Numb (Alliance Trilogy)

Shame

Chapter Ten

Izzy snuggled into Max's embrace and giggled as one of her hands came to rest on his stomach. Max felt his gut clench once again while Izzy tried coaxing him to give into her needs. His head spun with objection as he took a seat up and exhaled. Why was he not tempted to take her like so many nights before? What was so different now?

Clearly, you should know, his mind replied.

Max shook his head just slightly as Izzy began to massage his shoulders and place light caresses with her mouth on his neck. He tried blanking his mind and did what he could to relax under his girlfriend's touch. He needed this; he needed to know if this was just a simple attachment that would fade. Jenny's timid shy features came to mind and Max nearly groaned, Izzy wrapped her arms around his torso demanding attention from him.

"I missed you." She whispered.

Max turned over his shoulder to stare into her green eyes and felt a hint of ecstasy fill his gut but nothing that would awake anything in him. Izzy took his lips and pushed him down to the mattress where she proceeded to lift his spirits.

Jenny means absolutely nothing, nothing at all, Max ranted in his head.

Hastily he took Izzy's mouth to his and towered over her so that he took domain of it all.

***

(Two Weeks Later)

The house lay silent as Jenny sat in the middle of her living room fiddling with a large box of beads her mother had bought for her on her nineteenth birthday. Back then, she had grown a fancy for beads and collected tons of them. She was glad that now it came in handy as she did what she could to make a crystal bracelet of baby blue hearts and clear cubes. The tiny clinking of the crystals hitting together as she went about adding one by one echoed off the walls. Two long dreaded weeks had gone by and surprisingly Jenny found herself feeling rather fine. Her wounds had closed up more and there was no longer the need to bandage them for they had stopped bleeding. The fear of them getting infected was now long gone.

She set the large box unto her wheel chair and placed the beads she needed on the floor where she sat. The television behind her played silently as she knitted her bracelet carefully finally adding the small hook to it and wrapping it around her wrist.

"Beautiful." She whispered.

Today she would go for a stroll, it had been lonely in here for the last two weeks, and the need for fresh air was in her agenda for the day. Jenny struggled a bit to push off the ground and remove the box down to the floor. In one hop, she managed to make it to her chair and let out a weighty breath. Proceeding into her room, she snuggled her long legs into her jeans and a pair of running shoes. A laugh escaped her as she tied a bow on her right shoe then her left.

"Running shoes, nice one Jenny," she laughed.

Pinning her hair high into a messy bun she tugged her arms through a black tank top and pushed out of the small guest room towards the front door. Once there, she didn't allow herself to battle with her thoughts. She pulled the door open and slowly went down the ramp until she hit the pavement. If her calculations were right the park laid to the far north of her house. So pushing herself she made certain to blank her thoughts of everything and simply absorb the nice heat outside.

By the time the large park came into view she felt drenched and dry mouthed. Her arms ached something terrible as her palms pounded with pain as blisters began to form the size of quarters. She positioned herself so that a nice cool shade enveloped her as joggers and strollers made their way past her. The birds chirped a cheerful song and the wind blew delicately through the trees refreshing her from her tired stage. As Jenny sat there, alone, she took in the green, the sunshine, and smiled.