After about twenty minutes of trying to get Colby to get up to get his stitches checked, he was leading the way down the stairs.

He never bothered to put a shirt on, insisting it would have to be taken off anyways so there was no point in even trying to look decent.

"Colby is that you?" Xepher called, not looking up from one of the three dining room tables in the house. She had a variety of medical supplies laid out across it, with papers labeling all the bottles and containers.

"What in the holy hell?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder to study the mess a bit better.

"Oh," Xepher leaned over to see me better, acknowledging my presence, "Hello Kiara. I'm assuming you're his babysitter?"

"Oooo, I like that," I teased Colby, nudging his arm as he walked over to a chair Xepher had pulled out for him, "It suits me very well,"

"Don't you have something to do?" He looked up at me with annoyance. Xepher ignored his exchange with me and began lifting the bandage up, murmuring for him to sit up straighter so she could see better.

"Except for bothering you?" I pretended to think about it, "No,"

Behind the exasperated roll of his eyes, I could see that he secretly enjoyed my company. I would too, if I were anyone else. I'm funny looking with a good sense of humor.

"It looks good, not healing as fast as either of us would like it to but it's getting somewhere," Xepher snapped on a pair of gloves before pulling at the corner of the bandage, "Okay, when I get to three I'm going to rip this off and it'll hurt like a bitch so don't be a pussy," She glanced up at him, not expecting a reaction from him besides something close to impatience.

"One," She began to count before ripping it off. I looked up at Colby's face to see his eyes squinted and his lips pressed together for a moment before returning to his normal, stoic facial expression.

"You know, you did better than Corey," I looked down at Xepher in confusion and she explained for me, "One time he got shot, it was quite funny, actually because it was Jake who shot him cause he was fucking around. But before I even ripped the bandage off he was on the verge of tears. So you probably know how the rest of the story goes,"

I snickered, imagining him sobbing as Xepher told him to suck it up or something and continued with her work. A little part of me wishes I was there to see it myself. But that would mean I would have been away from my family for a lot longer than a couple weeks like I have been.

The thing that worried me about going back to them would be the severe consequences for "running away". Though I loved my family with all that I am, they only hear what they want to hear when I do something wrong.

And my mother never went into detail about what she did, but when she was sixteen she did something bad, like really bad. My grandmother decided that whatever she did was so severe that my mother's punishment was to have an arranged marriage.

So I'm assuming that my fate would be similar. My parents never mentioned it to me, the only way I knew about the arrangement was from my grandfather, who was very open to us. God I miss him.

No matter what Colby or Mitch insisted he did, he was still my grandfather. I love him, he was my world. I was closer to him than the rest of my family, and now he's gone and my family will be, too.

Part of me still feels like that's my fault, and in a way it is. They are ignorant to what is going to happen to them, but here I am, safe and aware.

It still hurts to think about them, to think about my grandfather's laugh or my father's smile. The way my mother's hair seemed to shine similar to mine if the sunlight hit it just right.

I thought back to my bedroom, the boxes probably still unopened and stacked throughout my room. The house was probably a mess with nobody really caring to clean it. They are too busy looking for me or trying to get the bills paid to worry about that. That's my fault.

"Kiara?" Colby's voice snapped me from my thoughts, and I looked down at him expectantly. His mouth opened like he was going to say something, but closed it before trying again, "You ready?"

I glanced down to see a fresh bandage on his chest, and Xepher humming a soft tune to herself as she continued to organize her supplies.

"Yeah," I nodded, crossing my arms in front of my body, "Thanks Xepher," I said for him, knowing that Colby oftentimes forgot his manners unless in a business setting.

"Of course!" She gave me a toothy grin, and I looked over to see Colby going to stand up.

I could clearly see he was in some sort of discomfort, but tried too hard not to show it. I didn't understand why he can't let himself show that he's not feeling his best.

"No. working." Xepher told Colby sternly once he was on his feet. "To bed with you,"

"What am I supposed to do?" Colby looked at her with clear confusion, like that was exactly what he was going to do anyways, "Shit needs to get done, Xepher. I can't go take an off day when I'm perfectly capable of doing things,"

"All I heard from that was: "Yes Xepher, I will go lay in my bed like a good little boy and eat Scooby Snacks and watch Vampire Diaries because it's sooooo good," Xepher mocked him with a high pitched voice.

"I will kill you in your sleep," He grumbled, beginning to walk out of the room.

"Yeah, uh-huh," She rolled her eyes at him before looking at me, "Keep him from getting into trouble please,"

"I'll do my best," I promised before speeding out of the room to catch up to Colby.

"Have fun, but not too much fun!" Xepher sang loudly, causing Colby to groan.

"Shut up!" He shouted back in a similar tone.

After a couple of seconds of walking down the hall, Colby glanced over at me.

"What?" He asked, questioning the smirk on my face. I didn't respond but instead looked away.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the smallest smile appear on his face as he looked at me for a moment longer.

And it scared me, in a good way.