…” I glanced at Zac. He shrugged. “We could call to find out though. Why don’t you go get the phone from the bed in the extra bedroom?”
“Okay,” he jumped up and went in search of the phone.
“I don’t know why you’re making this such a big deal,” Zac criticized after Christian was out of hearing range.
“Number one,” she told him, “you know I don’t like feeling dependent on anyone. Number two, you try carrying a ten pound bowling ball around the mall with you all day.”
“Getting help isn’t becoming dependent. It’s getting help,” he argued.
“I don’t need help,” she urged.
“Then why are you here?” He shot back, starting to get frustrated.
She looked speechless. Luckily for her, that’s the moment Chris chose to bring the phone back to me. I quickly dialed Taylor’s number and waited for someone to answer. No one ever did.
“They’re not answering,” I told Chris. “They must have already left.” He looked at me with those sad eyes. You know the ones that allow them to have whatever they want just by flashing you the puppy dog eyes. “How about you and your mom go get dressed, and when you get done, I’ll call Tay’s cellphone and see if they’re coming with Nat.”
“Come on,” Casey encouraged him, grabbing his hand in hers. She picked up the clothes she had brought for him and led him to the back.
“The kid thought they were leaving all together,” I said quietly to myself as I sunk down into the overstuffed chair.
“Hell, I thought she was talking about leaving all together,” Zac admitted.
“I wonder how many times that’s happened. How many times she’s decided she needed to get away from where she was and just up and left.”
“I don’t know, but she ended up here. That has to mean something right?”
“I guess. I don’t really know.” I honestly didn't. It was all happening so fast and I hadn't had time to consider any of it.
“Well, she’s going to be here for a while whether she likes it or not.” Between Zac’s stubbornness and Casey’s inability to argue with him, I had no choice but to believe him.