Chapter 15
Calla couldn't believe these people were being so nice to her. It really was weird that they'd taken her in and were treating her so nicely.
She felt off, like something wasn’t quite right. It had to be her own fear getting in the way. These people were good, and they weren’t using her.
She finished the one slice of pizza and was about to stand up when Elowen put another slice on her plate.
“Oh, I don’t need—”
“If you truly aren’t hungry, you don’t need to eat it. But if you are hungry, please eat. There is plenty.”
Calla glanced around the table. She'd noticed earlier that the guys had two slices on their plates. She couldn't consume as much food as they did. Not that she wasn't hungry, but she'd been conditioned to always be hungry, and having food in her belly felt weird.
Elowen’s lips twisted to the side as her eyebrows raised. “Seriously, the guys can fix something else if they’re hungry. You need to eat.”
She bit her lower lip and then nodded. "Okay. I am hungry."
“Good,” Danika said. “We have plenty of food.”
Sitting at the table with everyone else made her a little nervous. She was used to sneaking food, but here she didn’t have to. No one had made any comments about her being too big or how eating would make her fat. They hadn’t tried to knock the food out of her hands or tease her with food.
Brent had always been cruel. Killing their parents hadn't made him any nicer. He'd been her whole world for years, and she'd taken what he'd said as truth. She'd been wrong to believe him.
Danika and Sharp got up from the table, and she realized Griz was gone, too. She must have been daydreaming and not paying attention. Brent used to get so angry when her mind drifted.
“You okay?” Thario asked.
She jumped a little, then turned to him. "Um, yes."
"I know you're going through a lot. It's hard to deal with trauma. Mine was different from yours, but it hit in waves. Sometimes you're good, then everything seems to be too much."
She blinked at him, unsure what he was talking about. “I’m sorry. I don’t…uh, what was your trauma?”
His chuckle made her heat as desire ripped through her. "Sorry. I didn't mean to confuse you. When I was deployed, a bomb went off. I lost friends, my leg, and the two fingers on my hand." He wiggled his hand with the missing fingers. "The grief came in waves."
“Oh, I’m an idiot. Here I am worrying about myself when you actually went through something terrible.”
He put his hand on her arm. "Hey, don't discount the pain you suffered.
Sometimes, emotional and mental torture is much worse than physical torture.
Like losing my buddies, that was worse than losing my body parts.
Sure, I have to live with missing limbs every day, but the mental toll of my buddies being gone was much worse than the physical one of losing a limb. "
Calla let her gaze drift as she thought about Thario's words. She had bruises, and her wrists might have permanent marks, or at least semi-permanent marks, but she was whole. Her mind was fractured, though. There was her life before her parents had been killed, then after.
She shook her head. “I don’t really know what to do.”
“You don’t have to know anything right now. You have time.”
She nodded. “But how much time?”
Thario took her hand. “You have as much time as you need. Once you get out in nature, you’ll have time to clear your mind. It will help.”
She knew it would. She used to love being outside with the wind in her hair. Moving to the mountains with Elowen and Griz sounded great. It also helped that Thario would be close by.
Griz came in to get their plates, and guilt hit hard. "I can clean."
“No worries,” Griz said. “I’ve got it. You two should relax. You’ve both been through a lot.”
The front door opened, and a dog ran in, heading straight for them. Thario laughed as the dog jumped up on him. He looked so happy to have his dog with him.
"Hey, Frog, did you miss me?" Thario asked, and his dog replied with a lick to his face.
She liked watching Thario laugh. By Frog's reaction, he would be laughing if he could. Maybe dogs do laugh, and we just don't see it. She didn't know much about dogs, but she would be happy to learn with Frog and Thario.
Thario reached over and took her hand. “Frog, this is Calla. She’s going to be around for a while.”
His dog turned to her and sniffed, then licked her hand. He sat and looked at her. She reached out and let him sniff her hand before scratching his head.
"Hi, Frog. You're a cute dog."
Frog barked and stood on all fours. “He wants to play. Do you want to go out in the backyard and toss a ball around?”
“Sure.”
They headed outside, and she kept an eye on Thario, making sure he didn't fall. She could tell he seemed dizzy and needed to take it slow, but he did look very happy to be with his dog again.
After a few tosses of the ball, he sat in one of the plastic chairs.
She studied him, thinking he really looked good.
His dark hair was a little curly because he’d allowed it to grow out a bit.
He had kind eyes, and when he turned them on her, she wanted to pull him close and see what it felt like to kiss him.
Heat filled her. She shouldn’t be thinking that. There was no way he would want her, not with everything she’d been through. Her life was a mess, and she had no clue what she wanted to do if she ever could do anything other than just sit around like a lump.
Brent had almost ruined her, and she had no clue how to live. A few weeks in the mountains would help her get her act together. She hoped Thario came around often, because having him to talk to made her feel much better.
But she didn’t need to rely on him. She needed to stand on her own. If she couldn’t deal with her own problems, maybe she didn’t deserve to get better.