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MISTER RESPONSIBLE

Lizzie

APRIL 4, 2000

“…S HUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME FIX THIS .”

“No, no, no, please!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, thrashing violently as I tried to fight him off. “Please! Please, stop! It hurts!”

“Stop fighting me on this!” he snarled, ramming the coat hanger deep inside of my body. “Relax, okay? I know what I’m doing. I watched a video.”

“It hurts!” I screamed, ripping and tearing at my hair as the pain threatened to take me under. “I’m dying!”

“Yeah, and I’ll be dead if that belly of yours gets any bigger.” He shoved a pillow over my face. “Scream into that if you have to…”

“Liz!” Hugh’s frantic voice penetrated my thoughts, and I watched through bleary eyes as he cleared the back of the couch in his rush to get to me. “What happened?”

Dazed and disorientated, I glanced around in confusion. I was in the living room. How was I in the living room? I was sleeping only a moment ago. “Hugh?” I blinked around, searching for him. “What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t on the school bus. I was worried.” Dropping to his knees beside me, Hugh grabbed my face. “What happened, Liz?” His eyes were wild and frantic as they searched mine for answers I couldn’t give him. “Where are your clothes?”

“My clothes?”

“Yeah, Liz, your clothes,” Hugh strangled out before proceeding to whip off his Scoil Eoin jumper and push it over my head before feeding my arms through the sleeves. “Did something happen to you?”

I stared blankly at him. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, but you don’t show up at school today, and when I come to check in, you’re curled up on your living room floor with no clothes on!” His eyes were wild with panic, matching his voice, when he gripped my shoulders and pulled me close to him. “So I’m kind of freaking the fuck out right now!”

“I, uh, Caoimhe gave me the day off school to pack for Texas.” Shaking my head, I tried to make sense of the thoughts whizzing around in my head. “I think I fell asleep and had a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?”

“Yeah.” Trembling violently, I clutched the fabric of his jumper I was wearing. “I think he got me, Hugh.”

“Who?” he demanded, looking around the room. “Was someone here, Liz?” He jerked to his feet. “Was someone in this house?”

“No, not here,” I tried to explain, pressing a hand to my brow as pain consumed me. “In my nightmare.”

“I still think I should call your parents,” Hugh declared twenty minutes later. “Or maybe your doctor.”

Sitting on the couch, wearing fresh pajamas, I curled up on his lap and buried my face in his neck. “Hugh, I’m grand, I promise.”

“What about Caoimhe?” he argued, arms tightening around my body. “It’s half past five. Why the hell isn’t she home from school by now?”

“She never comes home until at least eight or nine o’clock,” I reminded him. “You know that.”

“Well, she damn well should be,” he snapped, sounding pissed. “She’s supposed to be looking after you, Liz.”

“Please don’t be cross with me,” I pleaded, burrowing in deeper. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

“I’m not cross with you, Liz, I’m worried.” He was quick to clarify, dropping a kiss to my hair. “I’m furious with your sister, though. This is bullshit and I’m going to be having a word with her about leaving you alone like this.”

“There’s nothing she can do for me,” I sighed. “It happens.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not leaving your side until she gets home.”

True to his word, Hugh remained glued to my side for the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening. We ended up ordering pizza for dinner, using the money my dad left in the cup on top of the fridge to pay for it, before gorging on my sister’s favorite ice cream.

It was gone nine o’clock when Caoimhe finally got home, and by that stage, Hugh was close to having a conniption fit. When she strolled into the living room, armed with a dozen shopping bags, my boyfriend exploded on her.

“What time do you call this?” Hugh demanded, jerking off the couch. “School finishes at four, Caoimhe, not half past fucking nine at night!”

“Whoa, okay, Mr. Responsible,” my sister responded, looking confused. “How about you cool your jets and tell me what’s got you on edge?”

“How about I cool my jets when you act your fucking age!” Hugh seethed, pacing the floor like a madman. “You left your little sister alone in the house all goddamn day, Caoimhe. The same little sister you are supposed to be looking after while your parents are abroad.”

“Is that it?” Caoimhe demanded, arching a disbelieving brow. “You’re really getting yourself all worked up because I left Liz at home?”

“Yes!” Hugh hissed, nodding eagerly. “Because she had a nightmare , Caoimhe.”

“She always has nightmares, Hugo,” she remained him. “And in case it passed your attention, my sister’s more than capable of looking after herself.”

“Maybe, but this was a bad one.”

“They’re all bad, bud,” my sister replied. “I should know. I’m the one she keeps awake at night with her screaming.”

“This is not on, Caoimhe,” Hugh continued to rant, unwilling to back down or give an inch. “This is seriously not fucking on. You can’t just leave her on her own like this!”

“Okay, hold up a sec,” Caoimhe interrupted, holding up a hand as she turned her attention to me. “Are you okay, busy Lizzie bee?”

“Yeah, I’m grand,” I croaked out, feeling mortified. “I had a nightmare and must have sleepwalked downstairs.” I turned to look at my boyfriend. “I’m really sorry for upsetting you, Hugh.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Liz,” he was quick to say in a far softer tone than the one he used with my sister. “I’m just concerned, okay?”

Shivering, I nodded. “Yeah, okay.” But I’m still sorry .

“Ooh, pizza,” Caoimhe exclaimed then, reaching for the empty box on the coffee table. “You greedy, little pigs ate an entire sixteen-inch by yourselves?”

“Yeah, and we cleared out your stash of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream in the freezer, too,” Hugh said, goading her unapologetically. Narrowing his eyes, he added, “ Both tubs.”