Wild Ride - The Alternative Version (Book 2)

Chapter 25~Princess Abbie's Return

Jimmy's POV

The day after Matt came to talk to Abbie and tell her the truth about everything, Abbie was very quiet. And not in the usual quiet that she's been, the avoiding me quiet. This was more of a cautious, sneaky quiet. It seemed that she was most everywhere that I was, she stayed up in her room less. I was surprised this morning when I turned around from the fridge and she was standing a little ways behind me, staring up at me with those blue eyes of hers. The curious ones, not the angry ones. She almost looked sad too, like at any moment she'd start crying. I'd asked her if she was ok a few times, and she only nodded in response, instead of snapping at me like I'd expected.

Matt wouldn't tell me how things went yesterday, he told me that it was top secret. That irritated me a little bit, because I wanted to know whether or not she still hated me. He said he was going to leave the rest up to us, and what he said to Abbie was to stay in between Abbie and him. Apparently, I was to find out on my own, which would be hard because Abbie's a very unpredictable little girl. One day it was like she loved me again, the next she absolutely despised me. But at the moment, she didn't really seem to hate me. She didn't scowl at me or turn away, and like I've said, she seems to be everywhere that I am. She just kind of seems to be feeling neutral towards me lately, because she still hasn't really made an attempt to speak to me.

I was still really concerned about the other night, when I'd seen Abbie sitting on the edge of her bed with her face in her hands, crying at three in the morning. She'd woken me up with all the moaning and whimpering, and I could hear every move she made in her bed as she tossed and turned. I had known that she was having a nightmare, and I'd been contemplating going over and waking her up because I wasn't sure how she'd react to me if I did. But as soon as I heard her crying, I couldn't take it and I got up to go see what was wrong. Of course, she wouldn't tell me and actually plastered herself back against the wall to get as far as she could from me. That right there really hurt, but I still told her that I'd listen at any time should she change her mind. She never did come tell me what had been wrong, but I haven't heard her in distress like that in the middle of the night since. If she didn't want to tell me, then I guess I'll just have to respect that.

Last night, I'd been in the living room looking for something to watch on TV when Abbie came into the living room, coming from the kitchen. She stopped and looked at me for a minute, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as she sat on the couch. She was sitting on end and I was on the other. I decided on watching a rerun of That Metal Show, and as I watched, I could not only see Abbie, but felt the cushions of the couch shifting as she slowly scooted closer to me. She came as close as the edge of the middle cushion, but she wouldn't come any closer to me than that. Every now and then, I could see her glance up at me, and she acted like there was something she wanted to say but she never spoke a word. In between the time that she would glance at me, I would slowly kind of look at her, to see her facial expression, but it was pretty unreadable. She sat there with me for maybe an hour before she disappeared upstairs again.

I wanted to know what she was thinking, I wanted to know how she reacted to the truth of everything. I wanted to know if she thought differently now than before, if she came to realize yet that I do care about her. I wondered if she knew that I was really going to stick around this time, whether she wanted me to or not, I'd always be here. I thought about talking to her and asking her about yesterday, but I didn't dare say anything in case it screwed something up. I'd just have to wait, and hopefully with time, she'll come to me.

Currently, Abbie was upstairs in her room, and Elise had called to check in on Abbie and I. I told her about everything that's happened since she dropped Abbie off, and she told me that because of the day at the beach, she must deep down really miss me if she let go of everything for those few hours and everything went back to the way it used to be. She thinks that Abbie just has a hard time with showing it, and deciding on how she really feels because her emotions are conflicting. That would make sense, at least to me it does.