Unexpected

Chapter 48.

"What do you mean?"

"The last image of my dad left in me is when I saw him tossed on the floor covered in blood. He suffered a car accident."

"Why do you say it is your fault then?"

"Because we were in a park on that day. We were playing basketball when he received a call and he started to yell on the phone. He was so mad that he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the park to the car. I was struggling to release his grip until he pushed me inside of the car and closed the door. He was so angry that he didn't see the car coming in his direction."

I feel small tears forming in my eyes as I caress his hands on his lap. It breaks my heart to see him this way.

"That was the last time I saw him. Then a man called an ambulance and they took him to the hospital. My mum came to pick me up and took me home. She was so nervous on that day, she was driving so fast and I remember of seeing her crying while glancing at me through the review mirror. She was crying but she didn't say a word about what happened to my dad.

I stayed in my room during the whole week. I was feeling so alone and I had an odd grip on my chest. I remember of crying and then my mum would pull me in but I never really hugged her. I loved my dad, he was my best friend, my brother, my dad and I lost all of those people on that day."

"Did you go to his funeral to say goodbye?"

"No. My mum never mentioned it and I didn't know what that was at the time. She never really told me he was dead, she used to say that he was gone as if missing or absent you know? Not dead. But eventually I started to believe he was. I was always in my bed waiting for him to come in and read me stories with zombies and a lot of bloody monsters but he never really came.

I know it might sound stupid but I thought that if I allowed myself to sleep and eat, I was still living and moving on with my life without him and I didn't want to. I got really sick and my mum had to take me to the hospital because she couldn't just give me pills to put me asleep. I spent a week there and then they sent me home. That's when the somnambulism started. The first time, I remember of waking up on the kitchen floor. My mum found me and she was so scared when she saw blood in my hands. She asked me loads of shit about it but I just didn't remember.

She started to give me pills, sedatives, to put me asleep for the whole night but they never really worked on me. The time when I slept the whole night was when you spend the night with me at my house.

"Oh, well, and you never asked your mum about the accident? She didn't know the person who was talking to your dad on the phone?" I can't believe Albert has been feeling so much pain for the last ten years.

"No. She doesn't want to talk about it, besides she has Charles now. She doesn't give a fuck about my dad."

"Well, you don't have to feel alone. Not anymore. I am here, Albert. I'm here to be with you in the dark, to hold you, to keep loving you, to help you when you get scared and to always go to the edge and see what's there."

"You're not scared of me?" Albert asks me with wide worried eyes.

"Of course not. I love you and I love your brokenness, Albert. I'm not saying I will be able to fix your entire soul but I will have a lot of time, right next to you, trying."

"Love, I don't need you to fix me. I need you to love me while I fix myself." Albert caresses my cheek as he loving stares at my eyes.

"I love you. I fell in love with you. I fell in love with your brokenness. I know you're lonely. I think you need someone to want you. Well, I do want you. So be brave, and want me back. You don't have to feel your heart shrivel up in your chest."

"I'm going to need you more than you need me." I see his haunted brown eyes getting watery with hurt and I instantly wrap my arms around him and pull his chest to mine as if I want to put all his broken pieces together.

"I love you, Albert. You will never me need me more."

"I love you much." He tells me and pulls me tightly against his chest and I shift to cover his lips with my own to what he eagerly responds. The heat hits my skin like fire as he moves his soft trembling lips against mine.

"Never leave me, Emily." He breathes and covers my lips again.

"I won't. I promise."