Caitie was tired of feeling like she sisn't matter to people. The only person who acted like they cared about her all the time was Maddie, and even that relationship seemed strained right now, because of Caitie's dumb crush. And now, she'd lost her brother. Maybe he wasn't gone for good, but like... he was gone to the city. It wasn't safe there. It'd never be safe there, as long as there was government running around, and Everett had willingly run off into it.
The worst part of it was, Caitie wouldn't have been as mad if Everett had just told her when he was leaving. Told her that he was leaving, even. But he hadn't, and he was gone, and Caitie didn't know if or when he'd ever be back.
And if her mood hadn't been sour enough, George came in and tried to rationalize what Everett was doing. She said she didn't agree, but Caitie knew that whenever people said stupid stuff like that, they always lied. And she didn't get it. She had two brothers here that would never leave. So she couldn't get it. She never felt abandoned like this, Caitie didn't think.
After Maddie set Chicklet on Caitie's lap, the chicken looked up at her with his beady little eyes, blinking and then hopping down to run around on the bed. Caitie huffed a single laugh and looked away. “You're always happy,” she said quietly to the chicken.
Maddie's reassurance was met with wide brown eyes that had spent eighty-five percent of the past couple of days trying not to cry. “I know,” she agreed. “But I was just... I was looking forward to having him here. I was so excited to have him, you know? Happy that he'd like... that he'd found his way here. And I even asked him not to go look for Christina until later on. Asked him to ask Evan to start up a group and...” she trailed off. He did this.
Probably. But maybe not. Caitie bit her lip. “I know,” she said softly. “I'm just... I wish he hadn't gone. Or that he'd just told me.” She sighed. “Maybe I expected too much.”