Chapter 15 #2
“Act normal.” I pretended to show her something, then cleaned up as if nothing were wrong.
“If you’re not human, and I don’t know how that’s fucking possible, wouldn’t your mom know?” Sarah asked.
My hands were shaking, and I felt ill. “I’m pretending our results are normal.
If she wants to ask us anything, then I’ll confront her.
” I needed to get out of here before I lost it.
I quickly cleaned up, putting everything back where it belonged.
Then I picked up the cooler, and we headed out.
I made sure to lock the doors and reset the alarm.
Without talking, we got in the car, and I pulled out of the parking lot. About a mile away, I veered off the road and stopped the car. I opened the door, got out, walked around the front of the car, and stood there staring at the empty field before me.
Then I fell to my knees and screamed. It seemed as if something were clawing inside me, begging to be set free. That only frightened me even more.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked, coming to my side and wrapping her arm around my shoulders. “You’re scaring me.”
Tears streamed down my face. It took me a minute before I could answer. “That makes two of us. I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know what I am. My own parents are lying to me.” I’d never been so afraid in all my life.
“What are we going to do?” Sarah asked.
I loved that there was a we in this. It made me feel less alone. “Right now, we’re not going to do anything. We’re still investigating because we don’t have enough information to know how to move forward.”
“Are you going to talk to your mom?”
“Eventually. But not yet. I don’t want either of my parents to know I suspect something.”
“Okay.” Sarah stood and pulled me to my feet.
And then I remembered what Adan had asked about whether my parents were my biological parents. “First, I need to see who I’m living with.”
“This is seriously like something out of a movie,” Sarah said. “Like this is insane.”
I happened to agree with her. It all seemed so surreal, that I was having trouble believing any of it myself. “I’m going to need you to be quiet about it.” We got back in the car. “Don’t talk to anyone about this. Promise me.”
“I promise I won’t say anything.”
I pulled back onto the street and started driving toward my house, wondering who and what I was.
When dinner was over, Sarah and I cleaned up while my parents went into the family room. They’d asked if we wanted to watch a movie with them, but we told them we had studying to do.
“Are we really going to study?” Sarah whispered as she dried the lasagna dish I’d just washed.
“I don’t know.” But I couldn’t sit and watch a movie. Not when it felt like I was living in one.
“Did you see that?” Sarah asked, pointing outside.
I peered out the kitchen window, not seeing anything in my backyard. “What was it? We get a lot of deer around here.”
“I don’t know. A deer maybe. Or a dog. You don’t have a dog, do you?”
“No, but our neighbors do.” I let the water out of the sink and dried my hands. “Follow me.”
I ran up the stairs. My mom kept all of our photo albums in the hallway cupboard.
I opened it, looking for the year before I was born, my birth album, and the first year of my life.
I had no idea what I was looking for, but it felt important that I do this.
Once I located the albums, I took them into my room, tossing them onto my bed.
Sarah followed me into my room. “This weekend definitely isn’t turning out how I thought it would.”
“That makes two of us.” I gave her one of the albums, and I took another one.
“What am I supposed to be looking for?” she asked, flipping it open to the first page.
“You have my first year of life. Let me know if you see anything unusual or strange.” I opened the album that led up to my birth. There were pictures of my mom pregnant. A baby shower. The only thing I noticed was that my dad wasn’t in any of the pictures.
“Your parents got married after you were born?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah. My mom got pregnant with me in college. My dad was doing his residency at the time. They decided to marry after she delivered so she wouldn’t be fat in her wedding dress.”
Sarah snorted. “How’d your parents meet?”
“My mom was doing research under one of the doctors who was supervising my dad. They ran into each other a few times, then started dating.” I closed the album and grabbed the one from my birth. There weren’t too many pictures.
Sarah had finished with her album, so she scooted closer and looked at mine with me. “You were born at home?”
“Yeah.” I never thought it was strange until now. “I’ve never been to a hospital or a doctor. My parents have always treated me.”
“Really? But doesn’t your dad specialize in genetic defects or something? I didn’t realize he’d treat you as a regular patient.”
I rubbed my forehead. My mom was a geneticist and my dad specialized in genetics. He performed operations on infants all the time. Sometimes in utero. Maybe there had been something wrong with me. Perhaps I was just blowing this out of proportion. But then why lie about it?
I closed the album. “It’s been a long day.”
“Say no more,” Sarah said as she stood. “I have a ton of homework. I’m going to go and get some of it done. Let me know if you need me.”
I gave her a hug, then got ready for bed. Not having the headspace to study, I decided to go to sleep early. I turned off my light and climbed into bed. I reached for my phone, wanting to put it on silent, when I realized I already had.
There were a couple of texts from Adan saying he’d read the email, and if I wanted to talk, I could call him.
Rowan had texted. I contemplated deleting it, but I decided to read it.
Rowan the dipshit
I need to apologize.
I’m so sorry for the way I treated you the other day.
Can I stop by so I can explain?
You’re not answering my texts so I assume you’re pissed. You have every right to be.
I was an ass. But hear me out. Please.
I thought you were lying to me. I thought you were playing me for the fool. Then I talked to Adan, and he said he doesn’t think you’re lying. He thinks you honestly don’t know. And that’s what I need to talk to you about. There are things you need to know. I just don’t know how to tell you.
It would be so much easier to do this in person.
I’m sorry.
I lay there, thinking over his many texts.
He seemed like the type of person who spoke without thinking beforehand.
He was loud, aggressive, larger than life, and he seemed fun.
I think he cared about me since he’d bothered to test the insulin.
We definitely had a physical connection, but we didn’t know each other very well.
I knew Adan way better than Rowan. The issue was, Adan was a friend.
Rowan wasn’t. And he’d never be just a friend. Our relationship was too volatile.
Sighing, I lifted my phone and responded to him.
Laney
I went out of town this weekend. I just got your message. Or should I say messages. There were a lot of them! Thank you for apologizing. I’m not sure what happened in the library between us.
Rowan
I’m here if you need anything. I’ll help however I can.
Laney
Okay, let’s start with some basics. Can you answer a few questions for me?
There was a pause before he finally responded.
Rowan
I’ll answer what I can.
Laney
What’s your favorite color?
Rowan
Easy. White. What’s yours?
Really? White? Who liked the color white?
Laney
Not white. That’s not even a color.
Rowan
At least I answered Miss Vague.
Laney
Light blue. Like the sky.
Rowan
I was gonna say like your eyes. You have the most beautiful eyes.
I ignored that comment and forged on. The purpose of texting was to try to get to know him.
Laney
If you couldn’t play rugby, what would you play?
Rowan
Probably hockey. Or football. It would have to be a sport where I could still hit people.
Laney
Violent much?
Rowan
You know it! Hey, why are you asking all the questions? My turn. What’s your favorite song?
Laney
Don’t have one. Too many to choose from.
Rowan
What sort of movies do you like?
Laney
I like everything but horror. Although if I had to choose one genre, it would be romance. I’m a sucker for a good love story. Cliché I know.
Rowan
I’m an action sort of guy.
Laney
Adrenaline. Shocking.
Rowan
Favorite book?
Laney
Why are you asking these impossible questions? How can I choose just one? There are too many good books.
Rowan
Okay…you’re a hard one to pin down. What about food? You have to have a favorite thing to eat.
Laney
Hmm, again SO. MANY. OPTIONS.
Rowan
I know you like burritos. Adan said you scarfed down the one he bought you.
Laney
Yes, I love Mexican food. And Italian. Oh, and Chinese.
Rowan
Pick one.
Laney
Pizza.
Rowan
That wasn’t so hard, was it?
Laney
At least you didn’t ask about toppings…
Rowan
I was just about to. Guess that means I’m skipping that one.
Laney
Can I ask you something?
Rowan
Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?
Laney
Something serious.
Rowan
I’m pretty sure knowing that pizza is your favorite food IS serious.
Laney
Why’d you think my insulin wasn’t insulin?
Three dots appeared as he typed. I bit my thumb, wondering if he’d say the same thing Adan had.
And speaking of Adan, I needed to talk to him next to find out why he knew so much about Rowan.
I mean, I knew they were friends. But they seemed to have a deeper connection than that. Deeper than teammates.
Rowan
It’s hard to explain. Especially over a text.
But the gist of it is that you didn’t seem diabetic to me.
When I was putting your medicine in the fridge that one time, it didn’t look, feel, or smell like insulin.
I can’t explain it more than that. I know it’s bad of me, but I stole a vial and had it tested just to see.
Laney
Why?
Rowan
I was afraid someone was hurting you.
Laney
Then why did you verbally attack me in the library?
Rowan
I thought maybe you were taking the non-insulin as a way to hurt me.
Laney
I don’t understand.
Again, the three dots appeared. I couldn’t imagine what he would say to explain why he thought I’d hurt him. I wasn’t the sort of person who hurt other people.
Rowan
This isn’t a convo for texting.
One line. Simple. No explanation.
Laney
You’re not gonna tell me?
Rowan
I will. But in person. It’ll be easier that way. Then I can show you if I need to so you can understand.
Favorite drink?
Laney
Tea. Of the hot variety.
Rowan
An answer! I’m shocked.
We continued texting back and forth until I fell asleep with the phone in my hand.
The next morning, my mom made the most delicious breakfast consisting of Dutch pancakes, fruit, and bacon. Sarah and I sat there stuffing our faces while my mom and dad asked us all sorts of questions about school.
“Speaking of which,” I said around a mouthful of food.
“In my genetics lab, we’re doing DNA tracing.
We’re looking at hair and eye color. Stuff like that.
We’re using dummy samples, but the TA said if we can get our parents’ DNA, she’d give us extra credit.
” Which wasn’t quite true. We were all using dummy DNA, and no extra credit was available.
But I wanted to test my parents’ DNA to see if they were my parents.
I was ninety-nine percent sure they were.
That dumb one percent was driving me nuts. I had to know for certain.
“Just use the dummy DNA,” my mom said as she stood and went over to the sink to wash her coffee mug. “It’s easier. Besides, in a college level genetics class, you won’t be able to know the difference between my DNA and the next person’s.”
“Your mom’s right,” Dad said.
“Noah, I’m always right,” my mom said around a chuckle.
“Extra credit,” I reminded them.
My mom turned and leaned against the counter, folding her arms. “How does the TA want the DNA? Does she want a blood sample?”
“No,” I replied. “Just a cheek swipe.”
Dad stood and refilled his coffee cup. “Your TA will never know if it’s our DNA or someone else’s.” He kissed my mom’s cheek. “Are you still taking the girls back this morning?”
“I am.”
“I’m going to the hospital. I have a patient I need to check on today.” He said goodbye to Sarah and me before leaving.
“I’m running to the grocery store to grab a few snacks for the road. Any requests?” Mom asked.
“Chips,” I replied.
“Sour gummies,” Sarah added.
“I think I can manage that.” My mom grabbed her purse. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes. We’ll leave once you’re both ready.”
“I’m going to shower,” Sarah said.
As soon as I was alone, I went over to the drawer and pulled out two sandwich bags. I labeled one Mom and one Dad. I headed upstairs to their bedroom. My heart thumped in my chest. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I needed to hurry because my mom wouldn’t be gone long.
Entering their bathroom, I went over to my mom’s sink area and plucked her toothbrush out of its holder.
I slid it in the bag labeled with her name, zipping it closed.
Then I did the same with my dad’s toothbrush.
Reaching into my sweatshirt pocket, I withdrew the two toothbrushes I’d bought early this morning, replacing the ones I’d taken.
They were the same color and brand. Hopefully, my parents wouldn’t notice the new brushes since they looked identical.
Now that I’d finished the great toothbrush heist, I ran to my bedroom, unable to believe what I’d just done. If my parents found out, if they suspected me, I had no idea what they’d do.
As I packed, I wondered who I could get to run a DNA test to determine if the samples I’d collected belonged to my biological parents.
And would traces of saliva from a toothbrush even be sufficient?
I wasn’t sure. Blood would be best, but I had no idea how to get their blood samples without alarming them.
Obviously, they wouldn’t give those willingly.
I didn’t know if I was ready for the answer. I was still freaking out about the whole not human thing. So much so that I couldn’t even think about it without having a mild panic attack.
My skin prickled in warning. I went over to my window and glanced outside.
One of the bushes in the backyard moved ever so slightly, even though none of the other bushes or trees swayed in the wind.
I stood there, waiting to see if there was a deer or dog in our yard.
After a few minutes, I still didn’t see anything that would have caused the bush to move.
My skin prickled again. I had the strangest feeling that someone or something was watching me. I yanked my blinds closed.