Page 54 of Collateral Damage

“Are you not coming?” She still doesn’t move, cleaning up the mess she made.

“Run along. Before I change my mind.” This is a huge step and I'm left speechless, my eyes sink slightly, a little disappointed that she isn’t joining me and I feel so silly. It should be normal to shower on my own, she’s finally giving me somefreedom.

I hop in the shower, cleaning myself up and the bathroom feels so empty. I’ve grown accustomed to her company now it feels so bare but it is also the privacy I’ve craved. Although I can't stop thinking about her hands all over me, feeling my throat close and my thighs clench at the thought.

Showers don’t take me long, I'm in and out in about ten minutes, quivering as I wrap myself up in my towel and make my way to her bedroom trying to shake off this strange feeling I seem to keep encountering. She's sitting watching TV which I have never seen her do willingly unless I drag her to endure a movie with me. She looks so,comfortable?

The door opens and I shut it behind me before my eyes pulsate and the air’s taken from my lungs. Fabric slides through my damp fingers as I analyse the two dresses hanging on the back of the door, leaving me utterly thoughtless, reading the note stuck to one of the dresses with Sellotape.

My mouth’s barricaded with my hand, admiring the beautiful dresses before me. They are the perfect shade of pastel yellow, pinched at the waist with a frilly bottom and off the shoulder sleeves.It’s stunning. How did she get that so right? And what the hell is the occasion? I try both on and the small fits snug, grinning at the idiot for buyingtwodresses purely because she didn’t know my size.Who does that?More importantly,why is she buying me dresses?

I tiptoe out of the room, feeling nervous as hell and I haven't a clue why but there are butterflies rattling in my stomach trying to fly away and I bloody wish I could fly away right now, this is so embarrassing. My hair is a mess and I have no shoes on.

“Are you going to tell me what this is for?” She turns her head to meet mine from the couch and it’s like I pull her off of it. Standing to face me, eyes full of soft admiration, a thousand emotions are whirling around that peculiar head of hers and she’s impossible to read. But something is telling me I look decent. It’s nothing like the way she looked at me in the shower. This is gentle.Kind. But she still doesn’t utter a word.“I thought you hated yellow.” If she hates this colour so much, why on earth did she buy me a dress in it?

“I think I can make an exception just this once.” I am the brightest thing in the room right now. In fact, I am the brightest thing in this entire house,I'm a beacon of idiocy.

“You’re ridiculous. I can’t believe you bought two of these!” Every time she smiles with her teeth it’s like it heals another fraction of my broken heart, knowing I'm healing hers, even if it’s only a little.

“Well, what if it didn’t fit!?” She shrugs her broad shoulders, and I mean, she has a point, but she shouldn’t have gotten them at all!

“I am literally the size of an ant.” She claws the back of the sofa and she looks like she’s ready to pounce over the top of it.

“I know.Which means I can do this." She does exactly that, heading straight for me and I am NOT about to be thrown around in a dress.

“Hayden-” I warn. “Hay- HAYS! NO!” She tugs these uncontrollable giggles from deep inside me and I don't think I have ever laughed the way I laugh with her as she hoists me up over her shoulder, dragging me to the bedroom without my consent as Shep follows curiously and now I'm worried.

“Hayden! Put me down!” My back meets the bed, nearly breaking it on impact.

“Youuuuuu. Are going to plant your ass on this bed, and you can’t come out until I say.” You have got to be joking.I am not sitting in here all day!

“Are you going to tell me what is going on?” What is with all these secrets and weird gifts. I knew she was acting weird.

“Nope.”

Oh come on!

“Write in your journal or something.” She takes the journal from the foot of the bed, pressing it into my chest and I panic as the pages fly open scrambling to shut it back up.

“I really need to get you that lock and key, huh?” It’s nothing special. But no one has ever read my writing. Call myself a writer and I am too scared to show it off.The irony.Plus I don’t exactly want her reading what I’ve written.About her.

“Fineeeee…” Now I’m really worried. My feet kick up, forcefully hitting the bed so she can see my annoyance but she doesn’t care. She never does. Walking out and shutting the door behind her completely carefree as she leaves me and Shep to snuggle.Asshole.

??

Idon’t know how long it’s been. I've been so engrossed in writing that I've lost track of time, minus the interruption of pots and pans clashing from the kitchen as I try to listen in to what the hell she is up to. Now cuddleless because Shep had to have his dinner and the bed is now cold again.

The door finally opens, like a ghost leading me to a secret garden and I waste no time leaping off the bed ready to beat her ass but I'm distracted by the warm glow coming from the crack in the door.

Exiting the room to an overwhelming sense of pure and utter shock, picking my jaw up off the floor as I tread deeper into the heart of the house. A room that was dead, beaten and abused, now feels warm and safe, scattered with candles and rose petals with a vase sat in the middle of a laid table full ofsunflowers. A tear breaks my strength, trying to hold in this want to ball my eyes out. I finally realise what this has all been about.

It’sValentine's Day.

C H A P T E R 32

HAPPY DOOMS DAY

Puppet

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