The only one

Chapter 24

Before he comes in a scan him, he's wearing a sweatshirt and jeans with his white Nikes. I notice that he's wearing glasses despite the frigid, snowy weather. He takes two rapid steps to enter my house. I stand awkwardly, aware of the way I am dressed, sweatpants a tank top and fuzzy slippers, otherwise known as my pajamas.

I resume, and lead him to the living room, which happened to be very messy.

I sit on one of the couches and he is seated on the one across from me. He just sits there looking anxious, he bites his lower lip and looks down.

Wow, he's so freaking cute. I say to myself, you can't say that! Don't you remember what he did you? I reprimand myself.

Finally I decide to say something.

"What do you want?" I ask more forcefully than I meant to.

He looks up at me guiltily, his eyes plead to me making my heart melt.

"Why are you mad at me" he says quietly, looking down again immediately. I never did anything to make him think that in angry.

Irritated, I answer,"Why are you asking if you know?"

His eyebrows scrunch together and he itches the back of his neck.

"I don't know" he said helplessly.

"Yesterday in your text?" I rely.

Maybe he's trying to make me feel bad or something. I don't know. Guys are confusing.

He looks up at me angrily.

"What text?" He says through gritted breathing heavily.

"The one you sent yesterday" I state, puzzled about why he doesn't remember. I pull my phone out of my back pocket, unlock it then tap on the iMessage icon. I scroll to his name and hand him my phone.

I watch his eyes move across the screen, waiting to see how he reacts.

He hands me the phone silently without making eye contact. Then he looks down so I can't see his face but just a sliver of his forehead. Without looking up he brushes his hair with his hand, then puts it back with his other hand in front of his face.

I wait a bit, but he doesn't say anything.

I sigh, then say, "So..."

"I'm sorry" he whispers. Then he shoots from the couch and heads to the door, I can see his face for just a second, but I can tell that it is firetruck red.

He walks swiftly and quickly, but he can't leave, I don't understand what is going on. Why is he leaving?

I have to jog towards him to catch up. I grab his arm but he pulls it away, so I go quicker and I clutch his other arm tighter.

"Wait!" I yell louder than intended, "I don't understand why you said that" I say a bit quieter.

He sighs giving me his back, he scratches the back of his neck and turns around. He is facing the floor, but I can still see his face which is bright red and he looks almost sick, but not the physical kind of sick. The one that's supposed to be hidden.

Wait, why is he all upset. Nothing happened to him! I complain in my head.

He notices me staring at him and as a result, he turns away and quickly lifts his sunglasses and wipes his eyes. Then he sits on the stairs which are adjacent to the door. He sits looking down, his elbows resting on his knees and his hand cover his eyes. His head is so far down, that the hood of his sweatshirt falls onto his head.

I just stare at him, unsure about what is happening or what I should do. But now I'm frustrated, because I'm the one who should be sitting on the stairs, all sad. He's the one who hurt me and I didn't do anything. Finally all of my anger builds up inside of me, so I can no longer tame it.

"Why are you upset! I'm the one who should be sitting there! I did nothing to you!" I yell my voice cracking a bit.

He takes off his sunglasses and puts them next to him. He rubs his eyes, then looks up. I gasp when I see his face. His eyes are red and look like glass because of the dampness, but that's not why I'm surprise. His left right eye is a shade of dark purple and blue! He has a black eye.

"I'm sorry, I'll just go" he says quietly he gets up and heads towards the door.

"What happened to your eye?!" I say frantically. But he doesn't answer. "You can't go though, the roads are closed" I tell him, "wait how did you get here?" I ask.

"I walked" he answers the question simply. He doesn't speak a word about his eye. But at the same time, his house is at least three miles from my house, and he came here by foot!

"No, it's too cold, you can't walk back. You don't even have a jacket!" I exclaim.

"I don't care" he says, but I can tell something is bothering him because he is biting the inside of his mouth, and his eyes look like there is a storm coming.

"Can you tell me why your so upset?" I ask sympathetically.

"It's nothing" he says under his breath.

I step closer to him, and I see that his eye is in really bad condition.

"Come back in the living room I'm going to get you some ice for your eye" I say quietly.

This time he listens to me without complaint, and follows me back in.

After I get him some ice, it looks like he is getting better.

I sit in the smaller table across from him.

"Hey" I say

"Hey" he replies, as his mouth curls into a smile.

"Why do you hate me?" I say quietly without thinking.

Without hesitation he relies, "I don't hate you"

I inhale then exhale.

"Then why did you say that you did?" I say nervously. I look down feeling embarrassed.

He mumbles something under his breath, but I can't make out what he is saying.

"What?" I say so silently that he may not have heard me. But I guess he did because he answered in a firm voice saying,

"I didn't"

Confused I object, trying to remind him the text that he sent himself.

"Yeah you did I showed-" but he cuts me off.

"I know what you showed me" he says loudly, "but I'm not the one who sent that, I promise. I would never say that to you" he says clearly distressed.

"Then who did?" I ask, annoyed.

He hesitated before he says it but then he tells me,

"My dad"