I woke up, sweating. My arms were wrapped around Ali and her back was pressed up against my chest, her hair had been pulled up in a messy ponytail. My left arm was numb from being under her body for so long. I slowly and gently pulled my arm out from underneath her and kissed her almost bare shoulder, moving out from under the covers on my bed and opening my window just enough to cool the room down, the light almost blinding me. I noticed I was wearing only my boxer shorts as I walked across the room to my bathroom. When Ali first came over, she was so excited when she found out that I had my own bathroom, but she was very disappointed when she saw how un-clean it was. She spent an hour cleaning my small bathroom from top to bottom.
“You have your own bathroom?!” she squealed excitedly.
“Yeah, sorry about the mess though.” I laughed, nervously rubbing the back of my neck. I knew what she was like with un-clean bathrooms. At first I was convinced it was some sort of problem in her mind but I soon discovered it was just a woman thing. She grabbed my hand and ran across my room to my wardrobe and opened the door excitedly.
“Oh… this isn’t the bathroom.” She said, clearly embarrassed. I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit. Her face went bright pink and she ducked her head down, curtaining her face with her hair. I placed my hand under her chin and pushed her face up so she was looking at me. I pushed her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear before leaning down and placing a kiss on her cheek.
“Over here.” I laughed, pulling her towards the bathroom door. She opened the door and a gasp fell from her lips.
“Jarred!” she scolded, swatting at my chest with her free hand. I laughed as she pulled her hand from mine and started opening cupboards and drawers and putting things away.
I laughed slightly at the memory as I flushed the toilet. I looked around and washed my hands. My bathroom was still clean; I don’t know how I managed to keep it that way. I heard a small scream coming from the bedroom, making me worried. Almost knocking the door off its hinges, I ran out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. The sight I was greeted with was a crying, shaking Ali. Silent sobs shook her small frame. She noticed my presence and looked up at me as I quickly walked over to the bed, sitting down right in front of her, my heart dropping into my stomach, concern coursing through my body in violent waves. Her eyes were bloodshot, almost lifeless and her face tear streaked. She had heavy bags under her eyes. I reached up, placing my hand on the side of her face. She cringed away from my touch before moving forward and crying into my shoulder .I wrapped my arms around her and we just sat there hugging. I waited until she had stopped crying before I said anything.
“What happened?” I asked my voice barely audible.
“It was just, it was just, just a bad dream.” She sobbed, pulling away from me and falling back onto the bed. Tears were silently streaming from her eyes, but she refused to make a sound. I nodded and climbed back into my bed next to her, thoughts running through my mind of what could have been so bad that she woke up screaming and crying. She was so scared, and when she cringed away from my hand, I was hurt. I wrapped my arms around her again and she turned in my arms, facing me and whispered;
“I have to get checked again.”
“Again?” I breathed, knowing exactly what she meant. I felt the anger bubbling up inside of me. She doesn’t deserve this, and the fact that she had been through it before makes me hate the world even more. I’m not letting her go, not now, not ever. I watched her as she looked slowly around the room, avoiding my eyes, she didn’t want to look at me, and I knew why. I couldn’t help but remember back to the first time she told me about it, the first time it happened.
