Chapter Nine
"NICK!"
Kevin's voice was rising.
I looked at Gliese. "He's gonna keep looking 'til he finds us, and he's gonna get more and more worried. I gotta go down there before he thinks I offed myself or something..." I could hear him banging through rooms downstairs.
Gliese's eyes were shining. "Just... don't trust him. Don't tell him I'm here. Get him to leave as quickly as possible." Her voice was pleading, "Protect me."
"I will... I won't tell him you're here, he'd just think I was mental anyways," I answered. Gliese moved away from the door and I opened it and slid out into the hallway. I turned and looked back at her as I was closing the door. She lowered herself onto the closed toilet lid where I'd been sitting before Kevin got there. I stared at her, afraid if I closed the door she'd be gone, yet almost hoping it, too. I took a deep breath, "It's nice seeing you," I said thickly.
She looked up. "Hurry," she whispered.
I nodded and pulled the door closed. A part of me wanted to check to see if she was gone. I was about to reach for the door knob again when Kevin thundered up the steps. His face was pale, his chest heaving as he gasped oxygen into his lungs. His eyes landed on me and he gasped out a cry of relief and bent forward, hands on his knees, and stared down at the carpet. "Oh Christ Nick," he gasped.
"Hey Kev," I said.
"You scared me to fucking death man," he said.
"I'm sorry," I answered. "I just... I didn't hear you."
"I was yelling like a banshee..."
"Sorry."
Kevin looked me over, his eyes flittered across my nose with concern. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Oh..." I'd forgotten about my nose in all the conversation about Keplers and planets and aliens and DNA and crazy shit. I brought my hand up to my face, "Yeah. That. I just... I was in my studio and I hit my face by accident."
"On what?" Kevin stepped forward and studied my crusty-with-dried-blood nose.
"The soundboard. I dropped a pen. Hit my face."
"You're such a damn klutz," he muttered. He reached for the door knob of the bathroom. "Let's get you cleaned up," he suggested.
I swatted his hand away from the knob, "Let's use the one downstairs."
"What's wrong with this one?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just. I -- I -- I don't like this one as much."
"But that's the one with all your stuff? Isn't the one downstairs a guest bathroom?"
"It's cleaner," I tried.
Kevin raised an eyebrow, "How messy is this one? Have you been keeping up with the chores around here?" He pushed around me, reached for the knob and shoved the door open. I held my breath, waited for a reaction from him about seeing CowBelle or Gliese or whatever. But he just stepped inside. There was a long pause. Then he turned and looked at me, holding up the bottle of Jack. "Are you drinking?"
I looked around him. She was gone.
Kevin shook the bottle at me.
"I was..." I confessed.
"Is that how you hit your face?" Kevin asked.
"I -- maybe," I stammered. My mind was more fixed on where the hell Gliese had gone, if she had been simply a vision-slash-hallucination, or if maybe Keplers had some crazy power to disappear. Maybe she could make herself invisible.
Kevin unscrewed the cap from the Jack and poured it down the sink basin, running the water. Then he grabbed a wash cloth and wet it with warm water, which he turned and carefully wiped the blood off my face with. He stared at me as he did it. "Are you okay today?" he asked gently, more gently than he'd asked anything else.
I nodded. Warm dots of water were hitting my chest. I stared at the rings of the shower curtain as he carefully washed my face. "Yeah I'm fine," I replied.
Kevin stopped and ran the water again, re-wetting the wash cloth. "I thought you might be a little lonely today, with it being... her birthday... and all." He turned back to me, holding the cloth in his hand. His eyes were sad. "I know it was hard the first year after my dad died, when his birthday rolled around."
"I've been keepin busy," I answered.
Kevin wiped my face again.
I felt like a little kid.
"I know you don't like it when I'm checking on you and you think I'm worrying about you too much," Kevin said, "But it's only because I care. I don't want you being alone when you really don't want to be."
Then the first couple rings of the shower curtain moved as he was speaking. I shifted my eyes and saw her peeking around the edge of it, her eyes wide. Hurry she mouthed at me, Time is running out, we need to stop the white noise. Hurry.
"I'm good," I said quickly. "Really." I reached for Kevin's wrist and stopped him from wiping my face anymore. "Seriously, man, I'm really.. really.. really good. I'm not that lonely, in fact, I kinda like the quiet, you know?"
Kevin looked at me funny and dropped the wash cloth on the counter. "You say that, but I know how stubborn your pride is and everything... God forbid you admit you need someone..."
"I really don't right now."
Kevin sighed.
"Really."
"Is that why you were hiding in a bathroom with a bottle of Jack?"
"I told you I was in the studio," I answered. "I was working on some new songs. I'm in a creative mood." Gliese was still peeking around the shower curtain. I backed into the hallway, and Kevin followed and I quickly pulled the bathroom door shut as he stepped out. "I'm doing good," I added.
Kevin sighed again. "Okay," he said.
"Okay," I said back.
"Look, I'll let you be for now, but I'm gonna stay in town --"
"You don't have to."
"-- at the Marriott by the airport. If you need me for anything - anything, even if you just wanna go get a bite or something - you just call me and I'll come. Okay?"
I nodded.
Kevin put his hands on my shoulders. "I'm here for you, man," he said.
"Thanks," I answered.
He nodded, smiled, and I followed him to the doorway. He stepped outside and walked across the lot to the car he'd driven over and I watched as he drove away. I took a deep breath of air before closing the door again and leaning against it. I closed my eyes. After a moment of regrouping, I went back up the stairs and slowly opened the bathroom door. "He's gone," I said.
The shower curtain pulled back and there she stood.
"We need to hurry," she said.
Whitenoise by Pengi
