Ice Cold - Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Landon Reilly
I never imagined what Wren's house looked like, but if I did it would have been some house on a dead end street with a long driveway that practically put it in the middle of the woods, a suitable place for creatures like him to reside. But when he pulled into his driveway, his house was nothing like that. It was in a cul de sac neighborhood surrounded by houses that looked almost the exact same as each other. It was a normal, suburban neighborhood and absolutely nothing how I imagined the place Wren lived to be. However, that didn't make me regret coming with him any less.
"This is where you live?" I asked as he parked the car in front of the two-door garage.
"No, I'm just dropping you off here," he replied with a straight face. I rolled my eyes at him and the two of us got out of the car, Wren grabbing both of our bags from the backseat and throwing them over his shoulder.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to be here...?" I trailed, glancing nervously over at Wren as we walked up to the house.
"Fox isn't here," he said. "I would know it if he was and I wouldn't have brought you here."
That only made me feel slightly better. I wasn't ready for another confrontation with Fox anytime soon, not with the way he was giving me a death glare when I saw him at the diner a few weeks ago.
I followed Wren up to the house, him unlocking the door and letting us inside. The house was dark, seeming like no one else was here. I didn't know whether to feel more relaxed at that or more stressed at the fact that I was all alone with Wren.
He flipped on the lights and I took a look around the house. We were standing in the living room that was practically spotless except for the books stacked on the coffee table and the video games in a pile on the floor near the TV. There were a ton of pictures of the family all around the room. A family portrait hung above the fireplace and individual school pictures of all the children were scattered about the walls. I didn't realize Wren had so many siblings. I didn't actually know he had one other than Fox.
Before I had the chance to say anything, two little girls came out of nowhere, screaming, one holding a frying pan and the other a broom as if they were going to hit the two of us with them. I jumped back, but Wren looked at them with a blank expression.
"Seriously?" he asked the girls, raising his eyebrows.
"You asshole!" the one holding the broom exclaimed. She smacked him with it. "We thought someone broke in!"
"Through the front door by unlocking it with a key?"
She smacked him again with the broom and he took it out of her hands.
"You don't know what it's like being a girl and having to live in fear!" she yelled.
"Where are Mom and Dad? Where's Colt?"
"Mom and Dad are out with Dan and Mindy. Colt is upstairs, but he would be no help in a break-in situation."
"I don't doubt that," Wren replied.
The other little girl was glaring at me, still holding the frying pan up like she was about to use it. I recognized her from the diner a few weeks ago.
"Ava, you can put that thing down now," Wren told her, but she didn't listen.
"What is he doing here?" she asked him, never taking her eyes off of me.
Wren looked between the two of us and let out a sigh.
"Okay, what's it going to take to keep you two quiet about this?"
"Quiet about what?" the other girl, who I assumed was his sister, asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"About him being here, Fawn," Wren said. "What else?"
Fawn looked over at me for the first time and a look of realization washed over her.
"Oh, I know who this is," Fawn said with a grin at her brother. "And it's a big price because Fox would bee so pissed if he knew."
"So...?"
"I'll leave that up to Ava," Fawn said, looking over at her friend.
I had no idea what was going on, but I still looked over at Ava just as Wren and Fawn did. She still held her glare on me, the frying pan in her hand. That and the fact that Fawn deferred to her made me realize this must be Elijah's little sister. I knew it was a bad idea to come here.
"Come on Ava," Wren said. "Everyone has a price. What will it take for you to keep this from Elijah?"
"I don't think it's Elijah you need to worry about," Ava said, turning her glare at Wren. "He won't do anything, but Fox will rip your head off."
"I suppose you're right," he said. "But you don't want to see me get my head ripped off, do you?"
Ava rolled her eyes. "I actually don't care if you get your head ripped off."
Wren placed a hand on his chest, feigning like he was hurt.
"Ouch," he said, shaking his head. "Alright Fawn, what will it take for you to keep your mouth shut?"
Fawn grinned at her brother. "Give me your credit card and drive us to the mall."
Wren sighed then looked over at me.
"Wait here," he said, dropping out bags on the floor and leaving the room with Fawn.
That left me alone with Ava. She had lowered the frying pan and dropped her glare, but I still felt the hostility coming from her. It was nothing I didn't deserve, but it made me want to leave. I'd rather sleep outside than have to worry about this little girl
smothering me in my sleep.
"Elijah forgives you," Ava said, causing my eyes to move back to her. "He's too nice sometimes."
I had no idea how to respond to that.
I hated thinking about Elijah and everything I had done to him, the way he tried to help me even though I didn't deserve it and how if it wasn't for him, I would have been shipped off to some hell-like place and hate myself even more than I did now.
"I..." I trailed. Ava looked at me expectantly, but nothing else came out of my mouth. Wren and Fawn were back in the room before I could even think of anything, and Fawn grabbed Ava's arm to drag her away.
"Come on," Fawn said. "Wren's ordering food."
Ava followed her out of the room without giving me a second glance.
"I shouldn't be here," I said once Wren and I were alone.
Not with Elijah's little sister here. I would just be constantly reminded of Elijah and not only the ways I had hurt him, but how he gets to live his life so freely, how he has accepted himself, how he was so much happier and kinder than me.
Wren gave me a strange look.
"I'm the one that's going to have my brother try to beat me up if he finds out about this," Wren said. "I don't know why you're so nervous."
I didn't reply, so Wren just picked up our bags and moved toward the stairs. He noticed I wasn't following him and nodded toward the stairs so I would go with him.
I tried not to look around as I walked through the house. There were more pictures in the hallway upstairs between the bedroom doors. Wren brought me about halfway down the hall before he shoved open a door on the left side and walked in.
His bedroom was much like his side of his dorm room, neat and plain. One side of the room had three bookshelves with neat rows of books on them. The headboard of his bed had a couple piles of books laying there like he had them there so he would have options for what he read at night.
His bed was made perfectly with crisp folds in the sheets and comforter while his desk was a little more messy, littered with papers and sticky notes.
He tossed our bags down on the floor at the foot of his bed.
"I would offer to have you sleep in my sister's old bedroom, but my mother turned it into a yoga studio," Wren said after a moment. "So you'll have to settle for sleeping in here."
"And you'll sleep...?"
"In here," Wren said with a blank expression. "Isn't it enough I've given up my bed at school for you? You want to take my bed at home too? Though, I supposed we could just share."
I scoffed. "No. I would have just slept outside at my house if you were going to force me to share a bed with you."
There was a playful gleam in Wren's eye as he grinned at me.
"Who's forcing you?" he asked. "We would both fit. We'd both fit in my bed at school too if you gave me some room."
I didn't even have a response for that.
"Come on," he said after a moment. "Fawn made me order food and we have to go pick it up."
I followed Wren back down to his car before we made our way to pick up the food. I didn't bother asking him why he needed me to come with him because I decided I wouldn't have wanted to stay at that house with his siblings without him. Maybe he knew that. Or maybe he thought dragging me out of the house would annoy me.
It was hard to distinguish Wren's good intentions from his self-serving ones.
"So, are you going to see your sister while you're home?" Wren asked casually, making conversation as we stopped at a light.
"I don't know. It's not like I can call her and let her know I'm here."
Wren shot me a questioning look and that made me realize my mistake.
Wren had no idea about my family life or my relationship with my sister. All he knew was what he had been told by Elijah and Fox and things I probably told him while drunk and whatever other information he inferred about me.
He had no idea I had no way of contacting my sister because our parents monitored her phone and she would get in trouble if they knew she was speaking to me. Or that I feared whatever my father would do to me if he ever found out I had been speaking to and seeing Livi secretly since I moved out of their house.
"Don't ask," I said with a sigh, hoping Wren would drop the subject, but knowing he would sit there and stew about the meaning of my words, maybe finding meaning that wasn't there but probably seeing right through me.
I was surprised when Wren didn't say anything after that, but he still had that look on his face, the look where I could tell he was working through something in his head, probably trying to see into my mind.
Wren pulled into the parking lot and just as I was about to mindlessly follow him out of the car, my eyes locked on a familiar face across the parking lot. I paused, froze more like it, and stared over at the man getting out of his car.
My father. Making his way toward the same restaurant I almost just walked into.
I quickly got all the way back into Wren's car and sunk down in the seat to hide myself. Wren stood there with the driver's door open, looking down at me with a blank expression.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, his voice sounding amused. He always seemed amused.
"Just go get the food and let's get out of here," I hissed, glancing up at him with pleading eyes.
"Okay, bossy," he said, slamming the door shut and locking the doors.
I knew he would press me about this later. It was just in his nature, and as much as he believed I was the predictable one, he was just as easy to predict. At least when it came to his behaviors toward me.
It seemed like Wren took an eternity in there. When he eventually came back, he startled me when he unlocked the car and got in.
He put the food in the backseat, then looked down at me with his eyebrows raised in an expectant expression.
"Drive!" I exclaimed.
"You need your seatbelt on."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"What, are you going to kill us just driving through the parking lot?"
Wren shrugged. "Better safe than sorry."
I grumbled, but I sat back up in my seat anyway, keeping my head down as I pulled the seatbelt across my body and secured it.
"Happy?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied with a smug expression.
I glanced out the window and saw that my father's car was still in the parking lot, but he was not in it. That only relieved me slightly. Seeing my father had rattled me more than I thought it would. I was getting car sick for the first time in my life, my stomach turning every time the car moved.
I could feel Wren glancing at me every so often, but he didn't say anything. I cradled my stomach with my arms, closing my eyes and leaning my head against the window. Soon, I would be out if this and the nausea would stop.
As soon as we got into the house, I sat down on the couch. The girls came downstairs and took their food from Wren. I rested my head in my hand, my elbow propping me up on the arm rest. I didn't know how long Wren stood there and stared at me, but when I glanced over at him, he was standing on the other side of the couch with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Well, aren't you going to eat?" Wren asked gesturing toward the food he put down on the coffee table.
"I will literally throw up right now."
"Always so dramatic," Wren replied, shaking his head as he sat on the couch beside me. "And to think I bought you dinner and everything."
"You didn't have to do that," I told him with a hard stare.
"Maybe I should've bought you dinner before I asked you to have sex with me," Wren said.
Though hearing his words burned me and twisted my stomach into knots, I made myself keep calm. He was being playful and light-hearted. I didn't need to freak out even though seeing my father had rattled me so badly.
"That's what's supposed to come first right?" I replied. "Dinner then sex?"
Wren grinned, eyes glinting in amusement. "It's not usually how I do it, but I hear that's how some people prefer it. I usually just skip the pleasantries."
"Very classy of you."
Wren shrugged, taking a bite of his food. He rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, exposing his forearms and that vein I couldn't take my eyes off the last time I saw it. I brought my eyes to his face, his clear skin, his sharp jaw...
I snapped my eyes shut, holding onto my stomach. If my father saw me now staring at Wren and talking about having sex with him, he would have shipped me off faster than I could blink.
He was still in my head, telling me how disgusting I was, that I was a disappointment, that I needed to repent for my sin.
"I was trying to hold myself back from asking who you saw that made you hide in my car, but you're kind of forcing my hand here," Wren said after a few moments. "You actually look like you're going to throw up."
"Shut up."
"Was it an old teammate? A coach? Teacher? Parent?"
"Wren, shut the fuck up right now." I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as my arms hugged my stomach.
"Okay, moody," he said.
He didn't say anything else as he continued eating his food. I cracked open my eyes slightly when he got up from the couch. He picked up the food he had put out in front of me and brought it into the kitchen. A moment later, he was hauling me off the couch.
"Why the fuck are you touching me?" I asked, pushing away from him.
"Because if my parents came home tonight and found some random kid sleeping on their couch, they'd be concerned and confused."
"You could have just told me to get up," I said, following him toward the stairs.
"Then that would have started a whole other argument and you'd still be on the couch," he said, leading me to his bedroom. "This way, it still started an argument but at least I got you up."
I rolled my eyes and glared at the back of his head.
When we got in his room, Wren tossed me a pillow and a blanket, the pillow hitting my face before it fell to the floor.
"For your night on the floor," he said, moving to his closet to change. I looked away as he pulled his shirt off over his head, only getting a glimpse of his bare back.
I quickly changed out of my clothes and into clothes to sleep in while Wren was turned away doing the same. When I turned back to him, he stood in just pajama pants. No shirt.
I looked down at the floor before lying down there to sleep.
"You can climb into bed with me if you decide your pride isn't worth sleeping on the floor."
Wren shut the light off and stepped over me to get into bed. He flicked on a lamp beside his bed and picked up one of the books from the top of the headboard.
I didn't know how long I lay there awake, tossing and turning. Wren had eventually shut off his lamp and put down his book and I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the whole time he read.
I couldn't stop thinking about seeing my father. All it did was remind me of the man he was, the things he had said and done to me all my life, the way he had completely altered the way I thought of myself and the way I would think of myself forever.
It wasn't until I started going to therapy that I realized how much emotional and mental damage my father had done to me growing up. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to accept myself for who I was, not with his voice constantly in the back of my mind telling me who I was was wrong.
"If you can't get comfortable down there, just get in bed," Wren said in a groggy voice.
I hadn't realized that I had turned over again.
I couldn't get in Wren's bed. There was no way I could get into bed with him. That would only make my fathers voice louder. It would only make me feel worse.
But my father's voice in my head made me feel so alone, and I didn't want to feel that way. And there was Wren just a few feet away, offering me a place next to him.
So, I sighed, heaved myself off the floor, and got into bed.
"I knew you couldn't resist me," Wren said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
I shoved him lightly.
"Shut up, stupid."
I turned away from him and fell asleep.