Love And Other Drugs

09

'She looks terrified.' 'I know.. I just couldn't leave her in that place.'

She's sitting on the couch in silence.
I walk over to her.

'What's your name?'
'It's w..whatever you na..name me.' 'No, I want to know your real name.'

The poor girl is shaking.

'M..my previous owner called me Lady.'

I sigh quietly.

'I want to know yours.'
'B..but it isn't necessary besides.. you could see it on the papers?'
'I threw them out,' I state calmly.

It has a wrong effect on her, she seems even more terrified now. I can't just guess what's wrong. I sigh and decide to read her mind.. wrong move.

I whimper when a huge headache appears. Her mind is full of worries and memories, I don't understand how she's not screaming and going mental because of it.

'Are you okay?'

I feel a hand on my back.

'Yea no.. I'm fine. It's my own fault.' 'You should rest Ted.'
I groan, 'I'm not going to collapse again Josh!'

'T..Ted.. as in Teddy Wood? W..wait I'm in the c.. castle? I'm so sorry I even said a word in the first place I.. I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry,' she stops for a few seconds but continues, 'I'm sorry for rambling.'

'It's fine, look I'm against this whole servant thing in the first place. Just think of it in a way like.. like you're just working for someone and cleaning their house, it's more than just that I'm aware, but see it as a job and not like you're forced to. It's a shame I can't provide you with freedom or even pay you but I'll think about a way.'

She looks at me with big eyes.

'But..if you're against it why,' normally I would've cut anyone of at this point but I let her continue, 'why am I here?' I expected this question.
'The king insisted since I kept his daughter's servants busy.'

'Anyway, you can take a shower or a bath I really don't care if you want to. I know the shower in the room you'll sleep in isn't that great and you're only allowed to shower there once a week I believe, so just take a shower here whenever you like.'

She looks shocked, susprised and confused.. a lot of emotions she tried to hide until this point.

'It's not an order,' I add quickly.

She hides a smile gets up and looks around, searching for the bathroom probably.

'It's on the right side behind the couch, there should be plenty of towels. I will get you your own shampoos, soap and whatever you think is necessary later. For now just use ours.'

She starts walking but stops and turns around again.

'Mis..' 'Ted or Teddy is fine,' I cut her off. 'Okay.. Ted?'

I expected her to talk but it's like she's waiting for my permission.

'What is it?' Josh says carefully, softly. 'My clothes..'

She sounds embarrassed.

'Right.. all I have for now is..'

I look around and my eyes lock onto a black knee-length dress with a silver flower pattern.

I grab it and give it to her.

'It's all I have for now.'

She looks at it and wants to say something but keeps her mouth shut.

'What's wrong?'
'It's beautiful,' she says in a soft whisper. 'Thank you,' she gives me a confused look, 'I made it.'
'That's a joke.. right?'

Her surprise seems to have taken over her fear.

'Nope,' I point to the sewing machine in the left corner of my desk, 'I did it.'

She smiles and wants to walk into the ensuite.

'Wait, do you have any wounds that need to be taken care of?'

She doesn't react so I repeat the question.

'Uh right.. there's this one big wound just above my hip.'
'Josh could look at it. Only if you want to of course.'

Damn.. I'm not good with conversations. She nods and walks away after that.

'I feel so sorry for her.' 'Yea I do too,' I mumble but my mind is elsewhere.
'What's wrong?' I feel his hands massage my shoulders.
'She's so afraid of me.. she won't even tell me her name.'
'She's just traumatised Ted.'

I sigh.

'Please don't build up more stress hormones, not now.' I laugh.
'That's not how that works, I thought you were the doctor here.'

Now it's his time to laugh.

'I'm not a doctor Ted.. I'm not even midway through my study.'

'Can you look after her and take care of her? I need to talk to the other servants.' 'Why?'
'Because I don't know how this works and what's expected from her.' He nods and I walk away.

Pov Josh

'Where is,' she stops talking all of a sudden. 'Where Teddy is? She nods. 'He's talking to other servants because he doesn't know how this works. Anyway,' I get up, 'let's take a look at the wound you mentioned.' 'W..where?'

I sign towards the couch.

I take a closer look at her skin having no idea what it is.

'Do you know what caused this?'

She shakes her head.

'We will need to wait for Ted to come back.' 'N..no no no no please!'

She starts panicking.

'Why are you so afraid of him?'
'Why? He's a royal pure blood.. those are the most dangerous vampires out there and he's the only one who's alive.'

I laugh and lay my hand down on her shoulder.

'Teddy won't hurt you, he only kills insects.. maybe not even.. my point is, he won't hurt you.'

She swallows loudly enough for me to hear.

'But.. but he threw away my papers, that could only mean he's sucking me dry.. otherwise he should've kept those.'
'He threw them out because he doesn't want to know every single detail about you. He wants to get to know you from you.. not papers. Besides.. he drinks mostly plasma packs and only really likes O negative. Oh and to add.. I'm literally the only one he feeds from.'

My mind goes back to the day he bit my sister but luckily she says something.

'Don't you find that scary?'
'Only once, he gave me a jealousy bite. But even then he calmed down and got it over with as soon as possible. He didn't even drink a drop of my blood.. he looked awful after that. Really, he's not that bad,' I state with a smile.

'

'J..josh?' 'Yes?'

It has been quiet for a while and I didn't expect her to say anything.

'It's Lauraine, my name is Lauraine Hunt.'
'Well nice to meet you Lauraine,' I respond with a smile.
'But I prefer Laura, o..of course it's not my call. You can name me whatever you want.'
'Laura, it's okay. We mean no harm to you and I'm sure Ted will do his best to make your life here as normal as possible. Like he said, he's against this in the first place and I think it's the first thing he will take care of when he becomes king.'

Her eyes are full of confusion again.

'K..king?' 'Aren't you aware? He took the place of the heir because it's his.' She shakes her head, 'all I know it that they locked him up, almost killed him and he torn down the city.'

'Torn down the city?' A familiar voice repeats.