Turn The Other Way

“I know,” Laura replied nonchalant as she stirred something on the stove.

‘Legs! Start running!’ the General Head thing started up again. I sighed quietly to myself and hit the side of my head. ‘Legs! Go! Now! There are strangers in the house and Laura knows about it! She’s trying to KILL YOU! Now GO!!’ Eli looked at me oddly but I ignored him.

“Dude, Laura, someone’s up there!”

“Yeah?” she asked, not turning to me. I looked at Eli, my eyes wide; silently asking him what was going on.

“Is Emma up there?” I asked.

“Yeah. She’s with Derek.” I calmed down slightly. So it was Derek the whole time. I thought he was in the living room. Fucker. I started to walk up the stairs. I was curious to see what he was saying ‘shit’ about anyway.

“Derek?” I asked at the top of the stairs.

I heard shushing sounds, probably Derek telling Emma to be quiet.

“Derek? Where are you? Is everything okay?” I asked.

‘Run! I command you!’

“Shut the fuck up,” I mumbled to myself. Derek suddenly appeared in front of me, his glasses askew. He looked like he was just pushed outside his bedroom door, but tried to make up for it.

“Hey… Lynn… what’s up?” he asked nervously as he fixed his glasses.

“Uhm…” I paused. “Is everything okay?”

He chuckled nervously. Why was he so nervous? “Yeah. Everything is fine. Are you here to help Laura?”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes,” I huffed. “She, quote, ‘wants me to help her taste the food.’ I don’t understand why she needs me to do it if your co-workers are coming over. By the way, why are they?”

“Um… Chuck is retiring…” he said slowly. “I offered to throw him a little dinner party in farewell.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Whatever.” I turned and went downstairs, seeing Laura was putting something in the oven and Eli was licking a mixing bowl. “What’s in there?” I asked.

“Cake batter!” Eli answered. I laughed and helped myself to some.

“Yum,” I said, wiping my finger on a paper towel.

“Was everything okay?” Laura asked.

“Yeah… Derek acted real nervous though, like he didn’t want me to find something out.”

“Really?” Laura said, her attention on me.

“Maybe he’s cheating on you,” Eli mumbled out amused.

I slapped the back of his head. “Don’t ever say something like that!” I barked. “That’s horrible!”

Eli’s eyes were wide. “I’m… sorry…”
 

“Better be.” I sighed. “What are you doing here anyway?”

‘Woah… that came out a little mean. Stop being do mean, mouth!’

“Helping Laura!” he said quickly, defensively.

“By licking her unused cake batter?” I asked with a laugh, sitting down across from him.

“Yup,” he said with a nod. “Tastes great, Laura.”

Laura laughed and sat in a chair beside me. “Thanks, Eli.”

“When are those co-workers to be here?” I asked.

“Soon,” was her reply. I nodded and sat back, trying to make myself comfortable.

“What am I going to taste?” I asked, closing my eyes.

“Me,” Eli replied. My eyes shot open to the man who was smirking.

“Shut it!” I yelled. “Stop being like that!”

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“I’m not in the mood to joke around right now,” I said. “I don’t feel good.”

“Do you think it’s a reaction to those pain pills? On the bottle they said they could cause nausea,” Laura told me.

I breathed deeply. “Could be.”

Laura put a hand to my forehead, and then to my cheeks like a mother. I missed mine… “You don’t have a fever or anything.”

“That’s good,” I told her.

I closed my eyes back. “Do you want to go lay down?” she asked. I looked at her and smiled.

“Yeah. That’s what I was trying to do before you ambushed me,” I told her. She laughed.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t help,” I said, standing up.

She smiled. “It’s no biggie. I’ll boss Eli around more.”

“Hey!” he said, although this protest fell on deaf ears.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”

“Kay. Rest up good.” I nodded and walked out of her house and next door to my own. I locked the doors behind me as a precautionary against Eli, and trudged up to my room. Once I hit my bed, I was out like a light.

Unfortunately, I am a very light sleeper.

The very touch of a person moving my hair out from my face woke me. Taking it as Laura making sure I was okay, I didn’t move. I just tried to go back to sleep. But now that I was already awake, it would be too hard. Thanks to Laura.

Suddenly the strong scent of familiar cologne came into the room.

“Is she okay?” I heard.

“She’s fine,” the person, definitely not Laura, said from beside me.

“Laura said she felt nauseous,” voice number one said, sitting at the end of my feet.

The second voice laughed. “Matt, she’s fine. Laura said a side effect of her pain medicine is nausea.”

“Shut up…” I whined and grumbled at the same time, turning over. The two voices laughed.

“Did you wake her up, Michelle?”

“I wasn’t the one who talked dipshit!” Michelle said hushed.

Wait a minute…

My eyes popped open and I quickly sat up, almost too quickly.

“Fuck,” I gasped, holding onto my stomach. I ripped the stitches a little.

“Are you okay!?” Michelle asked quickly. She and Matt both stood over me. I said nothing, only hugged them as best as I could.

“I missed you guys! What are you doing here?!” I asked when I pulled away.

“Ask him,” Michelle said, pointing to Matt as she laughed.

“Just wanted to see if you were okay,” he said. “This was partly Laura’s fault too.”

“How?” I asked.

“She told us that we needed to come visit a couple days ago, before your surgery. We told her when we could, and she gave us the details,” Matt explained.

“Who’s all here?” I asked.

“Everyone,” Michelle said.

“And she means everyone,” Matt confirmed.

“Let’s see, we’ve got Danny, Johnny Gera, Brent, Gena, Val, Papa Gates, Brian, Jan, MB and JB, McKenna, Suzy, Jimmy, Johnny, and Zacky all hiding out at Laura’s.” My eyes were wide.

“Were you the ones hiding out upstairs when I was there?”

“The surprise was supposed to be a bit different, but yeah. Zacky was the one who fell and yelled ‘shit,’” Matt said. I laughed and hugged them once more.

“I’m so glad you guys are here,” I said.

“Even me?” Matt asked. I smiled and nodded.

“Yes, even you.”