From My Love to My Life (MXM) (sequel to From My Enemy to My Love)

Chapter 37

A/N: This chapter continues what happened in the previous 2 chapters and might be triggering to some. 

Kannika Watakeekul

Everything was heavy, my limbs, my eyelids, my insides. There were a few moments when my mind slowly became aware. I had a vague recollection of speaking with Bree at the party, of the prick at my back, of feeling completely and utterly helpless for the first time in my life. A heaviness came in my chest at the thought that Bree had betrayed me. I didn't want to believe it. I desperately wanted these vague recollections to have been a horrible nightmare. I refused to open my eyes in case the dream had been reality. But then another recollection came to me. Gareth. Staring in Gareth's eyes and realizing he loved me and then realizing I loved him. Somehow he had delved deep in my heart without me knowing it. But if everything else I wanted to be just a dream was actually a dream, that would have been a dream too. I didn't want that. I wanted that last part to be reality because now that I knew it, I couldn't deny it. I loved Gareth. I didn't want him staring at me the way he had to be just a dream.

My eyes flashed open. There he was sleeping peacefully in my bed. I saw that his arm was draped over me before I felt the sensation. A slow smile came to my lips and warmth spread through my chest. Then I remembered that if this part was true, the other part about Bree was true. Aching pain replaced the warmth I had just felt.

My limbs were still heavy, but nothing like last night when it took every effort to just move them the smallest inch. I moved slowly to get out of bed without waking Gareth. It didn't work. His eyes flashed open.

"You're awake," he said.

"Yeah," I said.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I said because I assumed he meant physically and not emotionally. Emotionally I was not alright, but I didn't want to deal with that yet so I pushed it away.

"The doctor said you needed to stay hydrated when you woke up," he said. "So you need to drink some water."

"Okay," I said. I started to slide out of the bed.

"And your mom is here," he added.

Mom. She was what I needed most at this moment. I rushed out of my bedroom and called out, "Mae."

The swinging door to the kitchen opened and my mom stepped out. I rushed to her and she wrapped me in her motherly embrace. Her hand came up to stroke the back of my hair while she hugged me. My arms tightened around her.

"I'm going to go," Gareth said from behind us. That made me pull away from my mom to look at him. "Remember to drink lots of water," he said to me. I nodded.

"Thank you again," my mom said to him.

He nodded. "I'll call you later," he said to me.

"Okay," I said.

"Bye," he said to my mom.

She smiled fondly at him. "Bye."

Alice came out of her room but stood in the frame of her bedroom door.

"Bye, Alice," Gareth said to her.

She smiled shyly and waved goodbye to him. He left us.

"I'm going to go get breakfast for all of us," my mom said. "What do you want?"

"Pancakes," I said.

She nodded and then turned to Alice. "What do you want?"

"You don't need to get me anything," but the way she said it was the same way she said it when she didn't want to be an imposition but really wanted it.