*****
After shopping—and refusing a pair of shoes and a scarf that Ginny offered to buy her—they took a break to grab a bite to eat. Gwen’s stomach was rumbling and Ginny had begun to gently tease her about it, but she wasn’t entirely sure she’d be able to eat much. When they found a shop with hot dogs, burgers, pizza, and fries, they ordered their food, which Ginny again asked to pay for. Food in hand, they found a deserted table away from prying eyes, and Gwen surprised Tiffany when she slid into the booth beside her, wanting to be able to watch Ginny.
It didn’t take Tiffany long to catch on, and she spent most of the meal watching Ginny as well. For her part, Ginny acted completely oblivious to their worried stares, but all three of them knew it was an act. Gwen didn’t know what to make of her behavior, but it was bothering her. An intense feeling of dread had begun to fester in the pit of her stomach, and she spent the entire meal wondering if she was simply overreacting, or if there really was something wrong with Ginny. Her chili cheese fries tasted like cardboard, but she forced herself to eat them anyways, not wanting to waste Ginny’s money.
When they were done eating, Ginny suggested the three go see a movie in the theater next door. When Tiffany refused to let Ginny pay, she shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but Gwen got the feeling that Ginny was deeply hurt by her friend’s refusal to spend her money. When they got to the concession stand, Gwen also refused Ginny’s offer, instead opting to order a small drink and nothing else since she was paying with her own money. They sat together in the back of the darkened theater, talking about all of the new movies coming out in the next few months.
“I can’t wait to see that one!” Tiffany hissed quietly, leaning across her seat to reach Ginny and Gwen’s ears. “We are totally coming back here in August to see it.”
“Definitely,” Gwen said, leaning back in her seat. She looked over at Ginny, and was surprised to see the happy girl gone once again, replaced by a quiet and moody one instead. As the movie started, Gwen realized that Ginny had purposefully not agreed to come back in August, and it had her even more worried than before. She couldn’t find any enjoyment in a good movie, and she felt her mind wander to Ginny’s mental state once again. Something is wrong. Not just wrong, but horribly wrong.
Ginny still didn’t want to go home after the movie, but it was starting to get late out, and they still had to make the drive back home to Brighton. It wasn’t too far but Gwen pointed out that they should probably be home before dinner or else Sandra was likely to get on their case. Ginny relented, thought it was obvious she wanted to be anywhere other than home. For just a second, Gwen had the dark thought that maybe her aunt and uncle had somehow abused Ginny, but she cast those thoughts away, deeply ashamed for even thinking them.
The car ride home was mostly silence between the two of them. Ginny had the radio cranked like before, and Gwen could practically feel her begin to shut her out. She wanted to reach out and break through the barriers Ginny was putting up around herself, but she wasn’t sure how. How did you talk to someone that had been through some traumatic event without triggering them and making things even worse? She wanted to help, but would most likely do more harm than good.
And for the first time since arriving in Brighton, Gwen was putting her curiosity on the back burner. She was going to focus entirely on Ginny’s wellbeing and helping her recover. Her questions weren’t nearly as important as her family, and she had the feeling that any answers she got would just tear them apart in the end. Better to have my family than my answers…
When they arrived home, Gwen was expecting some kind of guilt trip from her aunt, and that was exactly what they got. The second the door closed behind them, Sandra rounded the corner, hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed slightly. She was pissed for sure, but more than that, she was scared. Gwen could see it in the set of her jaw and the wrinkles that gathered around her eyes and mouth when she frowned.
“Where have you been? When you said you were going to hang out with Tiffany, I expected you to be back a hell of a lot sooner! You’ve been gone the entire day. Do you have any idea how worried I was? You weren’t answering your phone, either. Unacceptable!”
Gwen glanced at Ginny, frowning. She hadn’t heard Ginny’s phone ring, not once. Had she turned her phone off just to avoid her mother? Looking at her now, Ginny didn’t even look guilty or contrite. She looked more bored than anything, like she didn’t care that her mother was obviously worried about her, or that she was being chewed out. What was her problem? Even if she had been mad at her mom, Gwen would never have ignored her phone calls, especially after something like this had just happened. Didn’t Ginny care that Sandra had probably spent the entire day at home practically pulling out her hair or making herself sick with worry?
Ginny walked past her mom, heading for the stairs and her room without a second glance behind her. Sandra watched her go, her jaw slack and her eyes wide at Ginny’s reaction. She looked to Gwen, but she just shrugged, an apologetic look on her face. “I’m sorry, Aunt Sandra. I don’t know what’s gotten into her. I didn’t even know she had her phone turned off. If you had called me, I would have picked up, promise.”
Sandra sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging as her anger ebbed. “Will you try talking to her tonight? She’ll be more likely to open up to you than to me, I hate to say.”
“I’ll do my best, but she’s closing herself off to me, too. But I won’t let her go without a fight,” Gwen promised. “We’ll get her through this together, Aunt Sandra.”
Gwen followed Ginny upstairs, but she was lying face down on her bed with her earphones in, and Gwen could hear the music from the doorway. There would be no talking to Ginny tonight, not when she was lost in her own little world.