His Only Savior | #Wattys2019

~2~

            I shot up at the sound of Isaac's screams filling the room. I couldn't allow him to wake my parents, so I jumped from the bed and landed directly on top of him. I placed my hands on either side of his face, leaning down to whisper into his ear, "Isaac shh, you need to calm down. It's alright, it's just me," I cooed. I felt his strong hands shoot to my hips causing me to pull back enough for us to lock eyes. He appeared confused but before we could acknowledge our current predicament our heads snapped simultaneously towards the rapid tapping on my door.

            "Sweetie are you alright?" My mother's groggy voice traveled through the barrier separating her from the truth.

            "I'm fine mom, j-just another nightmare," I shot Isaac a warning look as I covered his mouth with my hand.

            "Are you sure? You know how I worry about you."

            I frowned as I let the lies flow out of me, "Mom, I'm okay. I'm going to try and get some more sleep and just forget about it." I closed my eyes tight, praying she wouldn't reveal anything personal about the contents of my reoccurring dreams, unfortunately for me God did not answer.

            "I wish you would just talk to that boy already," her concern apparent.

            "You know why I can't do that," I glanced down at the boy, well I suppose man at this point, beneath me. The curiosity in his eyes obvious as he studied the details of my face, "Mom?"

            "Yes sweetie," she responded letting me know she was still there.

            "Can we talk about this in the morning? I'm just really tired," my mom always respected my wishes and never pushed me to talk about the pain Isaac had caused so long ago. She knew what I was going through, and she understood how abandoned I had felt by him. His mother and I were so close, her passing hit me like a ton of bricks and then he just left me to heal on my own. I needed him and I wanted to be there for him, but he wasn't there.

            I heard her light footsteps return to her bed, the door shutting gently behind her. I sensed he was about to investigate the information he had just overheard but I refused to let him pry any further. "So, I'm going to go back to sleep, if you think it will help you can join me. It's big enough that we can place a pillow between us. After what I saw earlier, I can only imagine the visions night brings." He simply nodded and followed me to the bed, I offered a small smile while placing my body pillow between us. "Just stay on your side, and don't try anything I don't feel like becoming a statistic."

            His eyes went wide, "I wouldn't rape you Jesus Emily. What the hell?"

            I nervously laughed, "What? No, not that kind of statistic. I just, I um—I hear about your frequent conquests." He raised his brow at me questionably, so I continued, "I just hear if you want something you typically get it, so I'm just telling you don't even try with me. I'm not interested." I laid down quickly before things got more awkward. I mumbled under my breath out of frustration, "Not anymore at least."

            "What?" He asked clearly stunned.

            Oops, my cheeks flushed red, "Nothing, goodnight."

            I closed my eyes but before long I felt him brush my hair off my back, "Wait, is that my old shirt?"

            "Y-yeah, it's comfortable. Don't read too much into it, it's my softest night shirt." It wasn't a total lie, but it also wasn't the complete truth.

            "Does your boyfriend know you still wear it?" He smugly asked.

            "No, why would he?" I rolled over to face him.

            "Oh, I don't know maybe because he's your boyfriend?"

            "Okay, well my answer is still no. He's never stayed the night, much less seen the contents of my drawers. Why would you assume he had?" l asked clearly confused.

           "Well what do you wear when he comes over for movie nights," he questioned while scrunching up his nose in annoyance.

          "Pajamas...just not your shirt," I released a short breathy laugh.

          He nodded in acknowledgement before prying, "So why haven't you let him spend the night? I stayed over almost every weekend with you."

            "Yeah but we were like twelve and you were only a friend. My parents didn't worry about me getting pregnant back then," I teased.

            He clearly didn't find what I said amusing, "Whatever," he huffed as he rolled away from me.

           I rolled my eyes, mainly to help release some of the frustration building up inside, "Okay. Or be an asshole, not like I should expect anything different out of you right?" I rolled over roughly in the bed and forced my eyes shut, doing my best to ignore the elephant in the room. We had unfinished business, it was something neither of us could deny. The summer before our freshmen year all we did was fight, and whenever he begun to remotely open up, he would snap closed like a Venus flytrap. I finally reached the point I just didn't have the energy to keep trying, to keep fighting. I loved him but I knew I couldn't force him to love me back. I gave up and I did my best to move on. The memories of our friendship danced through my mind as I drifted off into the ever-consuming darkness of night, which allowed the memories of his hatred towards me to emerge.