Fates, Furies and Freckles(Watty Awards 2013)

εικοστό πέμπτο

                                                             {Present Day}

                                                               Point of View:

                                       {{Dani (The normal human freckled teenage girl)}}

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 I can feel him watching me. His eyes are boring into my closed eyelids, and I almost open my eyes. But I don’t. I’m trying to ignore his stares. And his questions.

“What do you have against hospitals?” He asks, and I sigh before opening my eyes. I dig my fingernails into my palms and shift on the hospital bed, highly aware that I am in nothing but a hospital gown which barely covers anything.

I look over at the heart rate machine and watch the lines go up and down and listen to the steady beeping before flicking my eyes back over to his. “That video you saw in the cell, the last one. That was my mom. And we brought her here, and they told me they thought there was a chance they could fix her. But they couldn’t.”

Aaron’s hand grips mine tightly, and I blink a few times, rapidly before continuing. “You saw the video. I was the one that found her. I was only thirteen.”

I look back down at our enclosed hands and a tear drips down onto the sheets. It spreads, and makes a semi-circle. Another one soon follows, and makes it a complete circle.

I gulp and look back up at Aaron. "She left me." My voice breaks and my face screws up as I remember.

"I'm sorry," I whisper as I continue to choke on my sobs.

"Shhh," Aaron whispers back and gets up out of his chair. He moves to get onto the bed with me, but the railing gets in the way, so I scoot over. He crawls into the bed next to me, and I lay my head on his shoulder.

He turns towards me and I bury my head in his chest, and he runs a hair over my hair. "It's okay."

The IV pulls in my arm, and I have to move back a little bit to accomodate it. "I miss her," I sniff, and turn to look out the window. I can see the entrance to the ER from here, and all the frantic people running inside and screaming.

I was that person once.

Aaron wipes the tears off my face with his hand, and pulls my face gently towards him. His hand doesn't leave once my face is turned towards his though, it stays, lingering on my jawbone.

My heart rate picks up as his eyes burn holes in mine. "I'm sorry. No one should have to grow up without a mom."

My fingers reach up to cover his that are on my face, and I remember that he doesn't have a mother either. In fact, I suspect I have one more parent than he does.

"No, they shouldn't," I breathe softly, acutely aware of his eyes on my face.

He gulps visibly, and his eyes flicker to my lips for a millisecond. "Do you ever overthink something so much because you're afraid of hurting everyone around you?"

I lean into his hand, "Yeah."

He wrinkles his nose, and gosh dang it if that isn't the cutest thing. "Guys aren't supposed to overthink things."

I nuzzle my face into his open palm. "Guys aren't supposed to be immortal."

He laughs, and his eyes crinkle at the edges. "I..." He trails off, and I just watch him look at me for a full five seconds in silence before coming to a decision.