River Dreams

My Angel

CHAPTER THREE

My Angel

When I got home Adam and his friend Ashton were in the kitchen. Ashton had his feet propped up on the table as he laughed along with Adam whose eyes were glued to his phone.

"Hey Ash," I said smiling, in hopes to hide the fear pulsing through me.

"Good morning, I'm going into town, want a ride?" he asked before looking down at me. "Hey...is that a cut?" He looked over my blue jeans which now were ripped and lightly stained with blood.

I silently cursed myself for not having changed into a new pair of pants before I confronted them.

"Yeah, I fell when I was on my walk. You know how clumsy I can get," I didn't dare lie to him, so I kept my information limited.

"You were on a walk? Jesus Vera, what kind of walk was it?"

"I'm fine," I assured.

"Your mom is going to freak out." He whispered.

I sighed, "Yeah I know. Look, I'm going to go get changed, don't say a word to my mom or Adam, I mean it."

"I'm not a good liar."

"You don't have to lie, just don't say anything," I leaned towards him, "Please Ash."

Ashton rolled his eyes and slowly began to nod, "whatever, just go clean yourself up."

I fake smiled and ran upstairs.

The adrenaline was finally starting to settle down, though I could still feel the raging beat of my heart, smashing against my ribs and cutting my breath off. It felt like falling, and endless flinching's of paranoid thoughts and allegations.

I thought I might die right there in my bedroom, standing in the middle of my room with nothing but an oversized t-shirt and an old copy of Dante's Divine Comedy. I wanted the adrenaline back, at least then I wouldn't feel the fear that cut into me.

I sat down on my bed, my hands shaking and my leg still bleeding from the fall. I ran my hand over the covers torn edges and sighed, I wondered what Dante would have thought of me. Our life, a perfect brother, a mother who choses mental facility pamphlets over magazines, a father who spends his days in open houses, and Ashton the shadow.

The door opened and Ashton appeared with a bagel in his hand, his hair messily rested against his forehead as a small frown formed once he saw my still bleeding knee.

"I thought you were going to clean that up," he said, pointing to my leg, "and you cut your arm too!"

I looked down at my arm and frowned, a long cut ran down my forearm until fading off at my wrist.

"I didn't notice that before," he said.

I pulled the blankets over my body and carefully rested the book on the nightstand, "I'm not dressed."

Ashton blushed, "Oh, uh, I'm not looking."

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to check on you," he said, "you looked worried about something."

I nodded, "Yeah, I just got freaked out."

"What happened?" He asked, sitting down at the foot of the bed and taking a bite of the bagel.