Shut Your Eyes

Kris POV

New Year’s Eve is not a good night to lose your keys. It also isn’t good to lose your keys in dark, crowded club full of sketchy people who would sell your shit on eBay as soon as look at you. So naturally when Jordan told Sidney, Geno, and I that he’d lost his keys, we offered to help. What I didn’t expect, though, was to be wandering around the club for thirty minutes bumping into people and having strangers touch my hair.

“Damn it, Staalsy! Where were you when you last saw them?” I asked in frustration. He thought for a second before pointing over to the bar.

“Getting a drink.” Sidney and I turned to go in that direction before Jordan opened his mouth again.

“Wait…maybe it was when I was over there with that hot chick.” He pointed to the hallway where the bathrooms were. Then he looked in a completely different direction and narrowed his eyes. “Or maybe,”

“Jordan, I’m gonna kill you.” I interrupted his disastrous train of thought.

Sid decided to offer up a mature opinion before anyone got hurt. “Why don’t we just split up, there’s four of us – that’s plenty of people to find a set of keys.”

“Who goes where?” Geno asked quickly, already intrigued by the idea of not having to be with Jordan for another second.

Sid pursed his huge lips and looked around. “Jordan can go wander since he keeps coming up with new places to look, and then the three of us can split into two groups to go to the bar and the bathroom.”

“Sid should go to the bar. The bartender wants to bang him, she’ll help.” Jordan offered up, trying to be helpful.

“She does not!” Sid countered, raising a confused eyebrow. I cringed a little bit. She kinda did, you could tell.

“It might help…” I suggested innocently. He stared at us in shock for a second before rolling his eyes and turning in the direction of the bar.

“I’ll be back in a minute. You two can go be the weird guys in the bathroom together.” He gave us a snarky grin before heading off to the bar. Geno motioned to the bathroom hall.

“After you.”

Sid POV

I felt like a man walking to his own execution as I approached the attractive brunette behind the bar. She’d spotted me from a good twenty feet away, and was making herself busy by the empty spot of bar that I’d be forced into standing by. The bartender was nice enough, sweet even, and in another time I would have played along and taken her home. Tonight was different though. I had another brunette on my mind – the type you didn’t just bring home for the night.

I let out a sigh and sidled up to the bar, giving the bartender a small smile. She instantly cozied up to the counter and grinned back. “What can I get for you?”

Her voice was syrupy sweet, and it poured out of her mouth in a Southern drawl. I smiled at her, not wanting to seem rude, and leaned in a bit so she could hear me over the deafening club music. “My friend lost his keys. Has anyone dropped a set off?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head ‘no’, giving me an apologetic look. “Sorry, no one’s dropped a set of keys off. Lemme go ask the other bartender real quick.”

She wandered off down towards the other end of the bar and whispered in the ear of a tall skinny redhead before turning back to me and shaking her head sadly. I felt someone brush up against my side. Looking over, I smirked when I saw Marc-André standing next to me, a worn out expression on his face.

“Vero dragging you all over the dance floor?”

He widened his eyes dramatically for effect and stared at me with a blank expression. “You have no idea. She loves this holiday for some reason, and I can never get out of it.”

“For the rest of your life.” I reminded him with a chuckle, unable to hold the laughter in.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Yeah, you go ahead and laugh lover-boy. Speaking of, where’s your lady-friend?”

That was a good question.

“I’m not sure, she disappeared with Vero for a while and I haven’t seen her since. I guess I should go find her though.”

Marc gave me a sly smile. “And why is it so important that you go find her right this second? Can’t it wait until after midnight?”

He knew exactly what I was getting at, and the shit eating grin on his face just grew wider with every passing second. “No, Marc, it can’t wait until after midnight. Now go find Vero before she comes and finds you herself.”

Marc just stared at me for a second before shaking his head in amusement. “You’re finally gonna do it, huh?”

I waved down the bartender and ordered a shot, which I quickly downed with a wince once she set it in front of me. “That’s the plan.”

Kris POV

When I was ten, my neighbor Emile and I found a bird with a broken wing in his attic. We’d been looking through boxes for his father’s old hockey gear when Emile spotted a small brown bird hiding in the corner behind a pile of forgotten cardboard. When he’d tried to grab it, it just tensed up and pushed itself back further into the attic, dragging its broken wing along beside it as it whimpered, if that’s what birds do, in pain.

Once we finally cornered it, Emile picked it up and held it next to him carefully as he tried not to squish it. It kept looking up at us with black marble eyes, the entire time keeping every sound to itself. Every so often it would look back down towards the floor in hopes that we’d let it go back in its corner. I’d never seen something look so helpless – so scared.

As I cradled Maggie under my arm and moved her quickly towards the exit of the club, all I could see was the bird with the broken wing. She’d looked so frightened clinging onto Geno like he was the only thing keeping her upright. I had expected her to be crying uncontrollably, with sobs flying out of her throat and tears pouring out of her eyes, but she simply stood and watched with glassy blue eyes as I pummeled the asshole responsible, holding onto the back of Geno’s shirt the whole time.

She was attached to my side and walked along with me like a zombie, with a blank expression on her face and silence from her throat. I started to wonder if she’d gone into shock. I’m no doctor, but no one could have blamed her if she had. Suddenly I felt a light tug on my shirt. I looked down and Maggie was staring absentmindedly into the distance, a somber look on her face. “Please don’t tell Max.”

I shook my head and kept walking her towards the door. “Margaux, I can’t take you to the hospital and not tell your brother.”

She stopped dead in her tracks, causing Geno to bump into us from behind. She stared up at me with pleading eyes. “Please, Kris? He’s having a good time tonight; I don’t want to ruin it for him. Just let him find out tomorrow morning when he gets home.”

I sighed before handing my keys, valet ticket, and Maggie to Geno. “I need to tell someone that we’re leaving so they don’t think we’ve been kidnapped. Geno take Maggie and go get the car. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Geno whisked Maggie away through the exit as I turned around and pushed my way through the crowd to find Marc. It didn’t take me long to find him; he, Vero, and Sid were sitting in the private room that we’d all reserved, laughing about something. I rushed up and pulled Vero aside, not bothering to give a greeting or ask Vero for permission to manhandle her.

“What on earth had gotten into you?” She asked in confusion.

I ignored her question and nervously combed a hand through my hair. “Is Max still here?”

Her confusion only grew. “What?”

“Is Max still here?” I asked again, this time more forcefully than I should have.

“You want to lose the attitude?” Her eyes widened in shock that I’d used such a harsh tone with her. Marc and Sid made their way over, drawn in by our quickly escalating voices.

“What’s the problem?” Marc asked calmly, as even-keeled as always. Sid had that concerned look about him, where he silently furrowed his eyebrows and waited for someone to offer up information.

A huff made its way out of my mouth as I motioned them into a tighter huddle. “Listen, not a word of what I’m about to say makes it to Max, understood?”

The three of them nodded in agreement so I continued quickly, anxious to get back downstairs. “I have to take Maggie to the ER,”

“What?” Sid yelled; brown eyes wide with shock. Marc shushed him and yanked him back down into the huddle, knowing that I wasn’t finished yet.

“Some guy grabbed her in the hallway by the bathrooms.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sid getting angry. Usually, he was a pretty happy guy. Serious, but happy. Now the dark look that clouded his features resembled something close to fury and I knew it was only gonna get worse. “I think she might have hurt her wrist, but I’m not sure so Geno and I are going to take her in to get it looked at.”

“I’m coming too.” Sid deadpanned.

I winced before telling him, “No, you’re not. None of you are.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but I quickly turned in his direction and pointed forcefully with my hand. “Listen Sid, I know you want to protect her or whatever, but she already said she didn’t want people to know, especially Max. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you about this. Geno and I saw it, so Geno and I will take her – end of story.”

I then turned to Vero and sighed. “Do you know where her coat is?”

“She checked it.” Vero stated softly before digging into one of the purses that was sitting on the table and handing me a small slip of paper. “You won’t be able to get it without the ticket though.”

I thanked her quietly. Vero had a faraway look on her face, and I could tell she was worried about Maggie. Marc looked almost as angry as Sidney, his lips pressed into a tight line. “What about the asshole that grabbed her?” He asked bitterly.

“It’s been taken care of.” I cryptically replied, giving Marc and Sidney a loaded look. They understood immediately and glanced at each other before nodding.

“Have Margaux call me when she gets home.” Vero reminded me before I walked back downstairs. I nodded and gave her a goodbye kiss on the cheek.

“I will.”

The ride to the hospital was a quiet one. Geno had climbed into the backseat with Maggie and was keeping a watchful eye on her. I kept glancing back at her in the rearview mirror and expected to see her sobbing uncontrollably, but she never was. She sat there silently and stared out of the window, lifting a finger to her eye every so often to wipe away a stray tear.

I was starting to get confused. Most girls would be furious or terrified. They’d pick an extreme of the emotional spectrum and fly with it, but not Maggie. She almost looked used to it, like getting thrown against walls was a daily occurrence. Geno and I didn’t say anything to her; she’d make it quite clear that she didn’t want to talk about it. She’d shied away from his touch when Geno tried to wrap a protective arm around her shoulders, and answered any questions we’d asked with quiet one-worded answers.

We arrived at the ER as a snow flurry started. Geno and I pulled our beanies on over our heads in a poor attempt to keep from being recognized. We walked alongside Maggie, flanking her on the left and right as she headed for the ER entrance. She had her coat slung haphazardly around her small frame and her arms were wrapped around her middle instead of being strung through the sleeves.

When we entered the ER, the bright lights stung my eyes. I glanced around for a moment, not entirely sure how ER’s in the US worked – I’d never had to go to one. Looking down at Maggie, I noticed that she was staring into the large waiting room and biting her lip like she always seemed to do when she was nervous. “I don’t think I need to be here.”

Then she turned and started headed back towards the exit. Geno quickly stepped in front of her path and turned her gently back towards me, nudging her along with his hands. Out of nowhere, a short nurse in a set of black scrubs popped into the reception booth, clipboard in hand.

“Can I help you folks?” She asked impatiently, clearly put off that we were just standing around in the foyer without visible blood.

I pointed down at Maggie and started bringing her up to the desk with Geno’s help. “She needs to get her wrist looked at, we think it might be broken.”

The nurse pulled a clipboard out from behind the barrier and set it on top of the hard countertop. “Fill this out and bring it back, someone will be with you in a little while.”

I grabbed the clipboard and ushered Maggie towards the waiting room, which was surprisingly empty for New Year’s Eve. Handing her the clipboard with a sigh, I took another look at her wrist to see if it was any different than earlier. The swelling had gone up a little, and bruises were forming from his fingerprints, but it didn’t look too bad. She likely hadn’t broken it, but it was better to be sure.

She filled out the forms quickly; her neat handwriting soon filled up the pages with all of her information. Geno carried it back up to the desk for her before coming back and sitting on the opposite side of her.

The time ticked by slowly. We watched a guy come in with a knife stuck in his shoulder, a kid that had gotten hit in the head when a bottle rocket exploded, and numerous other colorful personalities that wandered in through the glass doors.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a young looking nurse walk up to the clipboard bin and pull Maggie’s off of the stack. She stared at it for a second before glancing over to the waiting room and looking at the small girl beside me. Without a sound, she quickly walked off with the clipboard only to come back a moment later with another nurse in tow, this time a tall woman with short brown hair.

They both looked at Maggie as they talked quietly, before the first nurse walked away and left the tall nurse standing where she was, Maggie’s clipboard in hand and a folder under her arm. Maggie was oblivious to the strange look she was getting from the woman, and didn’t even notice her presence until she heard her name being called.

“Maggie?” Geno furrowed his eyebrows at the same moment I did. Since when was hospital staff on a nickname basis with patients? She hadn’t written ‘Maggie’ down on the chart, and it wasn’t like she had a nametag on.

Maggie paled and looked up quickly before muttering a very dirty word under her breath. I leaned over and whispered in Maggie’s ear, “Do you want us to come with you?”

Her blue eyes flickered over to mine and she took her bottom lip into her mouth again to start nibbling on it. She looked pensive, glancing back and forth between my eyes and the floor before nodding and standing up. Geno and I followed behind her like puppies as Maggie shuffled over to the nurse in her glittery stilettos.

“What happened this time?” The nurse asked quietly, trying to shield her voice from Geno and I. I shot Geno a look. This time?

“I think I hurt my wrist.”

The nurse gently lifted Maggie’s arm to look at it, eyebrows furrowing when she noticed the fingerprints littered on her pale skin. Dropping Maggie’s arm, she scribbled something down on the chart before getting the attention of another nurse. “Sara’s gonna take you to get your films done, then we’ll know for sure what we’re dealing with.”

Another woman showed up out of nowhere and ushered Maggie off through a hallway towards the x-ray room. Geno and I went to follow her, but were cut off by the nurse with the short brown hair.

“We can’t go with her?” Geno asked, confusion clear in his voice. The nurse gave him a sympathetic smile before shaking her head.

“You can see her in a second; I just need to ask you guys a couple of questions.”

“Okay...” I answered slowly, unsure about where she was going with this.

“How’d she get those fingerprints on her wrist?”

“Some guy at the bar grabbed her.” The nurse narrowed her eyes and looked down at the patient file in her hands.

“Did she say anything else?”

I was starting to get frustrated, and being interrogated by this nurse wasn’t helping. “She didn’t have to say anything, we saw it happen.”

The nurse looked surprised. “So you saw him?”

“Yes.” She put the clipboard down on the counter for a minute.

“What did he look like? Was he blonde? Green eyes, short hair?”

“Are you going to tell us why we’re getting interviewed, or?” She huffed and looked back at the x-ray room.

“I don’t mean to seem intrusive, it’s just,” She paused, trying to find the right words to say. “It’s just that I’ve known Maggie for years.”

Well that made sense. “Did you two go to university together?”

“What? Oh, no. I just know her from here.” I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“What are you talking about?”

The nurse stared at me like I was fucking with her. Like I should already know what she was talking about. Shaking her head, she pulled out the patient file and scanned it over real quick before sighing and beginning to explain herself. “Maggie’s got a history with these sorts of ‘accidents.’ She started coming in a few years ago with a lot of bumps and bruises. A broken rib here, split lip there, that kind of stuff. She always had a reason too, like she tripped down the steps, or ran into a door.”

In the back of my mind, I remembered Maggie explaining her split lip when she first met us with a quick wave of the hand and: “I just ran into the door, no big deal.”

The nurse dropped her voice to a whisper. “She came in thirty-one times last year, or I guess now it’s the year before last. Sometimes she was alone, but usually this guy came in with her – did all the talking, wouldn’t let her say a word, that sort of thing.”

“Do you think?” I started, suddenly feeling nauseas. Puzzle pieces were clicking into place, but the picture I was starting to see was not a good one. The nurse nodded sadly.

“That’s why I asked what the guy looked like. Anytime she came in alone, I tried to get her to press charges or, or talk to someone – get some help. She never would though. But if you guys saw him do it, then you can turn him in yourselves. There would finally be witnesses.”

I was speechless. I didn’t even know Maggie had a boyfriend, much less one that did that on a regular basis. Geno and I stood motionless, staring at the nurse in front of us. After a minute or two of standing there I finally remembered to mutter, “It wasn’t him, the guy in the hallway.”

Her face fell slightly. “Oh ok. Well if anything else happens, please give this to her. She might listen to you.”

She pulled a crisp white business card out from the patient file and handed it to me.

Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

(412) 687-8005

I nodded numbly and pocketed the card. Glancing over at Geno, I saw him staring at one point on the counter – eyes glazed over in thought. His foot tapped nervously against the tile floor.

tap tap – tap tap – tap tap – tap tap

“Haley?” She spun around and looked at the blonde nurse from before poking her head out of an exam room.

“Her films are ready.” We followed the nurse, who we now knew was named Haley, back into the exam room where Maggie was.

She was carefully perched on the exam table and for the first time I took in her appearance. Curly hair fell out of the carefully pieced together up-do she’d had earlier. A tiny bit of her eyeliner was smudged, and her lipstick had worn off. There was a nasty bruise forming on the side of her face, probably from where that asshole had smashed her up against the wall. Maggie stared fixedly on a loose thread on her coat, picking at the black string with glossy polished nails that matched Vero’s.

I hesitated to go inside, choosing instead to stand at the door and stare in at Maggie. Somehow I knew that if I went inside, it would become real. I’d see those bruises on her wrist and then I’d start imagining the bruises that I’d never see. The broken bones, the hidden scars. And then I got angry. I thought I was mad when I saw her in the hallway earlier, but that was nothing compared to the feeling building in the pit of my stomach now.

In the background I could hear the nurse murmuring to Maggie about her wrist, explaining the x-ray. She hadn’t broken it, only sprained it – but she would need to ice it and wear a splint for a while. Haley wrapped Maggie’s wrist in an ACE bandage and gave her a prescription for a mild painkiller before she ushered us back out into the main area to check her out.

“Keep ice on it tonight, and take some Tylenol to help the swelling go down. If you have any more problems with it, just call me. You have my number.” Maggie nodded and thanked her quietly and looked up at Geno and I.

“Let’s go.” I nodded and the three of us walked out into the snow, Maggie’s heels clicking carefully against the slick pavement as she tried not to slip. Geno opened the door for her once we got to the car, and helped her up into my huge SUV.

I turned on the car, but left it in park and stayed in the lot while I tried to make sense of it all. The way I saw it, I had two options. I could put the car in drive, leave the hospital, and drop Maggie off at her house without letting her know that Geno and I knew, or I could take the plunge. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the business card that the nurse had given me and ran my fingers over the edges. Turning around in my seat, I showed her the card. Her eyes widen when she read it, staring back at me nervously.

“Do you want to explain, or do I need to talk to Max?” She floundered, mouth open to answer but unable to form words. Finally she sighed and brushed a piece of hair out of her tear-glazed eyes. Maggie’s voice cracked as she said the only sentence she could get through before starting to cry like I’d been expecting her to all night.

“He wouldn’t stop.”

It was the only piece of information she offered up, and the only one we needed to hear. When we dropped her off, Geno offered to stay the night but she declined in her usual manner: quietly and politely. I made her promise to call me if she needed anything, and Geno warned her that he’d drop by in the morning to check in on her.

And just as quickly as she’d broken down, Geno and I watched as Maggie put herself back together, wiped her tears and shut herself safely inside Max’s condo without another word.