Page 36 of Bleeding Hearts
“You are already pissing me off. Leave it,” she snarls.
“Why don’t you go take a shower, and I’ll order us some food? We can watch a movie. It will be like old times.”
The look she gives me withers me, but I force my smile to stay in place, and with a glare, she hightails it to the bathroom. I slump and turn back to her desk. “It’s going to be a long night,” I murmur as I pick up her mess. I’m straightening her books when something falls out of one of the pages and flutters to her desk.
It’s a picture of her and Tommy.
Their cheeks are pressed together, and their smiles are so wide it had to hurt.
She looks happy.
Sliding it back into place before she catches me, I push her chair back and begin to pick up her room, dropping most of it in the overflowing garbage can. I know if I do too much, she’ll kick me out, so I’ll just have to put up with the mess. I make her bed for her and turn on her neon and fairy lights, changing the batteries in both since they are dead.
When I go to fluff her pillows, something hard under them makes me freeze, and I debate looking. What if it’s her vibratoror something? Oh well. I peek under it and pull out a rectangular box. Opening the worn lid, I fall on my ass on her bed when I see what’s inside.
It’s a pressed daisy.
My fingers caress the paper-thin petals. It can’t be, can it?
It can’t be the flower I gave her months ago. We were walking through the park while I was looking for inspiration when I randomly picked it and put it behind her ear. She looked so pretty, I couldn’t resist. I felt shy doing it, yet she looked at me like I was everything.
It can’t be.
It looks the same and is about the right age, though, so what does it mean? Does it mean she misses me as much as I miss her? I close the box carefully and put it back, and when I hear her moving around, I hurry to my blanket on the floor as the door opens, steam wafting out.
She comes back looking shy, wearing nothing but some shorts and a crop top that says, “Big heart, bigger ass.”
“What?” she mutters before her eyes land on her desk and bed. “Alice!”
“Just a little.” I grin. “What movie do you want to watch?”
“You seriously won’t leave?” She heaves out a deep sigh, looking exhausted all of a sudden.
“Not a chance.” Getting up, I approach her and wipe away the water dripping down her face before I can second-guess myself. “I’m not going anywhere, Lally. When will you realize that?”
“Why?” she whispers, looking far too young and vulnerable. I hate seeing her like this.
“That’s what . . . friends do,” I murmur as I take her hand, “even when you don’t want us to. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.”
“Lucky me,” she mutters, but the slight smile on her lips betrays her sarcasm.
My heart soars with hope.
Maybe there is still a place and time for us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Idon’t know what the fuck is happening, but they keep popping up everywhere.
I even went to the library to escape them, but Alek sat down opposite me, silently opened a book, and pretended to read it—pretended because it was upside down and he watched me the entire time.
Alice stayed over last night, and she even walked me to class, making me feel slightly on edge. It was strange having her in my room. I listened to her breathe all night, unable to sleep. Knowing she was so close yet so far away was like a taunt. When I finally fell asleep, I had no nightmares, which is shocking since I have them every night.
I don’t know what to say or do. All this attention is confusing me. Logically, I know it must be because of the intervention. My phone blew up so much I turned it off, but they aren’t taking the hint. It’s like they’ve decided to make my life a never-ending parade of people, and the worst part is that I don’t hate it.
Even though I hate that they think I’m broken, I can’t bring myself to push them away. They are here to show me that I’m not alone.
There is only so much they can do, though, and they can’t be here every minute of the day, so when they are finally gone, the darkness creeps back in stronger than before.
