Alone

Awake

"Amelia. Wake up." My mom said emotionless and kept going on "Oh god please wake up. Please, love, come on."

"I don't know how!" I yelled at them.

"Wake up." She said once more.

I closed my eyes and I could feel it, I could feel the soreness of my bones coming back, I felt sunburnt skin, I felt thirsty. My head spun and I felt nauseous like I was on a roller coaster, but I kept my eyes shut.

I heard nothing for a moment and then there was a faint creaking sound.

"Amelia?"

It was Dan's voice. At least I thought it was, I felt so out of it I had no real idea who it was, but I knew I had to respond.

I felt a cool hand slip into mine helping me feel relaxed and not alone. I gave the hand a squeeze.

"Are you awake yet?" My mind confirmed it was Dan. My throat felt so dry it, was hard to talk. I opened my eyes as much as I could to see a blur.
After a moment my vision began to focus and I saw him.

He sat on the edge of my hotel bed looking worriedly at me and a little relieved.

"Yeah." I made my voice embarrassingly croak earning a little smile from him that I could even see in his brown eyes.

"Oh god" He sighed and I felt another squeeze on my hand. "I thought you were going to-... I thought I was going to be the last person." He was very obviously sad.

"Fortunately for you Howell, you can't get rid of me that easy." My voice began to clear and I took the chance to ask for some water which he had waiting on me along with a bottle of Tylenol on my nightstand.
He helped me sit up by putting a hand on my back making me shudder and my sore muscles painfully tensed at his unexpected touch.

He quietly handed me the water and the capsules and I took them ready to be rid of this pain. He put my empty glass back on the bedside table and sat back down on the edge of the bed.
It was silent a moment and I wondered why he wasn't leaving my room and why his eyes kept flicking to me.

"I'm sorry." He finally said. "I know I've said that a lot so far, but I mean it. I would of went to the desert to get away from me too." Had I really been out there for four days? It all seemed like such a blur. "You slept for two days. I was terrified. That night I realized you were missing... I looked everywhere, I didn't expect you to be in the desert. I'm just so sorry, you're not a kid, and I'm sorry if I've been treating you as one. I didn't mean what I said Amelia, I wanted you to know that."

"Yes I am. I did a really spiteful thing and made a dumb decision and I almost died because of it if you hadn't saved me."

"You were five minutes away from saving yourself, there was a shop just up the road. I drove and drove to try to find your car, but I couldn't find it, that's how far you must have walked. I only drove thirty minutes out of Los Angeles to find you in the desert. You made it far, very far."

Even though I almost died and I was in pain and sick, I was glad I went out there. I learned things, I got over fears. Hearing that I had almost made it made me actually proud of myself for the first time.

"Do you feel like eating? I can make us something and bring it up here if you want." I gave him a nod. Although I didn't want him taking care of me right now or cooking for me, I was admittedly in no shape to do it myself as of now.

"Thank you." I told him and he gave me another small smile.

"No problem."

Soon I was alone in my hotel room left to think, and of course I thought about how touchy-feely he had been. It was so strange, a man who wouldn't so much as look at me before and visibly ignored me was now focusing all his attention on me.
The only time he did this before was when he apologized. Maybe that was what this was, part of his apology and it would die off again when he felt like he had justified himself.
But the only other time he had physically touched me was when he asked to hug me when we were drunk.

My overthinking about Dan was abruptly interrupted by my sudden feeling to vomit. I ran to the bathroom and unleashed watery puke into the toilet bowl before getting back into bed.

I still felt like I was practically dying from my headache to my blistery, red skin. I must really look like shit right now, but it didn't matter to me anymore.

I noticed that I was in pajamas and that my dirty, dusty clothes from the desert were gone. These weren't even pajamas that I had brought to the hotel with me. Did Dan go to my house, get these for me and put them on me? I tried to remember what underwear I was wearing before and checked to see if they were the same ones I had on.
They were.
Eww.
I'd have to get to that as soon as I didn't feel like collapsing and vomiting on the floor when I stood up.

A few knocks came from my door before Dan let himself in with a plate and a soda.

"Sandwich and crisps. I figured maybe you wouldn't vomit these up." He said and put the plate down on my lap making me wince in pain.

"Oh god, I'm sorry, the burns I'm sorry!" He apologized as I picked the plate up.

"It's alright. Did you already eat?" I asked.

"Yeah. I have something for the burns by the way." He got into the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out some aloe vera gel. "I know it sounds creepy but I've been putting it on you because I thought you looked uncomfortable, you were whining while you were asleep."

"What about these pajamas?" I called him out on it.

"Well I had to change your clothes, I just figured that clothes from your house might help you be comfortable enough for you to stop the whining as well, it didn't though, nothing really did."

"I think I was dreaming." I told him as he sat at the foot of my bed but still listened.

"About what? I'm curious as to what was bad enough for you to make those sounds."

"My family." I said and put down my half eaten sandwich on the plate on the bed. It was quiet so I think he was either waiting for me to continue or giving me the option not to talk about it.
"I woke up in my bed at home and went downstairs where my family was happily eating breakfast together, which never happens in my house."

"So it was a good dream then."

"No," I replied "I came along and ruined it and caused them to fight. Then my mom just repeated for me to wake up. It made me realize that's all I really do is pick fights with people and they hate me."

I didn't expect the chuckle that came from Dan.

"Is that what you think you did with me? Fight with me and make me hate you?"

I brought my eyes up from the half eaten sandwich to him and saw him looking at me. I didn't confirm or deny whether the question he asked was true or not, because the answer was obvious.

Edited by Josiemakattack198