Broken ✔

Chapter Twenty

Song: Enjoyment - KiDi

The morning sky was clear and bright with the beautiful morning sun. A single black bird striped with yellow settled on the window sill, singing happily, reaching a crescendo and singing so hard that his chest heaved and his whole body seemed to squeeze. He paused to get his breath back, when Nate pulled back the curtains, making the frightened bird fly away in a frenzy.

"Morning sleeping beauty," he grinned.

I sat up, feeling slightly better, though I knew I was coming down with a fever. "Did anyone come looking for me?" I asked him.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "Were you expecting anyone?"

Kofi had tried to kill me, there was no two ways about it. He believed that I wouldn't have survived, that was why he didn't even send someone to check up on me. "N-no. No one's looking for me." Even my family back at home didn't know that I had been kidnapped, so they wouldn't think to look for me. The thought of the disgrace they must've been going through made my stomach churn. I noticed that the pungent smell of horse dung was absent. "Did you bathe me?" I asked, almost bewilderedly.

"Is that a 'thank you'?"

"No!" I pulled the sheets closer to my body, glaring down at the man.

He bellowed with laughter. "Calm down, I didn't undress you, if that's what you fear?"

"So... you left me in wet clothes?"

"I had to. I didn't think you'd like if I undressed you. I towelled you dry as much as I could, though your hair looks a bird nest, I apologise for that."

I touched my shaking hands to my hair, my eyes widening when I realised that the hairs were sticking out and felt frizzy.

"You kept shivering through the night, I thought you were cold so I wrapped you in blankets. Then your temperature spiked and you began sweating. Are you okay?"

"I don't know," I replied with a frustrated frown. "I was completely fine about two days ago."

"Maybe you caught something whilst resting in horseshit."

I laughed, against my better judgment. He wasn't going to let this go anytime soon. That is, of course, if I continued to encounter this handsome stranger. "I agree, that was such a bad idea."

He grinned. "I hope you're feeling better. I got you some paracetamol, that is if you're in pain of course."

"Yes, thank you," I told him. He handed me a glass of water and a box containing the painkillers. I was glad that he didn't remove the pill from the box for me because trust didn't come that easily to me, especially after everything that had happened. He could've been giving me Viagra for all I knew. After I swallowed the pill, I just smiled at him.

He scratched his long hair and smiled back. "Remember our deal?"

"What deal?" I asked, slightly confused.

"You were supposed to tell me why you were in Fluffy's stable."

"Who named him that?"

He snorted. "It's a long story actually. My brothers haven't outgrown the toddler stage."

"You have brothers?" I asked, stupidly.

He nodded, smiling when he thought about them. I could see that he loved them very much. "Yes. The silliest idiots alive."

"What are their names?" I asked.

"Rhys and Devan."

"Ghanaian?" I asked.