?Running With Scissors ?

?c h a p t e r 17?

I punch in the code and open the door to a sight that I was unprepared for.

Constance is pacing the floor with a phone to her ear and the local news playing on the big screen TV. She hasn't notice me yet so I close the door quietly and lean against the wall, waiting.

"It's been three hours! What if something happened to him?" Her voice is high pitched and rushed.

She picks up the remote and changes to a different news channel for a minute before switching it again all the while holding the phone between her shoulder and ear. The voice on the other end of the phone speaks loudly and she pulls it away from her ear but doesn't stop flipping channels.

"What? I, mean, yeah I guess he could be at a strip club or something..."

Obviously she's talking to Nick, the gross twin. If I was in fact caught, Nick was not the one I'd want looking for me.

"Honestly I don't care if he's banging Beyonce on the Moon, I just want you two to find him. That's like your thing."

In frustration, she throws the remote down and sighs.

I'm half wondering why she's so worried about me and half just relieved that someone would care if I disappeared. Most people I know want me to go away permanently.

Feeling guilty, I decide to reveal myself before she loses her mind and goes on a one woman mission to hunt me down meaning, I'd have to go rescue her from whatever bad situation she found herself in.

I chuckle at the thought.

Only she could be so unlucky to have all of this happen to her.

"YOU!"

I look up to see Scissors already discarded the phone and is barreling my direction. I hold up the clothes and sweets between us as a shield, hoping to distract her but she doesn't even look twice at them when she rips them from my hand and grabs my face.

Her eyes are hard and glossy like she's either been drinking or crying.

She looks me over by moving my arms and examining my face while circling me like a shark. "Are you injured? Hurt?"

"Uh... No."

"Good, good." She says with a tone of releaf.

I look down at the stuff I bought her that she rudely threw on the ground but before I can point it out, she grabs me by the front of my shirt, pulling me nose to nose with her.

"You complete idiot! I have been so worried!" she lets me go so she can pace in front of me. "I thought the worst. You could have been dead or caught or caught and then dead. Then who would clear your name? And what would happen to the twins? They need you too you know! I'm so mad I could hit you. And where were you? Why were you gone for so long?"

"Not that I owe you anything but I went for a drive." I wipe down the wrinkles in my shirt.

Through gritted teeth, she smiles. "A drive? Oh a drive! Well then, that is an acceptable reason to leave and not tell anyone that you'd be gone for so long. It's not like we're on the run and constantly in danger or anything."

Constance waves her arms around angrily and then pretends to strangle an invisible person.

She's really upset and it's making me uncomfortable. Can't she just be glad I'm back and be done with it? Why does she have to make this into a thing?

"A-And you know what..." Her lip quivers as she slows to a stop and wraps her arms around herself. "I was scared."

That simple word pierced through me as she said it. Constance wasn't just worried or angry, she was frightened. I've never had to be accountable to anyone besides my government or had to tell anyone how long I'd be gone because for so long nobody cared. Yet here Scissors is, a girl who barely knows me, but cares about me more than people who have known me for years.