Chapter 50: Someone had to do it. Or it's hell being me

Chandra brought me an early lunch. It mostly consisted of fruits and vegetables with just one large sausage. I asked her to take the sausage away. Meat was the last thing that I wanted after this morning's horror.

She did, quietly. Chandra being quiet always meant that something was up.

"Chandra, just tell me please. It's not like I am going anywhere."

"Did..." I could hear the changing of gears in her hesitation. "I mean, what are you going to do with the girl?" she stammered.

That was not what she was going to ask. Something was bothering her and it was not the child. "I was going to have you return her to one of the temples. They should be able to take her home. Unless she knows where her house is, then you could take her home. What do you think?"

"You kissed her, didn't you?" Chandra accused.

"Who? The girl? No, I didn't kiss the girl." So that is what was wrong. She was jealous.

"I knew it. You did." She, too, turned and fled.

Two for two. Not bad, Charlie.

"Chandra, come back!" I could barely raise my voice, I wasn't up to yelling. She didn't.

At least she brought food. Although letting her stew is not how to handle her. It will only make the situation worse.

I asked myself how she knew that I had kissed Megan. I rubbed my forearm across my mouth, only to find a touch of rouge on my lips.

Shit.

Setting the food aside, I carefully rolled over on my side, and rolled my lower body off the bed to my knees. After that, standing without using any of my stomach muscles was doable. Getting dressed was going to be interesting. I could do the pants, the shirt was not going to happen.

Megan could wait. She would tell me what was going on when she felt like it, and not before. Chandra, on the other hand, had to be handled now before her melodrama increased exponentially.

I knocked on her door. "May I come in?" I didn't want the whole household knowing that Chandra was, well, whatever she was.

"Go away!" I heard the tears, even from behind the door.

I opened the door and closed it after me. She was face down on her bed with the bedspread balled up into a pillow crying. "Leave me alone!" she screamed into her pillow at me.

I ignored her and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. I stroked her hair, I liked it longer but it suited her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

She shook my hand off and lashed out blindly with her right elbow.

Ow!

Her flailing elbow connected with my wound. Surprised, I let out an audible groan as she knocked the breath out of me, and I fell off my precarious perch on the edge of her bed to the floor.

Ow!

The twisting ripped a couple of stitches, I could feel the blood running down my stomach.

"Um, Chandra, you just ripped my stitches."

And they hurt!

"I don't care, have her fix it."

"I don't think that I should move. While I lay here, how about talking to me." I asked gently, "Please?"

"No." She wasn't crying anymore, but she was still upset.

"Is it ok if I just lay here and bleed then?"

"No, go away."

Reasonableness was not in this morning's agenda.

"Well if you want me to leave, I am going to need help getting up." I figured that she would have to talk to me sooner or later. The floor was comfy, and I was not up to leaving it without assistance. Not unless I wanted to tear more stitches.

She was quiet for a few minutes. I thought it best that I let her come to me.

Her short dark brown hair framed her face as she peeked over the edge of her bed to look at me on the floor, I looked back at her waiting for her to tell me what she was thinking.

Seeing my blood leaking over the side of my stomach. Guilt washed over her. "'m sorry."

"It's ok, but how about telling me why you are upset." I knew, I thought, but I needed her to talk to me.

"Why did you kiss her?"

I did not expect that question. "Is that the question that you want to ask, or do you have a more important one?"

She slid off the bed and straddled me, trapping my arms in the process with her knees. Gentleness was not a concern for her apparently. Her back was rigid as she looked down on me. "Why did you kiss her?" She was quiet now.

"Why? Because a beautiful woman just got done stitching me up. I could see her pain that I caused. Just like the pain that's in another beautiful woman when you realized that you hurt me." I could see her tears welling in her eyes.