Susceptible

Chapter nineteen

When I woke up in the morning I felt disoriented, confused to as where I was after being so use to waking up on my room in Alex's apartment. After remembering what all happened I felt pain blossom in my chest, but I swallowed it down not letting myself break down again. The sun was already high in the sky and it appeared I slept the better part of the day away. I had fallen asleep in the same pajamas, but I now felt the strong urge to get out of them. I shed them off me and got into the shower.

The water was burning my skin leaving it pink, but I needed to feel as if the night before was erased from my skin. I scrubbed my body raw hoping to get Alex's death off of it. My head started to pound remembering the look on his face right before his death. All I could hear was the water in the shower pounding down around me rushing in my ears. It was pouring down my face and started filling up my nose. I propped myself up against the cold wall moving the stream of water from my face, he couldn't be dead, Alex wasn't dead.

A light tapping started on my bathroom door snapping me out of my head.

"Adriana?" My mom called to me from the other side of the door.

"Yeah?" I weakly called back.

"Sam's here. He said you called him last night and he wanted to see you." My heart pounded at the thought of Sam, a reaction my body automatically seemed to have. I didn't expect to see him today, though that made sense. My mom didn't know he had been the one to save me.

"Okay tell him I'll be out in a second." I listened for my mom's footsteps to fade away then turned off the shower. I stepped out of it drying myself off and I changed into the old t shirt and leggings I had grabbed as my comfort clothes. The bathroom had steamed up from the intense heat of my shower and I used my towel to swipe of the mirror.

My reflection stared back at me, my eyes looked lifeless and my skin dull. Ignoring my state, I brushed out my hair letting it hang damp down my back soaking though my shirt, but not bothering to dry it.

I swung open my bathroom door into my bedroom and froze when greeted by Sam on my bed. He didn't seem to notice me as his head was down looking at his hands. He needed a haircut I noticed as his curly hair was falling way too much in his eyes which I knew bothered him. I also noticed that he needed to get outside, his pale skin was lacking the usual abundance of freckles that normally popped up more in the summer from the sun. His sweatpants and t shirt was a nice change to his spandex. It was the first time I had seen him as just Sam, my boyfriend, not as a superhero in a long time.

I lightly coughed letting him become aware of my presence and his head snapped up.

"Addy." he breathed out softly.

"Sam." I whispered back in reply. He uncrossed his arms and I started to feel the pull towards him when suddenly it stopped. He was hesitating, not wanting to use his power on me, not wanting to know if I would want to be in his arms. I swallowed thickly and turned my head breaking eye contact. I didn't move of my own free will into his arms.

"I think we should go talk." his voice was full of pain, and I nodded my head not wanting to make eye contact, not knowing if I'd break.

"Okay talk." I said.

"No." he said. "Not here. C'mon let's go for a walk." I could see him start to reach his hand towards me then quickly snap it back to his side not giving me the chance to reject him. My heart clenched at the action, and I almost gave in to grab his hand, but I couldn't do it. There was still so many things I needed to ask. The air was thick between us full of confusion and hesitation, and most of all the changes we both went through. We walked out to the door passing by my mom.

"Mom we're going to go out just for a walk to catch up for a bit." My mom turned to look at us and I could sense her nerves of me going out, as last time I did happen to get kidnapped. She then looked at Sam and some of her unease seemed to disappear from her face. Sam was buff and tall enough to scare off most.