Taiven Parmiga

Chapter 31: Truth Revealed

I hear a faint beeping and slowly open my eyes, my vision still blurry. I feel my hand being held tightly by another. I slowly turn to see Evan's head resting on the bed beside my arm, his fingers interlocked with mine. I watch him sleep for a few seconds, breathing out a small sigh, but as my eyes try harder to focus, my head pounds more and more. I roll by head back against the pillow and I'm lost in my dreams again.

*hours later*

I jerk awake and immediately sit up, finding myself in Evan's bedroom, completely confused as to how I got there. I hear a knock at the door and Evan walks in, coming toward me with a glass of water in his hand.

"Hey. Are you feeling a bit better now?" He asks quietly. Too quietly.

I continue to look around and reply, "I don't know.." I mumble out still completely confused. What happened? How did I get here? But I'm interrupted by Evan clearing his throat. I look back at him and he speaks.

"Taissa, you need to leave." He speaks a little louder. With a sort of stern tone, something I've never heard in his voice before.

"Wh-what?" I ask, my confusion growing by the second.

He throws the glass of water and it breaks on the wall in front of me and he speaks even louder as my eyes grow wider. "You need to leave!"

"Ev, what the hell is going on?" I ask, my voice shaking. At that moment the door slams open and the lights flash on as Emma walks in.

"He said he wants you to leave, bitch!" The lights in the room get brighter and brighter and a sharp ringing sounds in both of my ears.

"Tai! What's wrong? Taissa, wake up."

I wake up to see Evan standing over me with his hands gently shaking my shoulders. His eyes are filled with concern and as I focus my eyes and look around, I realize that I'm still at the hospital. My older sister is standing out side the door talking with the doctor.

"Tai, what happened? Are you okay?" Evan still looks at me with worry and I shake my head to clear the awful nightmare from my memory. But it's easier said than done.

"I'm fine. Just a bad dream." I say looking down at my hands, wanting to close up again, remembering the situation the two of us are currently in. He notices the cold air between us and moves back a little, sitting back in the chair he placed beside my bed. "What happened?" I ask, starting to look around at all the machines I'm hooked up to.

"You passed out. From low blood-sugar, according to him." He nods to the doctor my sister has been talking to. "You hit your head, but he said everything looks fine." He speaks in a monotone and I somehow find the courage to look him in the eyes. In the few seconds we hold eye contact, his eyes convey so much pain and regret that I can almost hear my heart breaking.

But at that moment, my sister walks in and we look away.

"You're awake! Thank goodness. You scared us to death, Tai." She comes and gives me a warm hug, and I can feel her positivity radiating around me, making the room so much brighter than it was before. And I'm immediately thankful towards her for that because it's exactly what I needed. "Are you feeling okay? Head hurting?" She places her palm to my forehead, like a caring mother as I reply.

"A little. But I'm fine. Really." I look up at her and she starts to look around for the call button for the nurse to get headache medicine.

"What were you thinking, going out in the rain like that? You must be crazy." She looks at me giving a smirk and I slightly smile before speaking.

"You're just now figuring that out about me?" She smiles back, but I can tell she senses the tension in the rooms and quickly thinks of how to leave the two of us alone.

"I can't find that stupid button anywhere. I'll go find the nurse and get you some water." She lightly kisses my forehead and leaves the room, careful to shut the door behind her.

"She's right, you know." He speaks quietly, still looking down. "You scared us." I look at him and our eyes meet again before he says, "You scared ME."

"I'm sorry. I guess I WAS a little crazy, doing something like that." I speak up a bit more, trying to rid of the awkwardness in the room.

"You're sister was right about that, too." He gives a small smile.

"Well, she usually is." We both give small laughs and the smile I've been longing to see on his face returns, but fades away too soon, along with mine. "I meant it, though. If you slept with her, I don't know if I can-"

"Wait. What?" He immediately looks up. "Taissa, we didn't sleep together. She just kissed me. I didn't exactly stop her at first. I did after I realized what was happening. But we didn't sleep together."

I instantly feel a sigh escape me and I close my eyes from joy. It's nowhere near as bad as I thought it was.

"But Tai, I really am sorry. I was weak and stupid and I should have just talked to you about it. What I did was wrong, and I understand if you don't want to forgive me for that." His voice get's quieter as he finishes.

But I'm so overwhelmed with relief that I don't want to dwell on something as dumb as a kiss.

"So, how was it?" I ask with a tiny smirk, trying to contain my joy.

But Evan hasn't quiet caught on and only looks at me, completely dumbfounded with confusion. "How was what?" He asks.

"Kissing a snake." I start to lightly giggle and I see a smile creep on his face as he realizes I'm not upset anymore.

"Honestly, it was terrible. I couldn't stop thinking about you the whole time. The only thing that mattered was getting the two of us fixed." He says.

"Well, I think we're okay now." I give him a smile. And the second he returns in, my heart begins to flutter, just like the first time he smiled at me, long before we got ourselves into this big mess. 

I couldn't be happier that everything is back to normal now. The two of us together. No Emma. Just us. And that's all I wanted.