Clockwork [final]

Seven

It was three in the morning and neither Derek nor Adette were asleep. As the first tentative rays of dawn began to creep in, Derek crept cautiously into Adette’s room. She sat slumped and with her back turned to him.

“Look,” he mumbled, “I’m sorry for what I said. I don’t really feel forced to be here… in fact, I want to be here. And I think that’s what scares me, because I want to be here… with you.”

“How do you regard me, Derek?” she asked abruptly without looking up.

“What?”

“How do you regard me? What am I to you? A mentor? An acquaintance? A friend?” She drew in her breath and quietly added, “Something more?”

Derek’s heart hammered in his chest as he attempted to analyse the situation. What was she, truly? What did she mean by that? What did she even want him to say? He realized he didn’t even know, so, he picked the safest option.

“A friend.”

“Okay. You can leave now.”

He didn’t leave; he did the opposite. He walked across the room and sat next to her.

“I said you can go.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to.”

She turned her head away from him, but did not argue further. She sucked in a deep breath and blurted, “Derek, you want to know why I don’t talk about my parents?”

He didn’t reply; he sensed he didn’t need to.

“They hate me.”

“Surely they don’t hate you-“

“No, they actually hate me. They disowned me as a daughter.”

Derek was stunned into silence and then unexpectedly overcome with seething anger.

“How could they hate you?” he spat in disgust, “You’re everything a parent could ever want in a daughter. You’re smart, successful, creative, kind, honest, caring, beautiful…”

He realized he’d gone a bit far and blushed, falling quiet and hoping she didn’t notice.

She was blushing too, but still coolly replied, “I wasn’t Christian.”

“That’s all? You’re not a lesbian and you weren’t pregnant or something? No drugs, no raging parties, no family scandals?”

“Yeah. I mean no. I’m not a lesbian and I’m not, nor have I ever been, pregnant. None of any of that other stuff, either.”

Derek shook his head. “Fucking outrageous. At least my parents not wanting me made sense, I’m just some crack addict.”

Adette snapped around suddenly to face him, her bright green eyes boring a hole in his skull. “But before you were a crack addict, you were something else.”

“See? That’s what I mean. That wise shit. Who doesn’t love a girl who does that?”

“Does what?”

“Says the thing you least expect all the time. You don’t be all, ‘Oh, no, Derek, don’t say that, you’re awesome!’ Your words have… meaning.”

Adette laughed wearily. “Yeah, well, they were pretty strict Christians. I wasn’t even allowed to watch TV because it might ‘poison my mind’. They were horrified when I admitted I was an atheist. They probably would have died of shame if I was lesbian or something.”

“Is that why you don’t have a TV now?”

She smiled at him. “Yeah, I suppose it is. Old habits die hard, I guess.”