(20) I Get Hurt

(20) I Get Hurt

     Bliss and Saint stood there, watching Lou as he ramped up higher and higher. It started out just talking about the heart. Then how he was close to it before, and Ash stopping him. Then it just devolved into fruitless thrashing and begging.

     Bliss leaned down so that her face was right in front of his and told him, “Stop now.”

     Lou looked at her, uncertain. He continued rambling, but more sounds than words. Bliss said again firmly, “No. Stop now.”

     And Lou puttered out. Bliss turned to Saint next.

     “Hello. Saint. What is wrong with you.”

     Saint was too grumpy for Bliss right now. He brushed her off and went to sit on the couch to wallow. Clearly tough love wasn’t doing it, so Bliss tried a different tactic. She sat next to him and pulled out a case with rolled up cigarettes. She lit one but it didn’t smell like a regular cigarette.

“Where did you get weed?”

“I must have put it in here and forgot. Part of the deal, I suppose.”

She smoked a little bit and tried to pass it to Saint. He brushed it off but Bliss pressed.

“You are being an asshole. You should smoke.”

“I don’t do that.”

“You really should.” She pressed a little harder. “You are going to want it for what I am going to say.”

Saint took it, but before he smoked, he told her. “I will smoke but I don’t want to hear it. I am done with people telling me what I am doing wrong.”

He smoked with the grumpiest face possible, choked, and shoved it back to Bliss. She took her hit, and blew out the smoke slowly.

They went back and forth in silence for a while before Saint’s defenses started to drop.

“I mean, if you have some genuine advice for me.” He said, quieter now. “I would love to know a real way I could dig myself out of this hole.”

Bliss held up her hands. “I don’t want any of that. I just want to know what your goal is.”

     They were still passing the joint back and forth between them. Saint thought for a minute. “I don’t get what you mean.”

     Bliss rolled her eyes. “You have a lot of feelings even if you won’t admit it. Riley is having a lot of feelings right now too. What are you gaining by pitting your feelings against each other?”

     There was another bit of silence, and finally Saint answered. “I don’t really feel like I have a choice, honestly.”

     Bliss nodded, but she wasn’t prepared to let him completely off the hook. “Riley really doesn’t have a lot of choices either though, does she?”

     Saint took a hit. “Yeah, I guess not.”

     There was another moment before Saint held back out his hand. She assumed he was gesturing to pass back the weed but when she reached over, he snatched it back out of her reach.

“Now you tell me what you were doing outside.”

     Bliss watched Saint carefully for a moment, judging his posture. She reached out and he handed her the weed, easily this time. It was her turn to be quiet now.

“Can I trust you?”

Saint offered her a shrug.

     “I saw my dad. I didn’t even think about it. Our house got destroyed and then I saw him and I just ran outside.”

     Saint raised an eyebrow, “And how did that go?”

     Bliss’s face got dark before she answered. “It went great.”

     Saint laughed, and neither of them could tell if he really thought that was funny or if it was just the weed.

She tried to slip it by, “But then I talked to Carter.”

     Saint tensed up at the mention of Carter, and Bliss was more perceptive than people gave her credit for.

     “You would choose Carter wouldn’t you.”

     Saint looked over at Bliss. They were confused together, stuck in the middle together, and locked in mutually assured destruction.

     “Yes.” He smoked, then added, “I don’t know.”

     He passed it to Bliss. She hit it and spun out more of the story for him. “She told me that the house has legs and we need to destroy them.”

     Lou started talking again at the mention of legs, like the word had pulled an invisible string. Saint and Bliss had almost forgotten he was in the room.

“No! Not the legs! The heart! I told you. We need to find the heart.”

     Bliss and Saint shared a look before she looked at Lou.

“And you think the heart is upstairs, right?”

     Lou returned firm agreement, “Yes. Can’t you hear it?”

“No, baby, I can’t. What does it sound like?”

“Like chanting.”

Bliss looked disconcerted, but continued. “And you want to follow it?”

“Yes. I need the heart. The heart is upstairs.”

     Bliss told Saint. “Carter said the legs were probably in the basement. Do you think the cuckoo bird here is luring us away from the thing that could hurt the house?”

     Lou ramped up to full volume. “No! You can’t do that! Up not down!”

     Saint nodded his head, satisfied. “Seems pretty convincing to me.”

     Bliss gave a little bounce and snuffed out the joint on a ceramic coaster on the side table.

“Yes. Ok. So, tell me you saw something like legs in the basement?”

     The smug look dropped from Saint’s face. “Shit. No. Honestly it really was pretty normal. The ivy. And some boxes.” He had a sudden weed-induced prophecy. “The boxes! The legs are the boxes!”

     Something about when he said it, it didn’t sound as convincing as it did in his head. For Bliss, she looked confused at the specific connection, but was hyped by how excited Saint had gotten.

She was riding that high, both from the weed and their unexpected conversation. “Now,” Bliss said, nodding towards Lou, “How do we ask him how to destroy it?”