Note: We unfortunately had less time than usual to polish this chapter, but a deadline is a deadline. With Nano coming up though we made room to write as much as we possibly can, which will in turn give us more time to polish as well as we'd have a buffer at that point and can breathe easier.

---

 

It wasn't a far drive to Rigby's. Maybe ten minutes at the most. When we pulled in it was as beautiful as I remembered. Detailed carvings of wooden sculptures scattered the area around the shop. With a large 'Rigby's' sign above the small building. The one and only thing I would've changed was that it was really popular, so it got crowded a lot.

I undid my seat belt when we pulled into the parking lot and opened the door just as we stopped moving. 

Even just walking down the sidewalk gave me goosebumps. The outside of the shop was almost entirely teak wood which had a fucking perfect blend of light and dark to it that contrasted and just made everything pop and oh my god I loved this place.

When I got to the entrance, I stopped dead as always when I saw the big beautiful wooden doors that I've only seen here. So many little details carved into it, and it was even layered! It was one solid piece of wood, but there was a layer of carved designs on it, and then another layer under it! That was just so amazing and seemed like a nightmare to do.

As hard as this was to believe, that wasn't even the best part about this place. As Emma walked up, I pushed open the doors and saw the closest thing to heaven I could get. The tables and chairs and main desk and even the walls were works of art. I immediately walked up to one of the empty tables and just started admiring them. The table tops were made out of planks of wood that they burned and polished over with something, so it was super black, but still had a wood look to it! It was the best looking wood I've ever seen in my life. 

And the chairs! They were all handmade and looked like little polished thrones made out of wood. The back, seat and armrests were all were separate pieces, but they looked like one solid piece which I've tried before and holy hell was it difficult! And every single chair was like that!

I was kneeling down and staring at the chair as someone from the side said, "If I didn't know any better I'd swear that was Kendall checking out our chairs." I shot up and turned around to see Rigby.

"Hey Rigby," I said as I half looked at him and half looked at all the woodwork around him.

He was a pretty big guy. Kinda scruffy, but I knew he made a lot of this stuff. That alone made him a full blown super star in my eyes.

"It's good to see you again. It's been awhile. And same to you, Emma," he said as she walked up next to me. "Will it be the usual spot?"

Emma looked at me, "I'd be surprised if she didn't wanna sit there."

"Then right this way," he said as he led us to the corner table. I sat with my back to the wall so I could just look at everything all at once. And to make sure no one's behind me. Emma meanwhile sat next to me.

"Will it be the small pancakes again? We'll be more than happy to put them on for you."

As amazing as small pancakes were, I opened up the menu. "That and…" I trailed off as my eyes went down the menu. I wanted to try and find food we never had at home. That's when a name caught my eye."What's geeros?" I asked no one specifically.

"You mean gyros?" Emma chimed in.

"It's strips of lamb. It comes with some pita bread and fries as well."

"Would it be okay if I didn't have fries with it?" I asked.

"Of course. And what would you like for a drink?"

"Just water please."

"And you?" He looked at Emma.

"I can't say no to some ribs. Ribs and fries. I'll have water as well." 

"Alright. I'll get your orders in and if you need anything else, then just ask."

He walked off and left us alone. I still couldn't get this smile off my face from just being here. One of these days I was going to work up the nerve to ask Rigby if he could show me how to do some of this stuff, because it's far out of what I could do right now.

 

Ask after dinner.

No sense in waiting.

 

Even if I did ask I'd probably run away out of embarrassment before I actually asked.

 

"This is nice. It's been a long time since I've seen you this happy," Emma said as she put her elbows on the table.

I leaned back with my arms crossed.

 

---

Emma sitting next to me at this table and comforting me even if I was still mad at her.

---

 

I had a real smile going, but I still had to fight off emotions building up. "Yeah."

"Are you okay?" Emma asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah I'm fine." I quickly rubbed the edges of my eyes with one hand. "I know I don't say this a lot, but thank you."

"Of course. I enjoy spending time with you."

"I don't mean that. Without you I would-" I paused to work up the nerve to say it. "Without you he would still be at home…"

She sat up straight, "Oh, right. I know things are hard on you, but I want you to know that I'll be there for you as much as I can."

 

+++

Robbie's going to ruin everything between me and Emma.

+++

 

My smile slowly faded as I leaned against her.

She put her arm around my shoulder. "And you know what?" she asked.

"What?"

"I've seen you getting better lately. The Kendall I knew a year ago probably would never sat around all day like that just to talk to someone. And the Kendall I knew years ago probably would have put someone in the hospital if they could. That growth is something you should be proud of, because I sure am. And I may not know what it's like for you entirely, but if you keep at it like this then you're just going to keep getting better."

"Thanks…"

Almost every word of that was a stab in the heart because she's got it almost entirely backwards. All I did was get better at lying.

"Is something else bothering you?"

"Not really. I love it here, but it still brings back some memories. Just. I don't know. It wasn't like I didn't expect them to come up."

"Well no matter what happens. I'll keep doing my best to make it up to you. I know I didn't really make it easy on you growing up."

 

---

Slapping Emma's hand off of my shoulder. "I keep telling you to stop fucking touching me!" 

---

 

"Stop," I said as I rubbed my forehead. "I don't want you to feel like you owe me or anything. You didn't even know what was going on."

She just nodded with a small, polite smile.

 

I knew it.

She's just helping us because she feels guilty.

 

Do you seriously have to do that right now?

 

Sorry.

I just felt I had to say it or something bad would happen.

So I said it on impulse.

You do know I'm right though.

That look says it all.

 

And I don't need someone pointing it out…

 

Well I don't know if I can help it.

I'm sorry.

 

Whatever.

 

I sat there while Emma's shoulders slumped. Her gaze drifted between me and off into the distance.

"Thinking that you're just staying around because you're guilty just makes me feel like crap. If you're gonna stick around then I want it to be because you want to. Not because you feel you have to."
"I'm staying because I want to. I told you before. It's just hard." She rubbed her entire face up and down. "I keep thinking about every little thing I did, and everything I still do and I have no idea if I'm messing everything up or not." Her hands clenched up into fists as she dug her head into hands. "What's worse is I thought he was the best-" She stopped herself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't bring this up here."

Esmer leaned down next to me.

 

Tell her to continue.

She doesn't talk a lot about this stuff.

I think she needs to get it off her chest.

 

"Don't stop," I said, "You spend all that time helping me. Well now I wanna help you."

She took her head out of her arms and looked at me. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I can handle it right now if it means helping you."

She paused for a moment before leaning back and staring forward.

"I used to think he was a great dad."

That alone made my heart want to jump out of my chest and smack her.

"You remember how he and I always used to do stuff?"

I nodded.

"The movies, out for runs together, swimming. I just-" she paused and rubbed her eyes. "He never did anything like that to me, but I just... I'm sorry. Forget I said anything. It's stupid. You've gone through a lot worse and I should just keep my mouth shut about it." She took her water and chugged the rest of it down.  

Esmer and I both stared at her.

 

No way. He did not fucking do what I think he did.

 

Even if he never went as far as he did with us.

This is making me sick.

 

"What did he do to you?" Even just asking that made my body shiver.

 When she finished her water she put the glass down hard and held up her hand to get Rigby's attention. He came over. "Can I have more water?"

"Certainly" he took her glass away and she planted her elbows back on the table.

"When we were doing stuff together," she said as her entire body tensed up. "He'd sometimes just. Sometimes he'd. Sometimes when we were spending time together he'd put his hands on me. I just thought it was normal dad stuff. My shoulder, my back. But sometimes...I thought they were just mistakes..."

My heart pounded away as a scary amount of anger bubbled inside. Esmer leaned on the table and stared at Emma. Even Esmer shook. her voice was low and made me think she was gonna snap.

 

If I ever see our father again.

I think I'll bust his kneecaps with a bat.

Then when he's lying there.

I'll grind his face off with the fucking floor.

 

And I'd let you.

 

"Then when I. When I caught him. After everything that happened. It hit me what he was doing."

She turned her head away, but I still saw the tears in her eyes.

Esmer walked around behind Emma and wrapped her arms around her.

 

You never should have had to deal with him.

I wish I could help you like I help Kendall.

I'm sorry...

 

I turned to the side and leaned forward to give Emma the biggest goddamn hug of my life. "You never should have had to deal with him. You're the absolute best sister I could have ever asked for."

Rigby came by with our food and Emma's water. "And here you are, if you need anything-" he stopped when he saw Emma. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Emma said as she wiped her tears and held onto my arm to return the hug the best she could, "Just old memories."

"I'll leave you to it then. If you need anything else, then let me know."

 He walked off as I stared at the mountain of tiny pancakes.

This gave me the best idea.

I let Emma go, grabbed one tiny pancake and held it in both hands towards Emma. 

"As the grand prize for being the best sister on earth. I present to you. One whole tiny pancake." I held it up to her and lowered my head a little.

A smile tried to get through on her, and it eventually did! She even started laughing a little! "You're giving me one of your pancakes? I never thought hell would freeze over." She picked it up and plopped it in her mouth.

"I can't promise I can help whenever. But if I get some kind of warning before so I can prepare. I'll try to be there for you like you are for me."

"That really does mean a lot. Let's eat now though. I'm still really hungry and I don't want our food getting cold." 

"Sounds good to me," I said as I admired the big pile of tiny pancakes and gyros with some weird flat bread. I picked up one of the long strips of meat.

I knew what must be done.

I put my head back, opened my mouth and chomped down on it as I lowered it into my mouth.

Already much better than a lot of food just because I could do that. Also tasted pretty good too. Almost crispy. We all knew what the real star of the show was though.

I alternated between popping pancakes and feasting on the strips of meat.  

Emma though? Emma was far more messy than me. I usually liked to pick at my food, but she just dug in and ate like a monster. Even more so than how I ate this morning.

"Do you always eat like that when you go out?" I asked. I wasn't disgusted by it. I was more impressed than anything.

"Yeah. I don't eat like this at home because Mom would complain, but I really like just digging in like this." She gave a quick shrug. "Just feels more natural to me."

I looked at her.

Then to my pancakes.

 

Do I dare?

 

One time just to say you did it.

More than that and you're just going to ruin dinner for yourself.

 

With Esmer's okay, I grabbed a handful of pancakes and stuffed them in my mouth.

Emma saw this as she was eating and started coughing. She quickly grabbed water and chugged it down while she kept laughing.

"That was the first time I ever saw you eat like that," she said as I stared at her and tried to chew it all.

It took at least ten or twenty seconds to swallow it all. "Being hungry makes it a lot easier."

"See? That's what I mean with you getting better. Years ago even if you were really hungry before. You'd barely touch your food sometimes."

 

---

Starving myself even as my stomach rumbled.

---

 

"I guess," I said with a shrug.

The rest of dinner went by without much else. It was just so damn nice to be able to spend this down time with Emma after all the shit I've been going through all week. Even if I did learn about what happened with her…

Even so, it wasn't long before we finished eating and pushed our plates away.

"Best ribs ever."

I stretched out and yawned. "And the yee- gyros thing was really good, too."

"You ready to go?" Emma asked.

"Yup."

Emma called over Rigby and got the check from him. I was basically checked out for the night though.

We got up and lazily left the restaurant. I could eat here every day for the rest of my life and never get bored of it. We climbed in the car and drove home. Not much happened after that, but when we walked in through the front door, Mom was sitting on the couch.

"Welcome home. Did you guys have fun?"

"Yes Ma'am," I said and went into my room to collapse onto my bed. 

 

Tomorrow I could deal with that Malisa person.

 

If our body will let us.

 

If she's just every other person in school and doesn't work out, then I could probably deal with her even with my sore body.

 

That depends. 

You need to rest.

Go to sleep.

 

Alright. Good night, Esmer. And it's really great to have you back again.

 

It's good to be back.

Good night.

 

---

Sitting on the couch with a blank stare.

...

Sound of poker chips and laughing.

...

Being pulled off the couch.

---

 

My eyes shot open as I laid there in a cold sweat.

 

 

He’s locked away and he’s not coming out. He’s gonna rot in there. He’s gonna rot in there.

 

Esmer knelt down next to me.

 

It's alright.

You're safe here.

 

I know. Can't anima change dreams? Or just make me not dream? It said you were these super awesome things with a ton of control.

 

I don't know.

I haven't tried that.

I can try tomorrow night.

 

Thanks.

 

I rolled over about fifty times before I finally got up. I was still sore as hell, but I could at least get up on my own now without falling out of bed.

The morning was the same as always. Eat, work until light, breakfast then bus to school.

Once I got to school though I had my eyes open for that red headed girl. She did say really red, so maybe it was dyed? I guess I should've asked that.

It wasn't even first period, and who do I see but Holly being guided into the bathroom by a person with red hair and a couple other people. 

 

Remember. 

Don't get into a fight.

You won't win and we'll get in trouble.

 

Yeah yeah. I gotcha.

 

I followed them into the bathroom where they pushed her into a corner. The three of them looked at me with Malisa in the middle when I walked in, but quickly went back to talking to Holly.

 

You likely have a reputation as a brutish delinquent.

Use it.

 

Sounds good.

 

I walked up to the group and cracked my knuckles as I put on my biggest 'you're fucked' face right towards Malisa. They all turned around and looked up at me. The two other girls looked terrified, but Malisa stared right at me.

"What do you want?" She asked.

I grabbed her collar to push her against the wall. "I already put one person in the hospital. Unless you wanna join him, then leave Holly alone."

Her face went red as she tried to push me away, but she was a lot weaker than Sophie. "Get the fuck away from me."

"Malisa," one of the others whispered to her, "Let's just go."

"If you want me to leave you alone then you're going to stop bullying Holly."

"Why the fuck do you care? Are you a freak like her?"

Esmer walked up and got close to her face. Like, really uncomfortably close.

 

What are you doing?

 

I wanted to get a closer look.

Something about her is worrying, but I don't know what yet.

 

Seriously?

 

"What, are you too stupid to talk?" she asked.

I pulled up on her collar, "The only freak I see is the one right in front of me."

"Shut up!" She shouted out of nowhere and dug her nails into my hands, but I took a deep breath and looked her dead in the eyes without reacting. It hurt like hell, but it'd probably scare the crap out of her that it wasn't working. 

"You think that hurts? That's nothing. Now apologize to Holly and leave her alone, before I get tired of holding back on you."

She stopped trying to claw me and that absolute hate in her eyes was something else. I smiled at her partly to scare her, and partly because god this still felt amazing! And it was even for a good cause for once. I got closer to her, but she managed to push me back some.

"I said get the fuck away from me you freak."

"Then stop bullying Holly."

She was getting red with anger and I drank it all up.

"Fine just get away from me already."

I let her go and she slid away from me and out the door with her two sidekicks.

With them gone, I looked at Holly. "See? Now you won't have to deal with them." She eyed me as she took out her phone and started typing something in. We stood there without another word as she typed on her phone. "Sooo who you talking to?"

She put her phone away and stared at me.

And stared.

And kept staring.

Even for me this was getting uncomfortable.

"So are we good with each other? I did just deal with your bullies."

"I didn't think you were actually going to do anything."

"Well I did," I said as I took a step towards her and she took a step back into the corner. "Seriously? What's it going to take to get you to stop being so damn afraid of me? I don't want to hurt you and I think I did a pretty amazing job of showing that so far."

She slid to the side and kept her distance from me. I looked at her as she sidestepped around me and rushed out of the bathroom. I threw up my hands as Esmer and I stared at the door.

 

Wow. So just. Fucking wow. At least I could've gotten a thanks for that.

 

It might not have to do with you.

She might just be that shy.

 

Well whatever it is I really hope all that work wasn't for nothing.

 

We'll just have to wait and see.

You can talk to them during lunch.

With that done though, did you recognize Malisa?

 

Am I supposed to? I mean I barely remembered Sophie's name until everything happened.

 

We have gym with her.

She's the one that also refuses to get changed.

 

Oh. Alright. So?

 

You seriously need to pay more attention to people.

 

I pay plenty of attention to people. I just know that she wasn't a threat, and I just proved that.

 

You say as Sophie, a girl the same height as her, sent you to the hospital.

 

Well Sophie's different and you know that.

 

Be that as it is.

Her refusing to get changed during gym.

Her bullying someone.

She even has dyed hair.

Remind you of someone?

 

Yeah, I know. Those are pretty big fucking signs that something nasty is happening. Except the dyed hair part.

 

What's more is that she always wears long sleeves.

 

You're really making me start to feel bad about treating her that way now.

 

I'm not meaning to, but it's something I noticed.

We may have made a mistake after thinking this through more.

 

Bullshit I made a mistake. That went perfectly.

 

I doubt it.

Would you have stopped bullying Robbie if someone threatened to beat you up?

No, because Sophie used to do that all the time.

Look how well that turned out.

 

...Fuck.

 

Let's talk to her during Gym.

You might be able to find out why she's bullying Holly and get her to stop.

 

It's not like I have much of a choice. Alright then.

---

 

Note: Thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts on the chapter, then feel free to leave a comment!