Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifteen(Part Two)

"Is this a face that looks like its sorry for you? No!
I wouldn't care which side of the grass your on
As long as your out of my way."

....

Brett loved the smell of her hair. He closed his eyes and took deep, relaxing breaths as they shared the bed. He felt his arm between the crook of her neck and the soft pillow, his hand on her arm, offering her reassuring comfort. He was fine. He'd be pushing himself around in a wheelchair for a bit, and then slowly moving from wheels to crutches and possibly learning to walk again, depending on how his muscles coped with being in a cast.
Silence lapsed between them; comfortable and safe. He allowed himself to melt into the bed with Adora resting on him. He knew to her it was just friendship, he knew she was just relishing in the fact he was here at all, but to him he was letting his injured heart get caught in the moment.
He imagined being on the couch in his lounge, home alone on the weekend... a movie flickering on the TV screen and providing background noise.
Adora would probably have chosen a mystery and she'd be making occasional guesses and gasps as the movie plot progressed, but he would be just like this; enjoying her scent and her company. He'd be dying to kiss her head, the thick brown hair stifling his noise with pleasure. He'd move his lips down to her forehead, the colours flashing on her pale skin as she looked at him.
Her clear, blue-green eyes would be unsure, but staring at him softly, a small smile would be blessing her full lips.
He'd move a hand to her chin, his fingers gently guiding her face closer to his like they do in romantic shows or movies.
They'd kiss, deep, sweet.
Their arms would wrap around themselves.
In the hospital bed he longed to roll onto his side and put his other arm over her, to enclose her in his arms.
She was so much warmer than the room.
He didn't know how long they laid there in comfortable silence before he heard familiar voices from the hallway.
"Awww! Look how cute this is!" Rae's voice squealed into the room and she clapped a little as Kurt followed in through the door.
"Cute indeed. This is so typical. We get stuck at school and Adora and Brett are chilling in the hospital! Lazy." He dragged the chair back and sat down heavily.
Adora groaned almost sleepily and moved off the bed.
Suddenly Brett remembered how cold the room was, except now it was even colder without her body warmth. His fantasy was over, a cold and white break, like the foam on the waves of the ocean.
Brett shifted on the bed and tried to get a little more comfortable in his binding. "Well, we all know you wouldn't fit on the bed here with me, Kurt."
Kurt pretended to be hurt. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
Moments later Will and his sister entered the room. Marti had a bouquet of flowers in her arms and a small smile on her face.
"Hey Brett, hope you're feeling OK. We decided someone should bring you flowers." She said as she came over to his bed, kissed his forehead and showed him the flowers.
Kurt snorted. "How sweet of you!"
"Thanks." Brett said quietly, feeling slightly unnerved by the kiss.
"Is there a vase for them anywhere?" Will asked, looking around the room.
"Er, not in here." Brett responded as Marti moved back.
"You can ask the nurses, they normally have spares or at least mason jars somewhere I think." Adora frowned as she tried to remember.
"I'll go do that." Rae offered.
"Oh! Adora, there was something stuck on your locker at the start of lunch. We grabbed it before we came here." Marti handed Will the bouquet of sunny blooms and started to reach into her bag as she walked to Adora's side.
Brett frowned and watched as Adora took the white envelope from Marti and sat on the foot of his bed. "That's weird." Adora mumbled as she turned it over and started to open the sealed triangle. The room waited and watched in silence as she pulled a card out and Brett swallowed a lump as she scoffed a little at the front.
He could see the bright blue colour and a cat in the middle of the bottom when she opened it. He had to lean forward to read the caption on it.
"I've got felines for you." He read out loud, his tone questioning.
He looked from the front of the card to Adora's face and felt the blood leaving his face. Her lips were parted and he could see her chest expanding and shrinking faster. "Adora?"
She looked up from the card to him and then around the room at Kurt, Marti and Will. "Did anyone see who left it?" Adora asked, her voice quiet.
Marti frowned and shook her head. "I think it must have been done during classes. Why?"
Adora bit her bottom lip and looked back to Brett before she handed the card over to him.
"Adora, Brett will never protect and love you like I will. I did it for us, I did it for you." He read aloud.
His stomach did several flips in quick succession and he was almost sure he was going to vomit.
Had it been Tom after all?
"We have to give this to the police." He stammered.
"It's my fault." Adora tilted her head and Brett looked to her hands as she began squeezing and bending her fingers.
"No, Adora... You don't even know who sent this." Brett waved the card a few times before Rae walked into the room with a vase full of water.
"Got one..." She smiled as she took the flowers from Will, unwrapped the plastic and put them neatly into the vase. She put the vase on the dresser opposite the bed and turned her attention to the room. "Oh, is that the thing that was on Adora's locker? What is it?"
Brett held it out towards her. She crossed to the end of his bed and took the card in her hands.
"Oh no... We have to take this to the police." She looked around the room and stopped with her face on Adora.
Brett nodded and focussed on the smallest person in the room. Her pale skin was almost a match for the sheets on his bed and he knew that her head would be racing with guilt.
How could he convince her it wasn't her fault he was like this after that card practically said it was?
Her eyes were wide and almost looked empty.
"Adora..." He tried quietly, reaching out to her thigh on his bed.
She jerked slightly and looked towards him, blinking a few times and forcing a smile. "I should leave." She started nodding, her voice was unstable and Brett felt the closeness from their embrace on his bed being sliced from them.
"Adora..." He shook his head.
She got up and left hospital room.
Brett watched her disappear into the hall and tried not to move after her for his casts and pain. The room was left in quiet confusion.
"Adora!" Marti was the first to react. Her voice was loud enough to move out of the room and her jog was surely quick enough to catch up to Adora.
Rae closed the card and put it on the end of Brett's bed where the envelope was. "Maybe Tom did do it... I mean, it was you that told him to leave her alone last week..."
"Tom is with Debbie, his car was just used by whoever did this." Will said sharply.
Brett shook his head at Rae and Will was the third visitor to leave the room.
"I just..." Rae's voice had dropped.
"We don't know if it was Tom." Brett muttered shaking his head. He looked at the blue colour by his feet. "But one of you had better call the police for this. It's basically a confession... From someone."
Who though?