Chapter 12
THEN: DIANA
Diana was dreaming. She was one of those lucky people who knew when they were dreaming.
“It’s okay to like someone new, Jay would totally dig Maggie,” Julia was saying, but when Diana turned to look at her sister in the dream, she was gone. But she had heard her sister’s voice so clearly—-Julia, her voice of reason, even in her dreams.
She was standing in the orchard, a row of trees on either side, when she felt the dream change. Turning her head, there she was, Maggie, with a rake in her hand and a smile on her face.
“I suck at this, you’re right,” she said, smiling and coming closer to Diana. “But it’s not what I want to do anyway.”
“What do you want to do?” Diana felt herself ask in the dream.
“I want you to do what you want to, please, what you know you want to do,” Maggie said, her icy eyes cutting into Diana, and she felt her chest heat. Could you blush in a dream?
It didn’t matter, because Diana knew this was a dream, and if only here, she was willing to have what she knew she had started to want. She tilted her head back and reached up slightly to bring Maggie’s lips to hers.
As if that had set something off, an apple fell from a tree, hitting the ground with a clink. Then another, and another.
After the third she realized with a jolt, that the loud clinking she was hearing was not a part of the dream. She pressed her lips harder to Maggie’s, knowing the moment was about to end when——Diana’s eyes flew open to the darkness of her bedroom.
Clink.
Clink.
The sound was definitely real and sounded like it was coming from somewhere in her room, but in her sleep haze she couldn’t quite pinpoint where. She turned her head and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was just after 2 a.m. on Friday night.
Julia. She had gone out that night and knew she’d be back late. Did she forget her keys?
Clink.
Clink.
Her far window.
Diana threw herself out of bed and quickly padded over to the window. She opened the window and stuck out her head expecting to see Julia.
It was Maggie.
“Diana, hey, sorry, um do you think, do you think I could come up?” Her voice was raspy and thick like she had been crying. It was dark. Diana could make out Maggie in the faint moonlight, but couldn’t truly make out her face.
“Maggie?” she asked, not knowing how else to express her surprise.
“Uh yeah, sorry, I know it’s late, I just, um needed somewhere to go?”
Diana nodded, and then realized Maggie probably couldn’t see her. “Hold on a sec, let me come down and get you.”
“I don’t want to wake your folks,” Maggie said, and Diana was sure she was crying.
“They aren’t on this side of the house, back entrance off the kitchen, meet me there.”
They made it back up to Diana’s room. Diana had grabbed Maggie’s hand to lead her through the house quietly and was surprised when Maggie latched on to her and held her hand in a vice grip.
Diana thought she might have been worried that her own parents would hear them, but they were on the other side of the house, if they were home at all.
She’d also done a quick peek into Julia’s room on her way down, and saw that there was in fact a Jules-sized blob in her bed, though it definitely looked like there was company in there as well.
Diana would have to interrogate her sister later about who she was bringing home.
Once in her room, Diana went to the small lamp she kept on her nightstand and turned it on, the soft glow illuminating the large room enough for her to finally get a good look at Maggie.
She hadn’t been prepared.
Maggie was there in what appeared to be her pajamas, a cheer shirt and long checkered pants.
Her long light brown hair was askew and her face was red and blotchy.
Spreading across her cheek was a bruise, one that went from her cheek and dipped just below her left eye, which now Diana could see was slightly swollen. Both of her eyes were bloodshot.
“Mags?” Diana said in a small voice, trying to put together exactly what she was seeing.
“Hey, I’m, I’m sorry I just—” and then Maggie began to shake with sobs. Diana quickly moved and guided her to her bed, setting her down and then kneeling before her.
“Shhh it’s okay, I am not mad, you didn’t do anything wrong by coming here. I am glad you’re okay, but let me just get a look, just so I can see what you need? Please? Can you do that for me, Maggie?”
Maggie sniffled and then pulled her hair back and showed Diana her face.
Diana did her best to steel her expression.
Not because she was repulsed, but because she was gutted that someone had done this to Maggie.
Maggie who never pushed back even when she was overworked.
Maggie who just seemed to want to please.
“Let me get you something cold for your face, ok? Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Maggie shook her head.
“Okay, I’ll be right back and then we can go to bed.”
Maggie nodded.
Diana stood and left the room. She grabbed an extra washcloth from the linen closet and ran it under cold water in the kitchen while she looked through the freezer.
She found a bag of frozen diced apples, and figured she could make them into a pie tomorrow once they thawed. Maggie seemed to love apple pie.
When she got back up to her room Maggie was still in the same spot she’d left her in.
“Here, use this to wipe your face a bit, and then,” she went to her t-shirt drawer and grabbed an old shirt to wrap the bag of frozen apples in, “we can put this on your face for the swelling. Do you want something for the pain? What am I saying, of course you do, I’ll be right back.
” She handed everything to Maggie who gave her a weak smile, and then Diana went to grab her a glass of water while trying to remember what she did with the bottle of ibuprofen she had kept in her room since her riding accident.
As if at the thought, her hips gave a twinge of pain as she climbed the stairs back to her room with a fresh glass of water. Back in the room she remembered that the ibuprofen was in her nightstand and grabbed it, handed two pills to Maggie and watched her drink the glass of water.
“Do you want more?”
Maggie shook her head.
“Okay, okay, then do you want to talk about it or do you just want to get some sleep?” Diana said gently.
“Sleep,” Maggie mumbled, and Diana nodded. Then she added, “I can stay till tomorrow?” as if she was not sure.
“You can stay as long as you need to, as long as you like,” Diana reassured her. “Come on, you can get in the bed with me, it’ll be a bit snug but it’ll be warm,” Diana said, and Maggie scoffed.
“You have a double bed,” Maggie said.
“I know, Julia convinced our parents to get her a queen but she is the baby of the family and all,” Diana said, helping Maggie into the bed and then getting in beside her.
She heard Maggie say something she couldn’t make out, but she didn’t want to bother her with more chatter.
She turned off the light and then lay on her back.
When she felt slight vibrations coming from Maggie, clearly from her trying to hide her crying, she didn’t hesitate in asking, “Can I hold you?”
In answer, she felt the softest touch from Maggie’s hand outstretched behind her.
Diana scooted over and gathered Maggie in her arms. She hadn’t held anyone since Jay, and was momentarily surprised by how right the gesture felt.
She buried her face in Maggie’s hair at the base of her neck while softly saying, “I got you, you’re safe here, I got you, you’re safe with me,” over and over while Maggie wept.
Diana wasn’t sure when, but eventually Maggie’s breathing evened out and she fell asleep.
This gave her a moment to let her head spin trying to figure out what could have happened, and why Maggie had turned up at her house instead of her friends, though when she thought about it she thought she knew the answer.
More questions flitted through her mind as to how Maggie had gotten to her house in the middle of the night.
Had she walked? Hitchhiked? Was someone after her?
Who had done that to her face? The sheer feeling of protectiveness that engulfed her was one she was also surprised by at first. Mainly because she only felt that way about Julia and then Jay, and now Maggie.
It also gave her the only answer to all of the questions racing through her mind.
Whoever had hurt Maggie, whoever had done that to her face—if she ever found out, she would make them pay.