Woe it's Wenclair

Knight in shining armor part 2

T.W. Physical abuse

Wednesday

Enid stares at me flabbergasted. Shit. I do sound like a creep.

"I'm sorry, I was just so worried that your mom was going to hurt you, but I couldn't stay with you for, uh, a multitude of reasons, so I convinced my parents to let me stay in the city, and I never spied on you, there was just an alarm whenever you left the house-"

Enid grips my shoulder and holds a finger to my lips.

"You're gonna make the librarians mad. Come on." She says, pulling me to the corner hidden by rows of shelves.

"Okay, so, why the hell are you spying on me?"

"I told you," I state.

"It's this, isn't it?" She asks, pointing at the tracker on her neck.

"Yes."

She moves to touch it, but I stop her.

"Don't hurt yourself. You'd like it off?"

"Obviously."

"Okay. Sorry. Here." I reach into my pocket for a tool.

Gingerly, I lift the tool and move it close to the her neck.

"Ow!"

My fingers are all jittery for some reason. I just want to run away, I shouldn't have done this in the first place.

"I'm sorry," I say, voice small.

"She didn't hurt you, did she?" I ask, pulling the tool back.

"No. Just shouted and stuff." She responds, looking at her feet.

My fists tighten.

"I-"

"Can you just take it off?" She asks, looking away from me again.

"Yes, yeah I can do that... uh, can you lean your head... yeah, that's good."

She's turned, looking sideways at nothing in particular. It's messed up, but I want her to look at me. She wouldn't, though, why would she? I've fucked up again.

I shake my head and use the tool to take off the tracker in one quick motion. She grimaces.

"Thanks."

"Yeah," I respond.

I step back, I suppose my work here is done.

"I'm sorry," I admit, looking at her.

"I thought you didn't care." She says weakly.

My eyes widen.

"What? Have my words gone past you? Enid, you're... you are the best thing that's happened to me. I-"

"How can you say that?" She asks, staring at me while shaking her head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You say that, but you run away from anything, and I'm just... like, where do you stand?"

Where do I stand?

"I... I don't know." I admit.

"You never know." She cries, tears brimming in her eyes.

I'm frozen. I've never loathed myself more. I've made her cry.

I can tell she's walking away and I want to stop her, but I can't move. I just breathe heavily and fast, there isn't enough air. My eyes jolt across the room, but everything is so blurry. My hands aren't mine. Who am I?