The Silence (GxG)

Chapter 13 - The Symptoms

▂▃▅▇█▓▒░ Kenzi ░

To my surprise I woke up feeling refreshed today, which is strange considering the chaos of everything the past few days. I guess things just felt like it fell back into a rhythm yesterday. One that I think I can keep up with for now, as long as nothing else throws a spanner in the works.

After stretching my stiff limbs and lazily sitting up in bed, I heard a loud crash coming from the other room, pulling me from my thoughts and back into reality immediately. It harshly reminded me of the other inhabitant in the home...

"Grace..." I whispered to myself.

I stood up quickly, a little too quickly considering how dizzy I got, and threw on some denims at lightning speed before laying my ear against the heavy wooden door. My heartbeat is pounding in my ears but I could only hope to god that I don't hear any signs of Grace being-

"Shit! Can't you do anything right you fucking idiot!?" I heard Grace mutter angrily to herself as she scraped something metal harshly around on the floor.

I chuckled with a sigh of relief that she was definitely still her 'normal' self before throwing on an old hoodie and joining her to investigate what the noise actually was. I did my best to push the caution that I feel about approaching her to the side, in an effort to avoid making her uncomfortable as I entered the room.

You can never be too cautious.

"Hey! Everything alright in here?" I asked curiously, scanning the room and taking in the mess in front of me.

I looked at her with a knowing smirk, revelling a little in the guilty 'deer in headlights' expression that quickly wiped her frustration to the side. I've caught her mid-way through spooning some semi-cooked oats off of my floor and back into the half empty pot, which I presume they came from in the first place.

"Uh... I thought it'd taste better off the floor?" She joked, knowing an excuse was pointless but clearly trying to remain in my good books.

"Ew" I laughed and joined her on all fours, grabbing another large spoon to help her out "Don't worry about it. I've done it myself plenty of times before, honestly"

"I'm sorry, Kenz. I should've known the pot would be too hot but I wasn't thinking and I basically threw it across the floor to protect my fingers" She responded, wiggling her extremities to emphasise.

"I'm glad to know that my floor was a worthy sacrifice in your eyes" I responded as I rolled my eyes jokingly in response.

"Hey, these fingers are magic! I can't let anything happen to 'em" She smirked as she scooped the last of the oats back into the pot and stood proud.

"You have to prove a statement that bold" I flirted back without even thinking about it.

I snapped my mouth shut immediately after realising what I had insinuated, standing as I became flustered all of a sudden. My mind went to an unusual place, making my cheeks heat and stomach tighten in a weird knot. I did my best to avoid eye contact but I could still feel her intense gaze burning into the side of my head as she stood in a stunned silence.

Eventually I chose to grab a rag and continue to clean the left over residue off of the floor, hoping it would break the weird tension that's formed between us thanks to my big stupid mouth.

"I'll uh- I'll make us some more food" Grace said, breaking the silence and emptying the pot into the waste basket.

However, after placing the pot back down she seemed to become extremely fatigued all of a sudden and the colour visibly drained from her features. Her usually rose tinted cheeks were a pale shade of olive as she leaned against the wall for a moment, gathering her bearings.
I stood immediately and approached her cautiously, taking her arm and helping her over to one of the chairs in the corner of the room before crouching in front of her to speak.