The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

84. I Love You

They wouldn’t talk to me.

None of the other freaks would talk to me at all. It was almost like they had built up my walls so I couldn’t get out. I couldn’t talk to them.

I felt empty and alone.

For so long now I had had them inside of my head. Even if I wasn’t actively talking to them, I could feel their presence. Now I didn’t even have that. It was almost like we weren’t connected anymore, and that scared me. Even though it was what we wanted, the very thought of being alone again petrified me.

They just wouldn’t listen.

I tried to explain. I tried to get them to understand that Simon was trying to be nicer, that he wasn’t tricking me or threatening me. I tried to get them to see how nice he and Jaeb and Mitchell were.

But they just wouldn’t listen.

Tony had bolted from the restaurant, and I had run after him. There were hardly any cars out, because the roads were so slick with ice. Tony melted the ice beneath him, and I couldn’t fly without being seen.

So he got away.

And then I was alone in the street, huddled against a building, bawling my eyes out because I could hear him. He was telling the other Freaks about my “betrayal.” He was saying that I really did sleep around.

It was true, I realized, and it made me cry harder. I had betrayed them. I was sleeping with the enemy without the actual sleeping. I was a traitor to the Freaks.

Someone lifted me up by my armpits, and then swung an arm underneath me. Without looking, I buried my face in Simon’s gray hoodie and bawled. He held me tightly and walked quickly back towards his apartment.

Mitchell was lounging on the couch when we walked (he walked) in. Jaeb, hearing me cry, ran in and stared with wide eyes.

“What happened?” She demanded, glaring daggers at Simon. I held tighter to him, trying to hide. This was embarrassing. I didn’t want them to see me cry!

“Her friends found out,” Simon replied tightly, and then carried me through to one of the back rooms.

It was about the size of a closet, and was taken up by the full sized bed. Compared to the rest of the house, it was pretty well furnished and very, very clean.

He lay me out on the bed and tucked the blankets in around me before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“Sleep, Jewel,” one warm hand came up to brush hair away from my face.

“Simon?” I whimpered. He kneeled down so we were eye-level. “Thank you. I love you.”

And then I rolled over, closed my eyes, and tried to sleep, despite the misery swamping me, drowning me, making it so hard to breathe.

I barely heard Simon when he replied.

“I love you, too, Jewel.”