It was the next morning. Baron had left for his room later last night, I was reluctant to get up from my bed. Nerves tightened themselves, not willing to loosen any time soon. I laid in bed wondering what would happen to me at school today, I knew we had a routine - me and the boys. We always went to school early but now this had happened, we could no longer go together. The boys wanted nothing to do with me.
Tears fell, staining my pillows. I had no other choice but to go. I could not pretend not to want school or not attend lectures because of what had happened. Baron had promised to help me find the real culprit mad if I didn't go, there was no chance of that ever happening.
Sluggishly I slid off the bed, went to pick out clothes for the day. I had my bath and washed my hair. I had no idea where Melissa was. My eyes reflexively went to the corner I'd kept those clothes, wondering who had taken them. That was another issue I had to deal with.
Done, I came out and only to find Baron already in my room, he was all dressed for the day. Was he going to school? What was he doing here so early? But as I asked myself that last question, I felt a bit better seeing him in my room. His presence made me think of my predicament less, I felt like I phad a sturdy backup who was going to be there for me always.
"Hello Katherina." He greeted, then his eyes went to my legs. "How's your ankle doing this morning?"
Not even shy or bothered he was seeing me in my towel, I proceeded to get my things from the bed, back to the bathroom to put them on. "You know that was a lie not to alert my mom to the truth so David won't find out."
"David, huh?" He quirked a brow.
I shrugged, but if he was expecting me to tell him why I was yet to call David 'dad', it was not going to happen. I was not saying David was a bad father or that he was not nice to me. Not at all. In fact, he was the exact opposite. But I just don't know, maybe I was not up for calling him that yet. I took my clothes out of the room, into the bathroom.
In few minutes, I was done dressing and drying my hair. I had no time or strength to style my hair, I had it in a simple ponytail.
"You have to pretend what we said last night was real." Baron told me as soon as I walked into the bedroom again. "Especially as we'd be having family breakfast downstairs soon."
My heart lurched and I gulped, those nerves knotted tighter. "Do we have to? Can I not skip breakfast?"
"It's going to become suspicious to dad. Remember he does not know you have a sprained ankle."
I sighed dejectedly. "So there's no way out of this?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so."
I gathered scraps of courage from every fibre in my being, put them together but it was still not enough. I had to be though, there was no way out so it had to be. This little courage should work fine for me, moreover, Baron was here to help out. He was a solid support and I could see that because why else would he be here so early? He was not going to school, so he could have remained in his room till whenever he wanted but he was here in my room.
I took a deep breath, picked up my practical but portable backpack that held my school necessities and slung a strap over my shoulder. "I'm ready. Let's go."
He studied me. "You need to work on your self-confidence and pride a lot Katherina."
"Can we just go please?" It was not that easy for me to walk about pretending nothing had happened or that I did not give a care about what had actually happened. I just have to go through it, however I did. The important thing was surviving it.
"Not until you promise not to fall apart when you see them."
I knew by 'them', he was referring to his brothers but I couldn't assure him that. I could only promise not to go near them, not because I didn't want to but because I was scared of them embarrassing me publicly if I did. I would just die from the embarrassment, literally especially if they did it to me in school. "Do you want us to leave or not Baron?" My tone was as depressed as I was.
"Promise?"
I kept mute. I could not make promises like that. "Maybe. I promise to try not to."
He pondered on my response for a second. "That works fine. Trying is an upgrade. Now we can go."
I had barely taken few steps to the door, when I felt myself being lifted off the floor and into strong arms. I looked into his face in open surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to make your sprained ankle incident look real."
"You don't have to do this, it's really unnecessary. We can just tell them it's getting better."
"And you think your mom's a fool, huh? A sprained ankle does not just get better in less than few hours. How's the wound on your back, by the way?"
"The wound is hurts some. But can you put me down?"
"I wish this stubbornness could be turned to fury." He said instead, still not putting me down.
"Why? What do you mean by that?" My hands went round his neck.
"So you could deal with those who had done this to you and also, my brothers too."
I went quiet at that. I could never do that, I was not that strong or brave or confident he'd pointed out earlier.
I was just a twenty one year old trying to survive the complexities of life.