Chapter 7

I woke up the next morning, and felt the telltale signs that someone was in bed with me. I opened my eyes to find Zoe lying in my bed, her head propped up on her hand, staring at me.

“Morning, sunshine.”

“This is pretty early for you, Zoe.”

“Yeah, I had to set an alarm to get up. But I wanted to make sure I was here to give you your reward.”

“Do tell?”

“First, go brush your teeth. You have ‘morning breath.’”

I hurried and brushed my teeth and got back into bed. I was rewarded with a small kiss.

“Much better.”

She leaned into me and showed me just how much she appreciated my following along with her insane plan. Most our clothes stayed on, but I got the message loud and clear.

“Okay, time for you to go run. I will set your clothes out.”

I got back to find my clothes on my bed, and Tina talking to Zoe. Both stopped when I walked in and just looked at me. I picked up my clothes and headed for a shower. Tina was gone and Zoe was going through one of my desk drawers.

“Find anything interesting.”

“No, not really. I was just snooping. It’s something girls do to their guys. We want to know everything about them.”

“I wasn’t complaining. Look away, I have nothing to hide. So what were you talking about with Tina?”

“Just girl talk.”

I laughed and she said, “What?”

“It’s just, that’s always the answer you give.”

She shrugged. “Something you are going to have to deal with. Girls talk about stuff. Boys just have to live with it. Let’s go eat breakfast and head to school. Today, after practice, you need to go to Dr. Snider’s office with me, so she can talk to you.”

“That’s today?”

“Yeah. She said she needs to get ‘the lay of the land, ‘ and that includes you.”

At lunch, the table was all-abuzz when I sat down. The girls were all talking to Tami about last night.

Amanda started it off, “So how did our boy do?”

“A lot of the normal boy problems but Zoe set him right. He was fun to talk to. Once you get past the shy-guy stammering thing, he is really interesting.”

“You know I am sitting right here.”

They all looked at me for a second as if I were an idiot, and then went back to ignoring me.

“He did the stuff guys normally do. Forgot to open doors, walked without checking where I was, stuff like that. Zoe trained him up right, though.”

“How did the date end?”

“He walked me to my door and eventually gave me a kiss goodnight.”

Rachel leaned in, interested, “And?”

“And no instruction needed. Our boy has skills!”

They all looked at me like I was the lunch special. Zoe pulled me in close.

“Careful, ladies. You have to get an appointment through me.”

Was I just pimped out by my quasi-girlfriend?

“Hey, don’t look at me. You all have guys I respect. Only single ladies need apply.”

I swear to god Rachel looked a little sad but Tami piped up.

“I’m single and I think I might want seconds.”

Zoe glared at Tami.

“Slut.”

Tami glared back.

“Tease.”

They both laughed. Girls are strange.

Practice was mildly better. I didn’t spend as much time on my ass, and I think I hit most of my routes. While I still managed to not drop the ball, I didn’t feel like I did all that well. Coach gave me another atta-boy, though. I guess it is all part of the process.

The amount of homework I got from football was surprising. I had a huge binder of plays I had to memorize. I even had to memorize the plays where I wasn’t involved.

After practice, Mrs. Bell drove us to the doctor’s office. We were all very quiet. I was nervous about this. What would happen if the doctor didn’t think I was a good influence? I knew if she said I was bad for Zoe’s recovery; I would have to let her go. As much as I hated the idea of not having Zoe in my life, there was nothing more important to me than her health and safety. If I had to back away from whatever this relationship was to give her that, I would.

We sat in reception area for a few minutes, until an older lady came out. She motioned for Zoe to sit down.

“I just want to talk to Caspian first.”

Zoe sat back down and I followed her into her office. There wasn’t the laying down couch thing you image, just three very comfortable looking chairs. I sat in one of them. She placed an audio recorder on the table next to her chair and sat down holding a notepad and pen.

“Let me set down the ground rules. I am not your doctor. Therefore, you and I have no doctor/client privilege. I am not saying I will tell anyone what you tell me here, but I might. If there is something you don’t want Zoe or her mother to know, then I would suggest you tell me you aren’t comfortable answering the question. I am not here to judge you or evaluate you. To be honest, I probably will still evaluate you, since that is more or less my nature, but I am not officially checking you over. My main concern is to learn about you and determine how you influence Zoe. Specifically, how your influence might affect her recovery. Clear?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Tell me about yourself.”

“I guess the first thing, is I prefer to be called Cas. I was orphaned in Queens, New York, before the age of one. I spent most of my life in the Texas foster care system. I bounced from house to house a lot. I was adopted by a family when I was ten. The father of the family, John, was the driving force behind that decision. He died six months after I was adopted. We lived in Dallas until this summer when Margret, my adoptive mother, got a new job. We have never been very close. I wasn’t close with my sister Tina either, although we recently started working on that.”

I stopped and through about what else to say.

“I’m pretty good in school, I read a lot and I like to stay physically active. I just joined the football team, although time will tell if that will stick.”

She was scribbling a lot of notes.

“You referred to your mother as your adoptive mother, but made no qualification about your sister. Can you tell me why you did that?”

“Really? Huh, I didn’t know I did that. I normally qualify Margret as my adoptive mother, although I am not sure why. Maybe it’s to distinguish her from my birth mother. I actually usually make the same qualification about my sister as well.”

“And do you have a thought on why you didn’t do that this time?”

“My best guess would be because we have started working on our relationship. Zoe and Tina had a long talk a couple of days ago, and I am pretty sure Zoe told her some of the stuff that had happened, and confided in her some of the things she had observed about me or things I had told her. After that, Tina and I had a long conversation and we agreed to start our relationship over, and try to learn to really be brother and sister. Actually, it has been nice. She is a really sweet girl.”

“If you were to guess, what was the thing that pushed Tina over the edge into talking with you?”

“While it might have been the fact that I saved Zoe, I don’t think that’s it. She was feeling too guilty during our conversation. I think Zoe told her that no one had ever said ‘I love you’ to me, before. I think that brought some of the issues in our family into the open. Tina felt guilty enough over it, to talk to me.”

“Why do you think no one has ever said ‘I love you’ to you before?”

“If I was being pedantic I would say that someone has said it. Mrs. Bell told me and Zoe she loved us the other day. But I get what you are trying to ask. I think it’s situational. Foster homes aren’t environments that breed love. I never knew my birth parents so there was no chance, there. And the situation with John and Margret was sabotaged from the beginning. Margret was really never on board with adopting me, although if John had lived I suspect things would have gone differently, and we might have made a connection. But with his death the deck was stacked against us.”

“Why did you decide to save Zoe?”

“Because it was the right thing to do.”

“And do you always do the right thing?”

“Probably not. I try to always do the right thing, but no one is perfect. I am sure I have screwed up enough times and have probably intentionally done the wrong thing, too. But I make an effort to always try and do the right thing. I think that is what is important.”

“Do you love Zoe?”