Sunday, November 7, 2010

Chapter 21 Kiss Me Till It Bleeds - Nina Gordon

For the moment I am unable to find the song for this chapter. Don't fret when I get my computer back I should be able to figure it out.

That's the other big note... My computer had to have a FULL system restore so it's unclear what will be left when I get it back. Thankfully I had all of 'Part One' backed up BUT I am more than likely going to lose two chapters of part two. Hopefully I'll be able to get them back if not I'll need to do some rewriting. :( I hope that doesn't mean taking a week off from posting but we'll see. As always thanks so much for reading!


___________________________________________________________________________

Sarah awoke the next morning to a cold spot in the bed next to her and the sun brightly streaming into the windows. She groaned pulling the pillow over her head but it was to late the sun had snapped her awake and now she had to get up.

With a shower out of the way and no sight or sound of Kris she headed down stairs after dressing in simple well fitting jeans and a purple v-neck sweater. She had all these clothes she wasn’t really getting a chance to wear so it was nice to have a chance to be more casual.

She peaked her head into the kitchen spotting Kris’ Mom who was in the middle of baking something. It was funny how memories came back. She could remember her Grandma doing similar things with the array of bowls and measuring cups around the counter.

“The boys went out to do some errands. Something about a pump for the pool. It is winter but the pools has always been a bond between Henri and Kristopher so I let them go.” Marlene said as she worked at the counter.
Sarah nodded heading towards the baking action. “Can I help you? I never really get a chance to bake.” Other than pies for holidays Sarah did no baking at all.

“Yes dear. Aprons are in second drawer down.” Marlene said pointing with her elbow.

Sarah followed the directions pulling out an apron to cover her clothes. “So what are you making? I see things for bread and for cake.”
“Yes, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Kristopher favorite. He will say he can’t eat it but I know the truth. He can not resist.” she smiled as she flowered two round pans obviously making a layer cake. “And I make bread for Henri because I must make something for each of my boys.” she was all smiles as she worked.

“Here you start frosting.” Sarah opened her mouth to say something as the index card was put in front of her. Thankfully she could understand the measurements and saw words she knew from the French she was learning between rosetta stone giving her a real foundation and the Kris teaching her the slangs she could manage pretty well for a beginner.

“Ok… if it’s wrong I’m sorry. I never really had anyone teach me how to bake.” Sarah explained as she measured the chocolate into the top of the double boiler on the stove.

“Non?” Marlene asked. “Kris told me you grew up with your Grandfather but he did not say you lost your Mother.” Marlene was working the cake batter in a stand mixer so she spoke loudly over the noise.

“Oh I didn’t lose her. She's just not around.” Sarah shrugged as she worked. “My Grandmother passed away when I was pretty young. She taught me how to bake pies not cakes.”

Kris’s Mom nodded choosing not to say much right away but wait till she got the batter in the pans. “Well the secret of baking cakes is always using shiny metal pans, waiting till cakes cool to frost and take top off the bottom layer so it will be even. We will do secret of bread later.”
The two worked comfortably till the cake was in the oven and the frosting chilling in the fridge. Sarah sighed happily leaning her hip against the counter.

“Coffee?” Marlene asked as she put a new pot on.

“Sure, yeah I could go for a cup.” she hadn’t had anything to eat yet and coffee sounded great.

“How do you take it?”

“one milk one sugar.” Sarah said with a little smile as she picked a banana up from the fruit bowl on the counter needing some kind of food to mix with the acidic coffee.

“Just like Kristopher.” she commented pouring the cups and making Sarah’s just how she liked it. “You two are quite well matched.”

“Aw, well thanks. I like to think so most of the time.” Sarah took the first sip of coffee savoring it. There was nothing like the first sip of the first cup of coffee each day.

“Ah yes. Kristopher can be a difficult young man. He is stubborn like his father but loving like his step-father.” she sat down at the table across from Sarah. “Kris and his Father do not talk much. We divorced when he was quiet young and I remarried when Kristopher was 15 I think. Tough age to gain a step-father.” she explained. “His Father was not flexible and when you have a child gifted in a sport a wife can not always have the dinner on the table at 5:30pm or always have fresh bread on the weekend.” it was Marlene’s turn to sigh though it was more of a sad sigh than Sarah’s previous one of contentment. “Kris suffered not having a Father. I think from what you said earlier you are someone who can understand that.”

Sarah nodded. She didn’t want to tell her story but she knew she was expected to. “I don’t know my Dad. I never met him not even as a baby. My Brother met him a few times but he doesn’t remember him. We lived with my Mom for awhile. As it turns out she wasn’t exactly a good Mother according to the State of West Virginia which is saying something considering the West Virginia standard is quite low. So my Brother and I went to live with my Grandparents. We saw my Mom from time to time for awhile. Less as the years went on. My Grandma died when I was a teenager so I took care of my G-Dad and older brother.” Sarah shrugged. That was the basics of it. She left out the drugs and true abandonment her Mom subjected she and her Brother to.

They worked in silence putting together the bread dough while the cake baked and then cooled before frosting it. The guys called offering to bring home lunch. Marlene agreed since time was running short to cook lunch with all the baking they did. “Yes get her the regular.” Sarah’s brows knit to question but her expression was waved away as the conversation switched to French that was far to fast for her to pick up on. Once Marlene hung up the phone she clarified. “They bring home poutine.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I think I may be dying.” Sarah said as she laid in bed with Kris. She could hear her stomach churning processing the cheese and gray covered fries from lunch and then the rich home made toutriere and fresh bread they had for dinner followed by the cake. “It was all so good… I couldn’t stop eating.” she moaned.

“Yes, you are not used to the way my Mom feed me.” he said stretching out next to her on the bed.

“I don’t know how your stomach can handle it." she groaned curling up a little bringing her knees to her chest.

“Mom said you and she talked. She said you told her about when you were a girl.” He gathered her hair back moving each stray hair from her face. “Will you tell me? I know you grew up with your G-Dad but that is it.”

“Only if you tell me about your family.” she said mimicking him moving his hair from his face.

“You’ve met them.” he said starting to close himself off from her.

“Not your Dad.” she said taking his arm draping it over her midsection.

“Oh…. I have not seen him a long time.” he said softly. They were still in their clothes from the day just laying on the bed together.

“Is it cheating to tell you that your Mom told me a bit? We were chatting while baking.” Sarah explained as she leaned little into him slowly forcing him to his back so she could lay against his chest.

“I thought she would. Always protecting me from hard stuff.”

“It’s nice though. To have someone to protect you. I know I have G-Dad and Nessa and Jimmy and even Mal who all try to protect me. Sometimes even now that I’m an adult I wish I had a normal Mom and Dad to just have in my corner if something goes wrong.” she sighed going quiet. It took a lot to admit that. More often than not Sarah was one to play it tough when it came to her emotions and struggles.

“My Mom and Dad were divorced when I was young. My Dad has another family now. We talk once about it. He said he was not ready to be a Father when I was born but he is now. Henri is a good man. He loves my Mom almost as much as I do. I gave him a hard time when I was a youth.” Kris had been a terror to poor Henri when he arrived in the Letang home. It was every step-parents nightmare only in French.

“He cares about you. I can see he’s rubbed off on you. Your Mom said so as well.” Sarah proped herself up on her elbow a bit so she could see his face.

“Do you know your Parents at all?” Kris only knew what she had told him about her family and nothing else.

“I know my Mom. She turns up every now and then. Usually asking G-Dad or me for money. We’re both softies so one of us usually gives in. She never started another family or at least not one I know about. As for my Dad… I don’t know him at all. He was gone before I was even born. Russ met him as a baby but doesn’t remember. I know he must have had brown eyes. I have blond hair like my Mom but she has blue eyes not brown like me.” Sarah chuckled a little. “Sorry I know it isn’t appropriate to laugh but I never thought of my Dad giving me anything but he gave me brown eyes. I just think it’s funny for some reason.” Sarah continued to try and hold back her inappropriate laughter as tears welled in her eyes. “Damn it now I know why I’m laughing.” Sarah hid her face in his chest as the tears mixed with laughter fell onto Kris’ shirt.

“You laugh to hide hurt. I know it well.” He put his arms around her holding her close.

“I hate how well you know me sometimes.” she didn’t mean it and knew that he knew that. She said she hated things that she really loved all the time. There had been one misunderstanding early on in their dating where she said she hated sushi so they didn’t eat it for over month till she explained how she used to expression to him.

“You do not. Though I wish I was not right.” he kissed the top of her head.

It was quiet from then on out. It had been an emotional day for Sarah and Kris could always sleep in the season. In a constant state of recovery after games he could always sleep. Getting up well after it was dark Sarah changed into pajamas and prompted him to do the same as well. Really she changed herself and then helped him strip out of his clothes like a sleepy child. It wasn’t sexy, it wasn’t hot he was just cute and sleepy with messy hair. She almost wished she had adult sized footie pajamas to put him in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kris awoke the next morning seeing Sarah’s back to him as she sat on the edge of her bed. She was quietly talking on her phone slightly hunched over so he t-shirt was riding up from her pajama bottoms showing him her lower back. He sleepily reached out tracing along her the bit of her spine that was exposed. Sarah jumped turning to look over her shoulder at him. He was expecting a smile but received a frown as she got up walking away from the bed to the corner of the room to finish her conversation. Kris roller to his back watching her while she softly talked. He didn’t listen for content knowing she would explain if she felt like it.

Hanging up the phone Sarah sighed running a hand though her hair that had fallen from her ponytail. “I need to get back to Pittsburgh sooner than expected.” Her eyes were wet and it was obvious she was working hard not to cry.

“What is wrong? The Olympic guys ok?” Kris asked propping himself up in bed to lean against the headboard.

Sarah would have found the scene adorable with his hair sticking up all over, a tiny glass of water on the bedside table in his childhood bedroom but she definitely wasn’t in the mood to find anything funny. “No, no, the Olympians are fine. At least as far as I know…” she paused chewing on her bottom lip. “Jason isn’t well.”

“I am sad to hear.” Kris said frowning. He knew she cared more about him that most of her other patients from the hospital. She was obviously connected even more to his health since her ‘anonymous’ bone marrow donation.

She put her phone down on Kris’s dresser that was covered with various action figures still as she made her way to her bag to get dressed for the day. “He’s dying Kris.”

“Oh…” That got his attention as he sat up taller in the bed. “What you did, it did not help?”

Sarah stopped dead in her tracks a jagged breath making her shake a little. “Obviously not.” she finally managed to say the tears starting to fall.

He got out of bed moving around the room to wrap her into a hug. “Hey, hey… I did not mean like that.” he said holding her to his body one hand on the back of her head the other around her waist.

“I know… it just only helped for a little while. I knew it was bad when we left but I didn’t want to miss meeting your family. Mal promised she would only call if it was getting serious. They put him on life support Kris.” she was starting to think clearer now her professional nursing mind kicking in. “I’m guessing he has till March but that will be it if he’s lucky.”

“Go back to Pittsburgh. We were only staying a few more days anyways. My Parents will understand. You get ready I will find ticket for you.” He let go of her going to his bag pulling on sweat pants and a t-shirt before heading downstairs to get on his Mom’s computer.

Sarah got a shower and dressed taking the time to write a thank you not for Kris’s Mom and to leave a little note for Kris as well. She came downstairs as he was printing her ticket. “It leaves tonight at 7pm. It was the best I could do.” he said with a little shrug. I tried to get you out at lunch but they would not transfer your old reservation.” he explained.

She kissed his cheek taking a moment to smooth his hair down a little. “You did great.”

Sarah spent the rest of the day with Kris and his family. She explained the situation and they were understanding of her needing to go. They were happy though so happy they planned to visit Pittsburgh making special time for them to visit with her rather than just for the weekend to see Kris’s game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The airports felt especially lonely when traveling alone. She was used to being with the team or at least with Kris when traveling. Seeing Mal there to pick her up was just what she needed.

“What up hooker?” Mal asked trying to make her friend smile.

“Oh you know same ol’.” Sarah said hoisting her bag into Mal’s back seat. Sarah got in the car as did her friend.

“Sarah…” Mal said pulling her friend into a hug.

“I’m ok. Well I’m not but I’m as ok as I’m going to be.”

1 comment:

  1. good post! im liking the story so far, i just found it not that long ago and read most of it in one day to catch up! cant wait for a new post! check out my story if you have a chance :)

    ReplyDelete