The Unknown Object
Chapter XI
That evening, Tim got home a little later than usual. If anyone had asked him what he was doing, he would have told them he’d had a few errands to run.
The truth was a bit more complicated than that.
After controlling Eddie, he’d given him a few simple instructions, most important of them to come meet him in room 214 at around 4 o’clock. Mrs. Gibson, whose homeroom was in 214, always left school at 3:30 to pick up her kids from elementary school, and Tim knew she never bothered locking the classroom. He then released Eddie, who wandered off, none the wiser.
Once Eddie arrived in the classroom, probably wondering why he was even there, it was child’s play for Tim to control him again.
For the next hour or so, Tim asked questions and made suggestions.
Unlike Mom, Eddie was surprisingly easy to manipulate. Or maybe Tim was just getting the hang of using the ray gun.
After putting a few key commands in place, Tim let Eddie go with the memory of having taken an extended nap in room 214.
Tomorrow will be fun, Tim chuckled to himself.
Tim walked home slowly, thinking about the scenario he had set up to take place the following day. If everything went according to plan, Eddie would be on the receiving end of a very public humiliation.
Tim felt oddly liberated—he’d already used the ray gun once before, for an inarguably unconscionable purpose. He knew that under normal circumstances, his mother would have been horrified by what she had done with him over the weekend. Tim may have managed to remove that moral line from her way of thinking, but that didn’t mean that line had somehow ceased to exist. She might have been robbed of the ability to realize it, but Tim knew that what he’d controlled her into doing was beyond the pale. Nevertheless, though he’d felt twinges of guilt during his experiences with Mom, those twinges were far outweighed by the pure pleasure of his experiences.
But with Eddie, he felt no such compunctions. Eddie had gone behind his back, had coerced or tricked Heather into sending him pictures, and had doubtlessly been planning on taking things even further, if Tim hadn’t stumbled onto the both of them. Tim felt a combination of righteousness and ferocity at his actions.
As his home came into view, Tim noticed there was only one car in the driveway. Dad was still at work. Tim unlocked the front door, dropped his backpack in the living room, and headed to the kitchen. As he did, he saw his mother puttering around in the kitchen, probably prepping dinner.
She’d probably been out jogging, as she was still wearing a pink jogging singlet, moist with sweat, and a pair of leggings that revealed her curvaceous thighs and buttocks. She wore a pair of running shoes.
Tim’s cock stirred, and he couldn’t stop himself from remembering the events of the previous weekend.
The exquisite feeling of her pussy tightening around him.
How she took him into her mouth.
Her moans.
Tim stood behind her, embracing her, smelling the scent of her sweat.
“Tim?!” Mom yelped, startled.
“Sorry, Mom,” Tim said softly, hugging her more tightly, feeling the warmth of her body against his.
“A-at any rate,” she gasped, “your father and sister could be home any minute, so it would be better to…”
“Do you have any plans for the weekend?” He interrupted.
“The weekend? She wondered, as she gently extricated herself from his caress. “I was thinking of getting an appointment for hot yoga, if they still have some spaces available, after I skipped last weekend.”
“Don’t make any plans,” Tim stated firmly. “I have something in mind.”
“…what do you mean? Mom asked hesitantly. “You can’t possibly want a repeat of last weekend so soon…don’t you think the lessons I gave you were thorough enough? Can’t you make some other plans? Maybe go to the movies with your friends?”
Tim felt slightly irritated. This conversation wasn’t going at all the way he planned. His mother’s reaction, her hesitation. He had expected her to be delighted at another weekend of lovemaking, but she seemed to be treating it as an inconvenience.
Was it because of how I phrased my instructions?
He took a step back and considered his mother. She was a very attractive woman for her age who worked hard to stay in shape. If she hadn’t been his mother, he was sure he would have become aware of that fact much earlier. But he was aware of it now, and he couldn’t deny it to himself—he wanted her.
Then he considered himself. A teenager who’d never been on a date before, out of shape, not particularly good-looking. No matter how much his mother loved him, there was no way she would be physically attracted to him. The only reason she had been willing to cross that forbidden line was because of the suggestions and commands Tim had placed on her.
He thought of that photo of Müller and his wife, Elizabeth. She’d looked at him with complete adoration. Him, a bald old man, and her, a beautiful young woman.
She’d desired him, that much was clear.
Should I just command my mother to feel that way about me? Would it be that simple?
“Tim?” his mother looked at him. “I’m sorry if you’re disappointed, but…”
If you want something, you have to seize it.
“It’s no big deal, Mom,” Tim said, putting on a false front. “I’ve been wanting to watch the new James Bond movie anyway, so maybe you can drop me off at the theater in the morning before you head to your yoga appointment.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mom said. “Now, your father should be home in a little bit, so I’m going to get started on dinner. I was thinking of making steak, green bean casserole and some salad. What do you think?” She opened the refrigerator and began looking around for ingredients.
“I’m thinking yummy,” Tim replied as he looked at his mother’s backside, though he wasn’t thinking about the food.
As soon as Dad goes on his trip, I’m going to be making some adjustments around the house.
Just then, Tim heard the sound of the door opening and closing.
“Too early to be your father,” Mom commented. “Your sister must be back from practice.”
“Do you need me to do anything, Mom?” Tim queried. “I could get a start on making the salad.”
“No, that’s alright,” Mom said, smilingly. “But actually, why don’t you go and ask your sister if she wants anything else for dinner?”
“Sure thing,” Tim said, heading out to the living room.
What he saw when he got to the living room made his heart skip a beat.
There was his sister, looming over where he’d left his backpack on the sofa.
And in her left hand, she held the mind control gun.
Heather had walked home from track practice feeling sweaty, achy and exhausted. She couldn’t wait to get home, take a bath, and put on some muscle rub on her achy thighs and calves.
As she winded the familiar path home, she texted Eddie, asking what time she could call him to continue their conversation from lunch.
Over the day, she’d been thinking about his ridiculous request, and had decided that, at the very least, she would talk to her classmate, Georgianne and try to gauge her interest in a double-date. Georgianne was an easygoing, chubby girl who loved Doctor Who, Star Wars, and had an unhealthy interest in K-pop, which is how Heather had gotten to know her. She didn’t know whether her interests would align with her brother’s, but that was really beside the point. Georgianne would probably be thrilled to go out on a date with someone, anyone, and as for her brother—well, who knows. Maybe they’d hit it off.
Not like Tim has any other prospects, Heather affirmed to herself.
Heather checked her phone for the umpteenth time. Eddie still hadn’t read her messages. He was usually prompt in replying, but his phone’s battery must have died.
As she rounded the corner, she put thoughts of Eddie out of her mind for the moment. She saw Mom’s car in the driveway, but not Dad’s. He was probably working late again.
She opened the door and heard sounds coming from the kitchen. Tim talking with Mom about something or other. Then she noticed Tim’s backpack on the living room couch.
On any other day, Heather wouldn’t have given the beat-up backpack a second thought. But she thought back to the conversation she’d had with Eddie during lunch time. About how Tim had bought that first aid kit in case Heather ever got hurt during a competition.
Heather wondered whether that was really true, or whether Eddie was just trying to make Tim look good so that she’d do what he was asking and get him a date.
She decided to find out. Heather hurried over to where the backpack lay on the sofa, unzipped it, and started rummaging through its contents.
Her search turned up the following: A couple of dog-eared notebooks, random bits of paper, a pencil case…a history textbook…
Digging in a little bit further, she felt two things at the bottom—one seemed to be a rectangular box, but when she grasped the other, she gripped what felt like a cool metal handle.
What is this, a portable hair dryer?
She pulled both items out of from the bottom of the backpack.
In her right hand, she held a somewhat battered first aid kit. On her left, she held a toy gun of some sort.
Wow, so Eddie wasn’t lying about the first aid kit. She had to admit, she was a bit touched. It was kind of sweet, in its own, weird awkward way, that Tim was carrying around this dinky little first aid kit to her track competitions, even though there were, of course, always school nurses on duty during competitions much better suited to handling injuries than her dorky brother.
She put the first aid kit back where she’d found it and looked at the toy gun. It looked like one of those old ray guns from Flash Gordon serials.
I didn’t know Tim was still into this sort of stuff, she cringed inwardly, thinking of her brother and his friends running around outdoors shooting toy guns at each other like elementary schoolers.
It didn’t have a trigger, but it did have a dial, and some sort of button.
Does it have some sort of light-up feature? She wondered curiously.
Heather looked down the barrel of the toy gun—she couldn’t see any lightbulb. She fiddled with the dial and pressed the button on the butt of the gun, heard a faint crackling sound and felt the gun vibrate somehow.
Then the whole world went black.
Tim ran towards Heather so fast that he almost tripped, catching himself on the back of the sofa. How had she found out about the gun? What had he missed? Did Eddie tell her about it somehow?
And then, as he looked at her more closely, he noticed.
Heather wasn’t moving. Her head was cocked at an awkward angle, and she seemed to be looking towards the wall on the far end of the room. The hand holding the gun was limp.
He waved his hand at her face. No reaction.
Tim couldn’t believe his luck. She’d apparently somehow zapped herself with the ray gun.
Feeling a sudden shiver, he looked down at his hands, realizing he’d been trembling. He had a moment of panic, imagining what Heather could have done if she’d realized what she was holding in her hands. All of his plans, his ideas, would have been for naught.
Tim approached his sister slowly, and gingerly took the ray gun out of her hands.
“Why were you holding this, Heather?”
“…I just found it…in your bag…”
“And what were you doing in my bag? Please answer all my questions as completely as possible, Heather.”
“…I was looking…for a first-aid kit…Eddie said…you kept one…and I…didn’t know whether to believe him…”
Why the hell was Eddie talking about me? Tim thought.
Irrelevant. Probably trying to trick my sister again.
Besides, I may not have planned this, but I might as well put my plan into action right now.
“Do you know why I had that first aid kit, Heather?”
“…to take care of me…if I get injured…?”
“Yes, that’s right. Do you know why I take care of you?”
“…because…you’re my brother…?”
“That’s right. I’m the only guy you can truly trust, Heather.”
“…”
Hmm. A roadblock here.
“Which other guys do you trust, Heather?”
“…Eddie…”
“And how do you feel about Eddie, Heather?”
“…I…I…love him…”
“Heather. Would Eddie ever betray you?”
“…never…”
“It’s okay to believe in Eddie, Heather.”
“…it’s…okay…?”
“But, if Eddie ever does betray you, that will mean your judgment was wrong, wouldn’t it?”
“…yes…”
“If that’s the case, if Eddie betrays you, there’s only one guy you can turn to, Heather. Only one person you can truly trust, a guy who will never betray you.”
“…only one…person…?”
“That’s right, Heather. If Eddie were to betray you, your brother would be the only guy left that you could trust. And do you know why, Heather?”
“…why…?”
“Because your brother watches out for you. Doesn’t he, Heather?”
“He…he does…?”
“Of course he does. Think back to when you were in elementary school.”
“…think…back…”
“Fourth grade. Some boys stole your backpack and dumped the contents in a garbage can. Do you remember, Heather?”
“…yes…”
“Heather, who was it who fought those boys?”
“…my…brother…”
“In sixth grade, when you twisted your ankle on the way home, who carried you on his back the rest of the way?”
“…my brother…”
“How did you feel about him then, Heather?”
“I thought…he was…great…”
“And how do you feel about him now?”
“He’s…dorky…and awkward…”
“No, Heather, he’s not.”
“…he’s not?”
“Other people might think your brother is dorky and awkward. But you know better, Heather.”
“I…know better…”
“Your brother is just as great as he always was, Heather. In fact, he’s even greater.”
“…even greater…?”
“You may have forgotten since you started high school, but when you saw that first aid kit, you had a realization—You admire and love your brother, Heather. Because you know he will always take care of you.”
“…I…admire and…love…”
“And if Eddie betrays you, you know that your brother will be the person you can turn to, Heather.”
“…turn to…”
“He’ll be the only person who’ll understand, who’ll support you. Because he’s been the person who’s always supported you, hasn’t he, Heather? That first aid kit is proof that he’s always supported you.”
“…first aid kit…is proof…”
Okay, it seemed to be working.
“The feelings that you have for Eddie…what will happen to them if he betrays you, Heather?”
“…they’ll…disappear…?”
“No, they won’t disappear, Heather.”
“…they…won’t disappear…”
“Instead, those feelings will be transferred to a person who deserves them. A person who would never betray you. And that person is your brother, Heather.”
“…that person is…my brother…”
One last thing.
“Heather, whenever you see this red ray gun I’m holding, you won’t give it a second thought.”
“…I won’t…give it a second thought…”
“It’s just something your brother owns. It’s not important, Heather.”
“…it’s…not important…”
I should do this with Mom too…just in case…
Enough hesitating. Enough being afraid. He could have lost control of the ray gun because he’d been so hesitant, so scared, to use it.
He left Heather as she was and headed back to the kitchen. His mother was so busy putting the casserole together she didn’t even notice him as he came in.
Tim pointed the gun and fired it at her back. He heard the now familiar crackling sound and felt the warm vibration run up through his arm.
His mother dropped the big spoon she’d been using, her entire body seeming to droop and lose control, like a marionette that’d just had its strings cut.
“Mom, can you hear me…?”
“…yes…”
“Turn around, Mom.”
His mother shuffled around until she was facing him.
“Whenever you see this ray gun that I’m holding, Mom, you won’t give it a second thought. It’s not important, Mom.”
“…it’s not…important…I…won’t give it…a second thought…”
He was about to tell her to get back to cooking, when he thought better of it.
Enough hesitating.
Seize what you want.
“Mom, you really enjoyed having sex with me last weekend.”
“I…really enjoyed…having sex with you…”
“You love having sex with me—it feels good, and you find me very attractive, Mom.”
“…I…find you…attractive…”
“You didn’t expect to…but after you had sex with me…you…you started developing feelings for me, Mom…”
Is this something I want to do?
This was so beyond my previous suggestions.
He looked at his mother’s tight body. Thought of her sleeping with his father. His jealousy flared.
No more hesitating.
“I started…developing feelings…”
“You’d always loved me before, but now your love for me isn’t just motherly. It’s…it’s sexual and romantic, Mom. Do you understand?”
“…I…I understand…”
He couldn’t believe this part was working. He was sure he would meet resistance. Did a subject’s resistance become lower the more the gun was used on them?
“You want to have sex with me again and again, as much as I want. Do you understand, Mom?”
“…I understand…”
“We’re going to do n-new and different…things…in the bedroom. Y-you’ll be okay with whatever I suggest, Mom.”
“I’ll…be…okay…”
He couldn’t help but lick his lips imagining the things he could do to her now. He felt drunk with power.
“After I release you, you’ll go back to making your casserole. You accidentally dropped your spoon. That’s all that happened. Is that understood, Mom?”
“…yes…”
“Turn around again.”
As soon as she’d turned back towards the casserole, Tim moved the dial to ‘RELEASE’ and pressed the button again. Then, as his mother knelt down to grab the spoon she was sure she’d dropped due to her own clumsiness, Tim stepped back out onto the living room.
“Heather, put the first aid kit back in the backpack where you found it.”
Heather clumsily moved to do so, crinkling some of his papers as she did. Tim winced slightly as she crushed some of his science homework.
“Now, I want you to head upstairs to take a shower…as you do so, I want you to keep in mind how much your brother loves you…the first aid kit you found confirms that…doesn’t it, Heather?”
“…Yes…it confirms it…”
“And as you head upstairs, I want you to have a realization about how much you love and trust your brother as well, just as I suggested to you. Is that understood?”
“…I…understand…”
“Good. Now, Heather, start walking up the stairs.”
Heather plodded up, slowly and awkwardly. When she was halfway up the stairs, Tim hit the button once more. Heather suddenly came back to life as she ran up the stairs.
This was a good start. And tomorrow, things would only get better.
The next day. Lunchtime.
Tim had arrived at the cafeteria early, ready for what he knew was going to be an exciting show, but by the time he’d gotten there, it had already started.
A crowd had gathered around the center of the spacious cafeteria, and he could hear students screaming at each other, girls asking themselves what was going on. Closer to the center, he could hear the same familiar chant kids used to shout out back in grade school.
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”
Tim pushed his way past the crowd towards the center. He didn’t want to miss this. He’d orchestrated it, and he wanted to make sure he saw it for himself.
“Excuse me, excuse me,” he said, as he squeezed in past a couple of seniors whose attentions were focused on what was going on in the center of the crowding mob.
Finally, he could see it, and it was even better than he could have hoped.
Chairs and food were strewn all over the floor. One of the cafeteria tables had been knocked on its side.
Standing opposite each other, glaring, were Samantha’s boyfriend, Doug, and Eddie. Eddie’s shirt was torn, and his hair was disheveled. Doug’s own shirt was covered in what looked to be a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, and a couple of soggy French fries stuck to his left sleeve. They’d apparently been going at it for at least a minute or so.
Suddenly, Doug raised his fists and ran towards Eddie, clearly intent on knocking him down. Eddie moved out of the way at the last second, and Doug ran into one of the tables, tripping over it. Once he was on the floor, Eddie jumped on top of him and began punching him on the side of the head.
Whoa, this was not how I was expecting the fight to go, Tim thought. He had been convinced that Doug would lay out Eddie on the floor in a couple of seconds. I guess Doug is a bit of a paper tiger.
“Why are they fighting?” Tim overheard a girl asking one of the seniors watching the fight.
“That dude was sending texts to Doug’s girlfriend trying to get her to go out with him—he even sent her some dick pics!” The senior replied.
Tim suppressed a smile, tried to look concerned for his ‘friend.’
Doug had covered his head with his arms, and Eddie had now grabbed his arms and was trying to pull them away. Doug took the chance to knee Eddie in the crotch, hard.
Eddie gave out a yelp and fell back, his hands instinctively going to guard his crotch. Doug used the opportunity to give him a swift, sharp blow to the face.
Blood began gushing from Eddie’s nose.
Then, just as Doug was going to move in on top of Eddie, a security guard, who had been working his way through the crowd, grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him away. Another security guard, accompanied by the school nurse, moved towards Eddie.
“You stay away from Samantha, you fuck!” the normally mild-mannered Doug screamed as he was pulled away.
“All right, all right, disperse, right now!” Mr. Humbert shouted as he also waded in to the fracas.
“Everyone back to their classrooms! This little show is over!” Ms. Davis had also suddenly appeared from nowhere and was directing the flow of students towards the cafeteria doors.
There was a lot of grumbling from the student body, but the crowd slowly began to scatter, with some students looking back to see the nurse treating Eddie and Doug being hauled off, no doubt being taken to the vice-principal’s office for disciplinary measures.
As Tim moved slowly towards the cafeteria exit nearest to his classroom, he caught sight of a familiar face. His sister, Heather, was walking out the opposite exit with her friends, looking shocked and pale, as though all the blood had drained from her face. Next to her was Samantha, angrily chattering away, no doubt telling her all the explicit details about the messages Eddie had been sending her from early that morning.
Tim resisted the temptation to run over to his sister in order to comfort her. He knew that, if the suggestions she’d implanted into her yesterday were taking effect, she’d soon realize there was only one guy in her life who loved her, who she could truly trust.
All he had to do was wait.
On the way home after school, Tim and Yang texted back and forth. Eddie hadn’t replied to any of their messages, his phone doubtlessly confiscated by the school or his parents.
- ‘Yang:
I heard they both got suspended…’
- ‘Tim:
Damn, that sucks.’
- ‘Yang:
What possessed Eddie to try that shit out??? Samantha Andrews is one of THE most popular girls in school, and Doug is one of THE most possessive motherfuckers ever’
- ‘Tim:
Maybe he just got desperate, decided to take a shot’
- ‘Yang:
I just don’t get it man’
The conversation continued going in circles as they both pondered (or in Tim’s case, pretended to ponder) why Eddie would have tried such a suicidal move. Of course, Tim knew why Eddie was suddenly head-over-heels for Samantha, and why he had genuinely believed sending her pics of his cock was a great idea, but he kept that to himself.
As he got home, he saw both cars missing from the driveway. Mom would be gone all afternoon for a yoga session—she’d been able to schedule one that morning, so that she could spend the weekend with Tim. It had been an unexpected decision, but one that was undoubtedly due to the suggestions Tim had given her the previous day.
As he entered the house, he saw his sister’s tennis shoes and track equipment on the floor next to the front entrance. She was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding out in her bedroom, going through the events of the day, rehashing Eddie’s unexpected betrayal in her mind.
But still…she skipped practice? She never does that.
Tim recalled the suggestions he’d given Heather the previous day. He knew that, if she was having a tough time, there was one person she would turn to, would rely on. Him. The brother who had taken care of her and protected her for as long as she could remember. She might have forgotten that for a little while, but he’d made sure that she would remember now.
He would go upstairs, comfort her. She would melt into his arms, sobbing and unloading her feelings on him. He would support her, the kind big brother. And then, all the feelings that she had for Eddie would be transferred to him. Heather would be confused at first, but Tim would help her deal with her confusion.
Of course, that was just the first step. Tim had more, much more, planned. And with Mom and Dad gone all day, he could move forward a bit further in his plans than he had thought.
He knew that what he was doing was wrong, deeply wrong. Not just immoral, but a betrayal of the trust his sister had for him, all the times in their childhood when he’d protected her and watched out for her.
But another part of him couldn’t help but picture that photo she had sent to Eddie. How amazing his sister’s sculpted, athletic body looked. And he knew that, if he didn’t take the right measures, eventually another guy would come along and take his sister away.
He could just picture some random douchebag sweeping his sister off her feet, just like Eddie had. He’d flirt with her, say all the right things, make her fall for him. She’d make out with him in the back of her car, probably have sex for the first time in some sleazy basement while the guy’s parents weren’t home.
No, Tim wouldn’t allow that to happen.
He suppressed his feelings of guilt.
I have to seize what I want. Be a shark.
With a new sense of determination, Tim grabbed the mind control gun from his bag, walked up the stairs, and knocked on his sister’s door.
Heather lay on her bed, crying into her pillow. She felt devastated, humiliated.
How could she have been so stupid?
It had happened at lunchtime. She’d been in the cafeteria, eating and gossiping with Jenny and Tricia when Samantha had stalked in, followed by Doug.
Samantha pointed her finger at someone, and Doug turned to her, asked her something in a sharp tone that Heather couldn’t make out. Something big was going down, she felt instinctively, but Heather didn’t know what it was, until Samantha shouted out, loud, so everyone could hear.
“That’s the perv, Doug! That’s the shithead who sent me pictures of his dick!”
Heather almost spit up her food when she saw the direction Samantha was pointing towards.
It was Eddie, calmly sitting at a table, eating some French fries.
But it couldn’t be.
Then Eddie stood up, holding his lunch tray, with a nasty grin on his face. Heather hadn’t even known he was capable of such an expression.
“You wanted it, babe. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”
If hearts could physically break, Heather’s would have shattered at that moment, hearing Eddie say that.
Without a word in reply, Doug lunged at him, and Eddie threw the tray at him, catching him off-balance.
Heather didn’t much remember what had happened after that, until Mr. Humbert and Ms. Davis had come in with security, broken up the fight. She remembered Eddie, with a bloody nose, being dragged away in one direction, and Doug being taken in another.
The rest of the school day passed by in a daze.
Tricia and Jenny couldn’t stop talking about it. What a nasty perv Eddie was. How he ever thought he could get away with doing something like that. And wasn’t Eddie a friend of her brother’s? Did Heather know him at all? Did she’d known he was capable of doing something like that?
Heather just shook her head, no.
No.
It was like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
Then Samantha got called into the principal’s office. Her phone was confiscated as evidence, because of the pictures Eddie had sent her.
All three of the people involved had their parents called in. Samantha was sent home for the day, and Doug and Eddie were suspended. Eddie might even be expelled, depending on how things went.
Heather couldn’t understand it, couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it. It was like the world didn’t make sense anymore, like it was a puzzle in which none of the pieces fit with each other.
And all the while, Jenny and Tricia just kept gossiping away, almost gleefully.
It wasn’t their fault, Heather knew. They hadn’t known about her and Eddie.
Did he plan it that way, she couldn’t help but wonder? Made sure they kept it a secret so he could fool around with other girls? Did he have more girls who thought they were exclusive items with him? What excuses had he used with them, to make sure they kept their relationships quiet?
Once they started, the doubts and questions flooded her brain. She couldn’t make them stop.
She’d begged off of practice, saying she wasn’t feeling well, and dashed home, slammed her bedroom door, and screamed into one of her cushions.
Heather powered off her phone to avoid the messages from friends that wouldn’t stop coming. She doubted Eddie still had access to his phone, but she didn’t want him borrowing someone else’s giving her cheap excuses.
She couldn’t trust him anymore. Couldn’t trust anyone.
Heather lay on her bed, sobbing. And then she heard a knock at the door.
Mom? Dad?
“Heather, I saw your track equipment downstairs—are you okay? Did you get injured or something?” a muffled voice said through the door.
Tim.
“None of your business, you…you…,” she shrieked, but the word ‘dork’ got stuck in her throat.
Heather rose from her bed, walked to the door, and opened it to see Tim standing before her.
Of course. How could she have been so stupid? She’d been so concerned with being cool, with being popular, that she’d been ignoring the only person in school who cared about her. Who really cared about her, as a person.
She looked up at his face, his eyes, so gentle. His face, so concerned. Why hadn’t she realized that? That he’d been worried about her for so long? The evidence had always been right in front of her. She’d seen it for herself yesterday. The first aid kit.
Without a word, Heather hugged her brother tightly, and buried her face in his shirt, crying.
After what seemed like a moment of hesitation, he hugged her back.