Page 18 of What Comes After

“That really hurt,” I said. “I think I’m okay, though.”

I didn’t want Theo to see me as weak. I never wanted him to see me that way. But it was unbelievably difficult to appear unaffected by what had just happened.

Tears were welling in my eyes, and I desperately tried to blink them back. It was impossible. Everything was stinging.

“Devyn, that was a really bad fall. I can tell you’re not okay,” he said.

“I’ll be alright,” I insisted.

“We’ve got to get these cuts cleaned out for you,” he informed me.

“I’m going to bleed everywhere.”

He shook his head, stood, and took off his backpack. “I have some water we can pour on the cuts to clean off the blood. And I’ve got a spare T-shirt. I’ll just rip it up and wrap it around your cuts.”

“You can’t destroy your shirt,” I argued.

With his eyes pinned on mine, Theo took his shirt in his hands and started ripping it right down the middle.

I stared at him in awe, which I guess was better than bursting into tears.

For the next few moments, I only grew more and more surprised by what was happening. Theo expertly took care of me. He poured some water on my cuts and wrapped pieces of his shirt around them.

“Teddy,” I whispered.

Theo didn’t take his eyes off of what he was doing when he asked, “What?”

“Teddy,” I repeated. “You’re Theo all the time, but this is the first time I’ve ever really seen you like this. You’re making me feel better, the way I imagine a teddy bear would soothe someone when they were hurt.”

Theo’s hands froze on the shirt he’d started wrapping around my leg as his head snapped up, so he could look at me. “Um… uh, okay?”

Not wanting him to feel uncomfortable, nor did I want to make it awkward, I said, “You’re being very nice to me.”

“I thought I was always nice to you.”

“You are, but this is different. You’re taking care of me.”

His eyes lingered on mine for a few more seconds before he returned his attention to my leg. I didn’t think he was going to respond, but following a brief pause, he said, “I’d never be able to see you in pain and not do whatever I could to make you feel better.”

Since Theo couldn’t bring himself to look at me when he said what he did, I decided it was best not to respond at all. I figured we’d both said far more than we ever had in any situation.

So, I sat there and allowed Theo to continue tending to my wounds.

It was the sweetest, most tender moment I’d ever experienced with him, and something changed for me when it happened.

For the first time in my life, I didn’t see Theo as just my best friend. Of course, he was that, and he’d always be that. But right then and there, he became something else to me. He wasn’t just my best friend.

I realized then precisely how much he meant to me.

I might have only been thirteen years old, but right there on the ground with scraped up legs and arms, I fell in love with Theo McCormick.

FOUR

Devyn

One year, three months later

I was the luckiest kid in the world.

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