Double Life: sneaking

“when it gets dark, Natasha…”
“that´s your doctor, right?” he asked. She nodded
“She will arrive and try to make me better, while that happens you… -she sighed knowing in advance what he´d do- will either be gone or be hiding. She can´t know you´re here”
“But there are still a few hours till it gets dark. Cant she come earlier?”
“She could but this is to keep a low profile. She´d rather sneak in at night, after all the school has doctors…”
“But she can say she´s your own physician. I´ve heard they say your family gives larges contributions and that´s why teachers tell you nothing when you miss classes or don’t pay attention”

Nichole raised both eyebrows and Josh blushed realizing he what he had said. He felt that she could get angry. “I… I mean” he tried to make it better but nothing came out of his mouth.
“It´s true  -she said looking somehow amused- they give a lot of money to give me my own room and to let me skip classes but I still have to make  sure the teachers overlook that by being the one that pays more attention” She looked smug as she finished “It wouldn´t be so good to bring my own doctor every time something happens though… I bet the lovely classmates would hate me even more and they´d probably try to hurt me and we both know I wouldn´t be the one getting hurt”
“I guess… but maybe just this time… You really look sick” He was worried
“Geez, you really know how to make a girl feel pretty” she rolled her eyes attempting to lighten the mood. He shook his head. They stayed quiet for a long time while, only hearing Nic´s shallow breathing.
“if you´re really staying or will you be a nice boy and leave?”
“I´m staying” he said firmly as she fought a smile.
“ok, then I need you to go sit somewhere else. I feel I can´t stay awake anymore… If it gets dark.. well, go hide somewhere before Natasha comes in. Ah, grab some more candy bars if you want to” when she finished speaking she moved her hand away from his. He nodded, got up, took another candy bar and sat again on the desk chair.
“Can I put some music?” he asked opening the laptop on her desk
“yeah… stay there… do not…”
“Touch me, I know” he finished her sentence “good night, Nic” he said as he clicked the play button on the computer screen. She didn´t answer back and he didn´t look back at her either but during the couple of hours left untill the sunset he felt the urge to go to her side, to wake her up, to do something; she kept complaining in her sleep or maybe she was having a really bad dream. She sounded like sobbing at times. he fought the urge though and focused on the computer screen, at the videos he was watching. Once it got dark Josh turned off the computer and gave a glance to Nichole, she seemed calmer, her breathing was steadier. He wondered about the best place to hide, he thought of the closed first buy maybe Natasha was going to help Nic to get into other clothes, after all she was still wearing her uniform, then he thought about the bathroom but he remembered the first aid kit was there, it would be bad if he was found there, as he was wondering he heard the door being unlocked. His eyes were wide open but as the door was opened he threw himself on the floor and under the bed just as the sound of high heels entered the room. He was so glad that Nic´s bed was higher than regular beds.

“How is it that you want to sneak in and yet you come wearing stilettos?” he heard Nic said. She had been awake! He thought, that´s why she had stopped complaining in her sleep. He felt embarrassed now that he knew he had stopped to watch her for a moment. Heat rose to his cheeks.

“I can sneak my stilettos in but why to try to cover the sound for you? You´d have heard me anyways wouldn´t you?” the set of shoes moved to the closet and Josh was glad he didn´t hide there. “what did you get yourself in this time? Don´t tell me my nephew is no longer your driver?... ah don´t roll your eyes at me, I know what happened to your prior driver”
“Shut up and fix me” Nichole said coldly and rudder than Josh had ever heard her talk
“fine. Let´s take a look a the damage….” Fabric rustled against more fabric. Josh heard Nichole hissed and so did Natasha. After what felt a very long time, only hearing sounds of pain and smelling alcohol and other medicines Josh heard the women voice again.
“How would you get yourself shot? I thought you did stuff of getting in and out unnoticed… -Natasha groaned impatiently- talk Nichole, it might give me a better idea of why this wound is looking so bad even if it´s just a graze”
Josh winced in sympathy under the bed, he knew how ‘just a graze’ felt and it wasn´t no where near ‘just’ pain.
“I have no idea how but I´m almost sure they knew I was coming. I got in but just as I was going to get out by climbing some tree, two guys started fire I managed to jump over but one bullet hit me. I fell to the ground and they went after me with dogs. Can you imagine that?! Chased by dogs! I managed to hide, only a couple of dogs found me but only one was brave enough to attack me –hence the few scrapes you saw but poor him… you know… the others ran away so I guess they saved me I´m sure I would´ve been shot if I had been found. Of course your stupid nephew fled  and I had to spend that night out there up to Monday night when he came back….”
“Nic, you spent two days bleeding with no food or water?? On the ground??”
“and surrounded by dead animals and dead nature…”
“what?” Natasha sounded confused as was Josh.
“I fainted soon after the rush of being chased passed, it was around nine at night… it seems that fainting made my sikin to get….its ability back… when I woke up, the grass was withered and everything else too, including bugs, birds, rats and some other things that ended up dying. It was so disgusting…”
“wait. You are supposed to kill everything that comes in contact with your hands… assuming that all your skin had its ability back…this wounds can´t be infected. Did you feel anything different after getting wounded?”
“just the pain… what should I have felt?”
“I´m not sure… I think we´ll have to take you back to the house… no one will be able to take care of you here…”
Nichole was silent, she had also been pondering what had happened, it was very strange for her to be weaken like that for a scrape, even the stab had healed sooner and that was worse than this but she didn´t want to ask for Natasha´s thoughts right there, Josh had already heard much, in his case information could be deadly, he already knew too much about her.

“K, the girl has to be taken home, she´s not doing good. I have to take care of her… yeah, the sooner, the better… K, it´d be better tonight… yeah but she´s go a fever and…. –Natasha that had been discussing on the phone sighed- fine, tomorrow”

“I´m sorry Nichole but you´ll go back home until tomorrow morning… I can stay with you if you want” the woman sounded almost motherly.
“what for? There´s nothing more you can do now that you haven´t already done, is it?” Josh wondered why Nichole was so cold when talking to her doctor when the woman sounded as if she cared.
“fine, just have something to eat” the doctor said sounded as if she knew she wouldn´t win if she tried to convince Nichole. Josh stomach churned as he heard the word ‘eat’ he hadn´t eaten lunch or dinner.
“just leave it there… I´ll eat when hungry”
“you have to eat now”
“just leave it there” Nichole stressed the last word
“this is not a choice I´m giving you. I have to make sure”
There were some sounds like a zipper being opened, more smell of alcohol and a small whimper from Nichole followed by a sigh that Josh guessed had been Natasha´s. After a moment he heard the desk chair being pulled. Then the shoes, the only thing that he could see from his position, stopped moving. The woman had sat. A long time passed and then the chair was moved back to its place.
“I do think you should eat… I´ll come back for you in the morning” the woman said and unlike when she came in she silently left. Josh didn´t even heard the door. He stayed there expecting.

“you can come out now” Nic said softly after a long while. He squeezed himself out of under the bed and saw her, dusting off his clothes. She looked paler than usual. Her blue comforter was up to her shoulders but one of her hands was on top of it. She wasn´t wearing her gloves. A blanket was over where her legs were. She seemed sleepy. He blinked and opened and closed his mouth thinking what was the right thing to say.
“how are you feeling?” his voice came out too soft for his taste, her eyebrows shot up.
“floating in pain killers –she laughed humorlessly- just fine, Josh” she grinned lazily but again it was obvious it wasn´t a real sile. He looked at the nightstand, there were some food containers. His stomach twisted again, he was hungry.
“why wouldn´t you eat?” Josh asked walking to bring the desk chair.
“Not hungry…but you are. Your stomach´s been growling rather loudly. Have that” she glanced towards the food. He was glad his back was to her when she spoke. He blushed and cleared his throat to make himself distracted.
“that´s your food. I´ll have another candy bar”
“I need no food… Natasha gave me some right to my blood… I won´t be hungry or thirsty until probably tomorrow”
Josh felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, a text from his twin, he frowned.
“he  seems careless but he´s quite perceptive when it comes to you, right?” she said, her words had a strange tone as if they were being said as one single word.
“eh?”
“It´s Aaron, isn´t he? Your phone´s been vibrating for quite some time…”
“ah, yeah –his brows furrowed- he said they went to him since I wasn´t in class this afternoon. Then he said that he had to pretend he was me tonight since no one has seen me in my dorm. He´s there now”
“I told you to go but you didn´t listen” she saw him roll his eyes, that somehow amused her and a tiny smile was drawn to her face.
“it´s fine, for all they know Joshua is in his room now”
“so advantageous to have a double, ha?” her words were dragged, tired “have the food and go back before your twin gets in trouble “
Josh sighed knowing she was right. There was a slight possibility that his roommate could tell them apart though the kid seemed oblivious to anything other than sports.
“Are you sure you don´t want any ?” Josh offered the still warm food to a sleepy Nichole. She shook her head.
“Ask Aaron to come out and switch back places… don´t tell him I´m sick –Nichole asked and Josh lifted an eyebrow- tell him something else and if you can avoid telling him you were with me… better”
“why don´t you want him to to know I´ve been with you?” he shoved some chicken with vegetables to his mouth. He seemed very hungry but the food had a good taste.
“I´d be bad if people knew you missed classes for me plus what do you think they´d think of that? Not to mention you´ve been in my room the entire time somewhere you shouldn´t be at all… not that it’s not done anyways  but I don´t want to fall out of grace and lose my freedom of coming and going as I please without much to worry, you know…” she explained sounding a little more like herself
“Aaron wouldn´t tell” Josh defended his twin. She grinned a little.
“there´s always ears that hear” she said nonchalantly yet making a point “and also… I don´t want him pestering around me thinking that way he’d get to me” she wrinkled her nose as if the thought of more people in her life was bad. They stayed silent after that, it was a comfortable silence where Josh occupy himself in eating what Natasha had brought to Nichole. When he finished he put all the containers back in the lunch bag.
“feeling any better?” he inquired
“mmh” she mumbled more to let him know she was listening than to confirm that she was feeling better. She looked the same again and a couple of sweat beads had formed on her forehead.
“Do you need anything? –he hesitated- Is there anything that I can do for you?”
“you already did. Now go, you have to pay attention… -her words confused him- … and take accurate notes for me to copy when I get back”
He shook his head as he put the chair in its place. When he was leaving the room he hear her voice
“Liar, liar  with Jim Carrey” she said, he turned to see her, confused, his brows furrowed.
“what?” he asked but she seemed asleep already.
Josh texted Aaron and they met at the fountain where they had –or hadn´t- met the first day they came to Burgeoys school.