Chapter 117
"Um, can I help you?" Irritation and confusion was starting to seep into his tone and I felt a pang when I realized how much he's changed. My Adam was patient and this person wasn't.
"Yes, can you put Preston on the phone?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting him to move away from the phone. I wanted to listen more to his voice.
"Sure." He said simply and proceeded to holler for Preston. There was no answer but after a moment of silence, Adam's voice came through the line again.
"Preston's just putting my little brother to bed, he's not really feeling well. He'll be down in a minute." Adam explained, this time sounding more like his old self.
"Is Pio alright?" I asked automatically and I instantly knew he heard the concern in my voice.
"You know Pio?" Adam asked. I realized my slip up and bit my lip, slapping my forehead a little too hard.
"Whoa, you okay there?" He sounded surprised, probably having heard the slap. I simply mumbled a ‘yes'.
"Who are you anyways?" I bit my lip harder. Well at least he's not asking any more questions on how I know Pio's name. But I think this was much worse than the previous question he asked.
"I- um-" I was about to tell him I was a friend of Preston's but I already sounded dodgy to my own ears. I was hesitating too much. I didn't want to lie to Adam. It was why I chose to avoid him rather than lie to him every day.
"I'll take that," I heard Preston's voice in the background and some shuffling as the phone got handed over. I sighed in relief when I heard Preston's voice greet me. I never knew I would be so happy to hear this jerk's voice when I first met him because frankly, he was a complete ass.
"Is Pio okay?" I skipped the hello's as per usual.
Preston chuckled, "Well hello to you too. You know it's really rude to not greet someone first before asking them for what you need."
I scrunched my face up at that. "It is?"
"I don't really know actually but I imagine it to be so." Preston admitted. I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't important enough to be dwelled over at the moment.
"So..?" I asked impatiently. Yes, I'm quite the hypocrite. I feel annoyed at Adam for being impatient but I'm impatient too. But you see, there's only enough room for one impatient person in the relationship that Adam and I were in and that impatient person should be me.
Welcome to the world of a hypocrite.
"Yes, Pio's alright. He just got too tired. He was running around a lot with some new friends he made in school and he didn't rest much the night before. So he got a small fever by the end of the day." Preston explained. I felt the tension leave my body.
Next question that worried me: "Is Adam suspecting anything from this phone call? Does he seem to recall my voice from any time frame of his life?"
Preston was silent for a bit before answering my question. "He looked a bit curious earlier when he handed the phone over to me but he didn't seem to remember anything." He was whispering by now and it was probably for the best that he did.
I was about to ask about how Adam's holding up. It's been quite a while since Preston gave me any sort of information about him but Preston beat me to it.
"Case, I think you should tell him the truth." Preston blurted out softly.
My hand that wasn't holding the phone played with the pen in front of me and I stared at my laptop screen.
"You know I can't, Pres. The last time he saw my face..." I trailed off, not wanting to reminisce how he looked that night.
"Yeah, but that's because someone's been brainwashing him. There's no way he came to that conclusion on his own. We all know you loved Mom like she was your own mother. You're a good person, Case, you couldn't have done it even if you hated Mom."
I squeezed my eyes shut. The mention of Carla and what Adam accused me of doing caused tears to form in the back of my eyes.
"I can't face him, Pres. How am I even supposed to convince him that he's been fed lies all this time? He thinks that I'm fooling the lot of you and that you're the one blinded from the truth." I argued weakly. He knows that I was scared and that's why I was arguing with him on the matter. But he knows more than anyone that my reasons were valid.
I was scared of rejection. I fell hard for Adam and he caught me the first time but he wasn't there to catch me anymore. I didn't want to put myself out there and make myself vulnerable to be hurt.
"Reach out to him, Case, help him remember. You're the only one who can do that. He's hurting and he doesn't even know why but that's because his conscience knows that he's missing you in his life right now. You were always there for him when he needed you. He needs you now, Case."
I breathed deeply, trying to compose myself from the phone call and wiped my eyes dry after I hastily hung up on Preston. I wasn't going to get anything done at this rate. I quickly started doing my assignments and wrapped it up. I decided to review them after dinner later on and let my mind rest for a while.
The talk I had with Preston made me remember of the promise I made Carla.
I needed to be there for her family. I missed her and she wasn't even my Mom, she was theirs. They were suffering a greater deal of loss than I was and I couldn't even imagine how painful it must be for them right now.
Preston was right, Adam was lost and hurting and I should be there for him. I had to be there for him somehow. I needed to think of a way on how to be there for him and help him remember me.
I thought hard about what I could do to help him remember and finally thought of something.
I opened a new file on my laptop and started typing. My mom walked into my room the minute after I was done printing the document and folding it up.
"Case, dinner's ready." I nodded. She was about to close the door when I remembered to ask her where the envelopes were.
"I think they're somewhere in a drawer in my room. I'll search for them later. What do you need them for?"
"I want to send a letter to a friend." I told her and I was thankful she didn't press the matter further.
I left the printed document on top of my laptop, reminding myself to revise my assignment one more time before going to bed, and went down the stairs after my mom.
I hope what I was planning to do works or I'd have to try hitting him over the head again.
But let's try to minimize the violence.
