“Just some are harder than others,” he added softly.
She stopped shaking her head, and focused on him. They stared at each other again. She could feel her defences chipping away, so before she broke down in front of him, she gave him a harsh glare, put her arms by her sides and growled, “Don't talk to me.”
She turned and strutted back to her room. Slumping onto the bed, she lay down on her front, then squished her face into the pillow to muffle her sobs.
~Chapter 15 - Hide~
Saturday May 14th, 10:23 a.m.
Jaz's room
Four days after her attempted escape, Jaz was sitting on her bed when Driver came back from his morning duties.
She was gazing at the tips of her toes that were visible above the fresh plasters Skye had applied that morning, when she heard him approach. She sensed him watching her by the doorway before he knocked lightly on the door.
She held her breath and turned her head up in his direction. She was still edgy around him but at least she didn't try to attack him with mirror shards. Her eyes followed his hand as he rubbed the spot where she'd slashed him. It was a small cut now, and fading fast. His right hand with the chunky silver ring then rested on his bicep, concealing the wound.
She bit her lip. She felt terrible for cutting him, because it was something she'd done in a rage when she hadn't been herself. No matter how she felt about him, trying to slice him open had been the wrong thing to do.
“How are you?” he asked, glancing at her bare feet.
“Peachy,” she said facetiously, glowering at her feet and swinging them back and forth above the floor.
“I'm not here for small talk,” he grunted.
She looked at him properly for the first time. Her eyes squinted before relaxing to normal size. “Okay.”
“I want to know if you feel any different since you've been here.”
She kept her face aimed in his direction but turned her eyes to one side, thinking about it. “I already told Maria,” she replied shortly.
Maria had come to visit her the day after she'd tried to sneak out. Then every day after that when Jaz seemed to take to the old woman. And she did like her, though she wasn't ready to put her trust in her, she just enjoyed her company. Even more so when Maria told her she was her grandmother. It wasn't a complete shock to Jaz when she put all the pieces of information together, but it had still taken her several days to digest it. It was surreal to discover new relatives that until a week ago, she'd never known about.
So far she knew that Maria was Erica's mother, and her father's; that her mother, Eliza, had family that lived down south in Devon but Maria didn't go into any more detail about them. Jaz also had an Uncle Garik -Maria's eldest son- though he was 'Out of town.' Her grandfather Vern, Maria's husband, had been dead for several years. That saddened her because she saw how much Maria still grieved his loss when she spoke of him.
Maria also told her about Lora. Her twin. The sister she'd never known. Maria related how she'd died; that Lora had lost her son, Jaz's nephew.
It tore at Jaz's heart to think that so much time had been stolen from her and Lora. Jaz didn't know how she felt about the fact that it was her parents' doing; the parents who had abandoned her. She didn't understand why they would do that. Maybe if she knew them she could figure out the meaning behind their actions. Right now, she tried not to think about it and she didn't ask Maria about them. She wasn't ready for that yet.
She wasn't ready to ask her about the strange changes to her body either.
She'd tried to ignore it, clinging to the pathetic hope that if she ignored it long enough it would eventually go away.
But of course she knew it wouldn't.
Something was happening to her, she could feel it. And though she didn't know what it was, she knew it was here to stay.
She hated Driver for bringing it up. Saying she'd told Maria was just a cop out.
And of course, he knew it. Jaz gnawed on her lip when she saw he wasn't going to give up.
“I want you to tell me,” he pushed, gazing at her, unblinking.
She exhaled. “I don't want to talk about it.”
Driver stepped into the middle of the room. She leant back, wanting to lift her legs away from the edge of the bed where he was stood only inches away. She didn't react because that would only show her fear. She craned her neck up at him.
He eyeballed her. “Is that why you've never asked what you are?” he questioned. “You're afraid?”
She shook her head -more to tell him to shut up than to say no.
“You can't run away from it.”
“Stop. Okay, just stop,” she snapped.
He blinked and closed his mouth.