The Academy - Friends vs. Family (4 page)

R
escue
p
arty

I woke up to the smell of cypress and menthol. The scents confused
me. The sheets were stiff against my skin. Did I do something to my bed? My
face felt heavy and thick, like I had the worst cold in the world. My head
throbbed between my eyes.

Dry air tickled my throat and a coughing spasm hit me hard. I sat
up, and through slit eyes from my raging fit, I recognized Nathan’s bedroom
with karate posters and exercise equipment stuffed into his closet.

My lungs were on fire. I needed fresh air. The menthol was
suppressing and I couldn’t breathe.

I got on my knees, trying to crawl to the edge of the bed. My
whole body rattled as I coughed. I touched the floor and I got one step before
my legs failed. I collapsed against Nathan’s dresser, knocking it against the
wall. I slid to the floor. Objects sitting on top of his dresser dropped to the
carpet around me.

The door opened. Kota and Luke hovered in the doorway. There were
more faces beyond them that I couldn’t make out as my eyes blurred.

I sat up against the dresser. The cluster of people at the door
swooped in on me all at once.

Kota reached me first. He put his arm around my shoulders, trying
to pull me up. His spice scent around me was too much. I pushed him away. I was
coughing too hard to tell him that it felt suffocating.

Dr. Green nudged Kota away. He pressed his palms against my cheeks
in an effort to get me to focus. I tried to back up but I was against the
dresser and couldn’t move. I pushed at his arms but he wouldn’t budge. “Sang,”
he said. “Sang, listen to me. Calm down. If you pass out, I’ll have to take you
to the hospital.”

“Air,” I breathed out. “I can’t... I need air.”

“Let me take her,” Kota said. He pulled me into his arms, despite
my squeaking protests. I coughed against his shoulder, my eyes scrunched
closed. I willed myself to stay conscious. I didn’t want to have to go
anywhere. I wanted to be with them.

Kota passed through Nathan’s house. The sliding glass door was
pulled aside and Kota put me down onto the concrete of Nathan’s back patio. He
took my arms and he held them over my head.

It helped. I sucked in air between the raging coughs and slowly I
started to calm down. He held me like that until it died off and I was drinking
in oxygen.

Kota knelt by my head, bringing his face close to mine. His
glasses slid down his nose as his green eyes softened. “Sang?”

I wiped my face to clear my eyes. “Kota,” I breathed out.

“Want to sit up?”

I nodded. He crawled behind me, pulling me up by the shoulders
until his chest pressed against my back. His legs extended on either side of
mine. His arms were wrapped around my stomach. I was shaking again but I was
warm and Kota was there.

North knelt next to us. His dark eyes met mine and he frowned.
“You okay, Sang Baby?”

“Perfect,” I squeaked out.

His eyes glazed and he blinked hard, but he grinned down at me.
“You’re so full of shit.”

I attempted a smirk. He was right. My face still hurt. My throat
and lungs felt twisted like knots. I hated feeling so helpless. I hated that
I’d brought them into this. I was consumed with worry that my mother was
looking for me right now, maybe even calling the police to find me. Still, I
didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay forever.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“Water,” I mouthed. “And I want to get up.”

North held his hands out, palms up. I let go of Kota and clutched
at North. He hefted me until I was on my feet. I blinked at the bandages at my
wrists. I felt more crunching of bandage seams around my ankles. I was wearing
a pair of shorts that didn’t fit and a large Nike t-shirt. I wondered who
changed my clothes but I really didn’t care. My poor brain couldn’t handle that
thought at the moment.

I wobbled on my feet. My legs didn’t want to work. My ankle
throbbed. I willed myself to at least stand up straight. Kota rose with me, and
wrapped an arm around my waist. North held on to my hands until it looked like
I was stable.

North stepped beside me, holding on to my left hand like he was
never letting go. Nathan and Silas hovered behind him. Their eyes were wide,
mouths drawn, terrified. I mustered up another smile, hoping they would know I
was okay. Nathan looked relieved but Silas hesitated, his dark eyes narrowing,
unsure.

“Let’s get inside and sit down,” Dr. Green said somewhere behind
Silas. “We should talk.”

“I think we need to let her sleep,” North said next to me. “She
needs to recover.”

“We need to figure out our next move,” Mr. Blackbourne’s smooth
vocals cut through and I shivered with embarrassment. I couldn’t believe he was
there, too.

North squared off his shoulders. “What we’re doing is getting her
the hell out of there,” he said.

I squeezed at his hand. His eyes glided to mine. “Inside,” I
whispered. “I want to talk.”

He smirked at me. “Baby, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you
can’t talk.”

I rolled my eyes. “Never stopped me before,” I croaked out.

He and Kota, who must have been the only ones who could have heard
me, started chuckling. Silas finally relaxed his shoulders. He and Nathan
stepped out of the way. Behind them stood Dr. Green, with Luke, Gabriel, Victor
and Mr. Blackbourne next to him. Nine concerned eyes fell on my face and I
shivered under the weight of their pity. Heat clung to my cheeks but I was
feeling too miserable to protest.

It took a little bit of stretching and a few steps assisted by
Kota before I was able to break the stiffness from my limbs. The entire lower
half of my body felt numb. I staggered toward the house. Mr. Blackbourne held
the sliding door open for me.

I stood in the living room until everyone collected inside. Kota
motioned to the large leather chair but I shook my head. There was a large
wooden coffee table on the rug in the middle of the room. I slid onto my knees
to the rug and sat with my butt on my heels. I felt the bandages against my
ankles wrinkle and a pain through my legs. My tailbone radiated equal agony
through my lower spine. It was dulled, more like a throbbing ache that eased in
and settled into my bones. I couldn’t sit on my butt, I knew, not right now.
The ankle was bad enough but tolerable. I folded my hands into my lap and I
patiently waited, my eyes challenging anyone to tell me to do otherwise.

The others took positions around the table. Silas, Luke and North
sat on the couch. Victor fell into the armchair. The fire was gone from his
eyes. I only caught glistening and it looked terrible on him. Kota and Gabriel
took up positions next to me on the floor. Gabriel chewed on a thumbnail, as if
he wasn’t sure if he should be near me or not.

Mr. Blackbourne stood by the coffee table, his arms crossed
against his chest and looking displeased. Nathan disappeared for a moment but
came back with a bottle of water to hand to me.

Dr. Green plopped down on top of the coffee table in front of me.
He scooped out a flashlight from his pocket.

“Let me check your throat,” he said. He gently placed a thumb on
my chin to get me to open up. He shifted the flashlight to let the light glare
into my throat. The warmth of the light was surprisingly soothing on my
esophagus. I pressed my tongue down in my mouth so he could see better.

“Was it vinegar again?” Kota asked next to me.

I felt I couldn’t talk to answer with my mouth open, but I
squeezed his hand and nodded.

Dr. Green let go of me and sat back, swinging his eyes to Kota.
“This happened before?”

“Her mother made her drink vinegar and lemon juice a couple weeks
ago. It burned her throat for a few days so she couldn’t talk.”

“That’s not all,” North said, in a quiet tone. I fired off looks
at him but he ignored me completely. “She was forced to kneel in rice on the
hard floor for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, too.”

“And she sat in that stool before,” Luke said. “That was several
hours, too. Not in the tub though, just in the kitchen. Just the once.”

North’s face flashed with surprise and he frowned. “That we know
of...” He gazed over at me.

There was a stunned silence that fell between them all as they
registered the truth. I wanted to tell them that outside of the vinegar and
being tied in the bathtub, that the rice and the stool sitting was actually
pretty easy. I could handle that. Weren’t they ever punished for doing bad
things? Didn’t parents spank their kids? Somehow I felt that it wasn’t the
right response. My face flared with heat. I didn’t know what normal was.

Dr. Green pressed a palm to his eye. “Why didn’t you tell us what
she was going through?”

“We were working on it,” Kota said. “I didn’t know how bad things
had gotten. And I didn’t want to overwhelm her with… with us.”

Dr. Green’s head flexed back. “Kota,” he said. “This is abuse. You
shouldn’t have kept this to yourself.”

“She wasn’t fully with us when the vinegar thing happened,” Kota
insisted. “And she was around us so often these past couple of weeks, I didn’t
realize she was…”

“You know better than that,” Mr. Blackbourne hovered over Dr.
Green’s shoulder. His steel eyes narrowed. “Abuse doesn’t disappear overnight.”

“I didn’t know about the rice or the other parts,” Kota said.

“That’s not what I mean. You didn’t tell us the full truth about
what was going on. You brought her to us knowing her home life and kept it from
us. We might have prevented this if you had told us earlier. Now we’re left
without a choice.”

I swallowed. They were talking in circles around me. “It’s my
choice,” I said in a whisper.

Mr. Blackbourne twisted his head to gaze down at me. “What are you
saying?”

I closed my eyes, swallowing hard again. I knew they didn’t want
to hear this but I knew I had to say it. “I have to go back.”

“No,” Gabriel said. He grabbed my hand. He slid closer on his
knees near me. His crystal eyes glossed over with tears. “You’re not fucking
going back there. I’ll kidnap you myself and take you home with me.”

There was a round of loud talking and it was a mess. I didn’t
understand what anyone was saying. I couldn’t attempt to talk over them. I
looked desperately at Kota. He leaned in, holding his head close.

I angled until my lips brushed his ear as I whispered. “I have to
go back.”

Kota shook his head, pulling away to narrow his eyes at me. “No,”
he commanded. “You can’t. Sang, you were in there for hours. Do you even
remember what happened?”

I nodded. Of course I did. I remembered everything. I knew the
truth. If I disappeared, there was a lot more to lose than if I went back now.

The others were arguing but it was a blur of noise. Gabriel
squeezed at my hand, clinging to me. Maybe he would listen.

I leaned into him. “My mother is ill,” I said. “She didn’t eat.
With the medication she takes, she’s probably making herself super sick again.”

“She just tied you to a stool and left you to die,” Gabriel said.
“You want to go back and save her?”

I felt my body shaking as I forced the words out. “She’s my
mother.” That meant something, didn’t it? Wasn’t I supposed watch over her?

He reeled his head back as if I’d slapped him. His hand squeezed
mine again. I clutched it back, begging silently that he might understand. “We
can’t,” he said, though softer.

“My mother probably doesn’t even remember what she did. I can slip
back in.”

Dr. Green’s gentle eyes washed over my face. He pressed his palms
to my cheeks. “Sweetheart,” he soothed. “Do you understand what you’re asking?
If you go back, she could do it again. She might do worse. We might not make it
next time.”

“We will make it,” Kota said. “We’ll be right there. I’m not
leaving her again. There won’t be a next time.”

“This isn’t happening,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He started pacing
the floor, his hands on his hips. His glasses glinted against the light as he
turned back to look down at me. “No, I refuse. I can’t allow it. She can’t stay
in that house.”

He didn’t understand. I needed to go back before she called the
cops and they were arrested. I couldn’t ask them to take me in. Where would I
go? “What about Marie? What happens to her if I leave?” I asked. “What about my
dad? Would he be arrested? He didn’t know.” I hunched my shoulders, swallowing
hard, trying to suppress a cough.

“If he doesn’t know, it’s neglect,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “You
can’t stay in a house with an abusive mother. Marie can’t, either. Your father
made his choice. You didn’t have one.”

“I have one now. Where else am I going to go? I have to go back.”

Anguished glances were exchanged above my head.

Mr. Blackbourne knelt nearby, his fingertips brushed my arm. The
gentle touch forced me to look in his direction. His steel eyes focused on
mine. “Miss Sorenson,” he said in a quiet voice. “Listen to me. You can’t go
back. We can’t keep you safe there.”