Both Sides ☯ h.s au

Six

"JADE!!!" I scream at her, "JADE PLEASE STOP!"

She stops immediately, slowly twisting on her feet to face me. I jog the rest of the way until I'm a good few feet away from her.

"Jade, I'm sorry, please don't leave", I beg, me... Begging? What is happening to me?!

"Why?" she harshly replies, I knew I deserved that.

"Because, I want you to stay, I'm quite moody at times you know, and, I just... Had a moment"

She shuffles on her feet, "a moment?"

"Well, yeah", I look down at my feet, partially ashamed I use this as my 'excuse'.

"Pretty harsh moment", she bluntly states.

"Blame the coffee", I smile, attempting to lighten the mood and forget this ever even happened, even though I knew it wasn't that easy.

Huffing out a slight chuckle she shook her head "nice try Harry"

Smiling cheekily I shrugged, "I don't know what your talking about"

She nudged me and picked up her stuff, there wasn't much of it, only really the spare clothes she had on from last night, I'd forgotten she was still wearing my shirt. Not that I cared, I've got plenty of the same. We walked back up the street until we reached my front door once again.

"Are you sure you want me here?" She asked shyly.

I looked down at her, her small frame shaking from the wet snow that slowly fell from the pale sky. Fighting the urge to wrap my arms around her to warm her up, nodding as my reply, I open the door and let her walk in first. I watch her as she quivers, she looks down at her shoes and scrapes them on the 'welcome mat' a few times before stepping inside, she goes to take her shoes off just inside the door but I place my hand gently on her shoulder and shake my head with a smile, she stops, slipping her heel back into the back of her vans and continues to walk further into the house.

"It's so much warmer in here!" She states rubbing her pale arms with her frozen palms.

Chuckling I want to tell her she would have stayed warm this entire time instead of freezing to death outside if I hadn't been so damn stupid, but instead I just smile and shake my head lightly.

"Tea?" I ask, walking into the kitchen, grabbing myself my usual large mug with lame puns printed on the side.

She shook her head "No thanks, don't particularly like tea to be honest"

"Understandable, coffee then? Hot chocolate?"

"Hot chocolate actually sounds great right now, thanks Harry"

I begin making her drink, I boil the kettle and once it has stopped bubbling and hissing I pick it up to pour it into the mugs but lose my grip and end up dropping it onto the counter where the lid pops open and the boiling hot water flashes over the skin of my hand, instantly making me scream in agony. The burn radiating as seconds drew on like hours. The pain was unbearable. Jade ran to me, the horror in her face evident.

"Holy shit Harry!!!" She looked at my red stained hand, the water burning through the next layer of skin.

She picked me up off the floor and shoved my hand into the sink. Being in unbearable pain I struggle to stay on my feet. She turns the cold water on and puts my hand underneath it, telling me to keep it there which I don't argue with. Jade runs around frantically, first to the freezer grabbing and ice tray and emptying it into the sink and turning the tap on along with a cool pack, then to the cupboard grabbing out 1 potato.

"What the hell are you doing?" I ask wincing in pain as the cold water begins to lose its affect.

"Here, put your hand in this" she states, pointing towards the sink now filled with chilled water, I jump over and shove my hand in the water, turning the other tap off on my way over.

I watch her as she finds the peeler and begins slashing at the potato she grabbed out moments before. She drops the peeler and full potato onto the counter, coming over to me with a few pieces of the freshly peeled skin.

"Give me your hand"

Obliging in no state to say no she uses the bottom of her shirt to dry my hand very lightly before putting the cut side of the peel onto my burnt skin. Stinging at first it faded, slowly soothing the burn before, just like the water, the effects wore off, the pain slowly eases back over time, Jade noticing she changes to her second peel. I watch her in both confusion and awe, taking in her features in between the flashes of pain.

"Jade?" I ask politely.

"Yeah?"

I drop my head slightly and swallow hard, "thank you", it's been a long time since I've said that to anyone.

Smiling lightly she huffs "no problem"

"How'd you know what to do anyway?" I tilt my head to the side, watching her slim fingers dab the tender skin of my hand.

"My mother", her face turns cold and she stops tending to my burn, stepping back she pretends to look busy, fiddling with the peeler and anything else she had left on the bench.

"Oh", I bluntly state. I don't know what else to say..

"She'd be proud if she saw what you just did", I speak up, breaking the short silence we just held.

"If"

"If?" I repeat, questioning her.

"My mum died a couple years ago. Lung cancer. She smoked from a young age so, I guess we all knew it was coming sooner or later", she spoke openly, seeming uncomfortable talking about her mothers passing, I don't blame her, but I cant stop the words falling from my mouth.

"Was she a nurse?"

She shook her head, I could see she was trying to push back the few tears she held, "no, but she was almost, a bit more training and she would have become a full time nurse as the local hospital but... Things got in the way"

"I'm sorry"

"No, no don't be", she pushes a tired smile, all this back and forth with her emotions have taken its toll.

I never realised how much I hid myself from the world until now. Karen was a great friend to my family for many, many years and I never even knew she had passed away. I felt so guilty and so... Empty.

The pain in my hand retuned and Jade told me I can't stop infection and such on my own, I need to go to hospital and get it properly treated, but for tonight, it could wait. I wanted to spend time with this mysterious girl that haven't gotten the time to know yet.