The only one

Chapter 25

I stare at him, completely puzzled. But he doesn't meet my eyes.

He whispers something, but it was so quiet I couldn't hear. I was about to ask him to repeat it, but then something occurs to me. He never told me what happened to his eye. I go search the freezer in the kitchen, looking for an ice pack. Finally I find one in the bottom left corner. I pick it up, the iciness goes against my fingertips and travels through my entire body, making me colder than I already am. I take the ice pack and put a cloth over it and leave the kitchen going to the living room which is right outside of the kitchen.

I sit across from Marcus and hand him the ice pack.

He mumbles a "thanks" and places it on his eye looking down. I notice that he is shivering. So I light the fire place and grab two blankets, one for each of us. I hand him one blanket and wrap myself in the other one.

He never answer my question so I ask again.

"Why would your dad do that?" I ask in a louder voice this time.

Then it occurs to me, which two questions he hasn't answered. This one, and then one about his eye. Immediately, I connect the dots.

"Did he do that?" I whisper pointing to his eye.

He nods slowly.

I pause before I say anything.

Then I ask him, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Finally he answers with words.

"Not now" he says, "maybe later though"

"Ok, but I'm not letting you walk back home, it's too cold." I tell him.

"Okay, what do you want to do?" I ask him.

"Can we just watch a movie or something, I just want to get my mind off of things" he says. I smile because I can see him getting more comfortable with me.

"Of course" I say smiling. I turn on the tv and we watch a movie on Netflix. Thirty minutes later, we are sitting next to each other, on the couch in the center of the room, right in front of the Tv, until I look outside and see that the snow is still coming down heavily and the wind speed rises. I focus on the movie again. Then all of a sudden, the tv turns off, as do all of the lights. I gaps out of surprises.

It's pitch black inside and secretly, I have always been afraid of the dark, I guess I just never grew out of it. I love being in the dark, but not when it's pitch black, when there's no light, I just freak out. But the thing is, I'm not scared of the dark, I'm scared of the things hidden in it.

I breath heavily, trying not to get too frightened. I sit on the couch with my knees bent under me, and my hands next to me. I feel something warm on my right hand and I flinch.

Then I hear his soothing voice next to me.

"Hey, it's okay, its just me. Don't worry,"he assures me.

I squeeze his hand and he squeezes mine.

"I'm just a little afraid of the dark" I admit a little embarrassed. I guess he could tell how I felt because he squeezed my hand again and told me that I didn't need to be embarrassed.

I smiled, and even though I couldn't see anything, I know he smiled back.

But I was still a bit frightened.