Liquid Silver

Twenty Two

Jem woke up in her own bed.

There was blood on her sheets and her pillow but when she brought her hand to her nose she only felt the dried up fluid, crusty on her skin. Her fingers came away from her face clean but she knew the stains weren't red.

Her headache was gone. So was the pain in her arm. She turned her wrist slowly, letting the sheets fall down around her waist again. The skin was back to her normal sallow complexion, and there were only five small cuts, still crescent shaped. They were red sure, but already starting to scab over like they should have before.

When she looked around the room it was dark so she figured it was either night time or late evening. That's when she realised someone had pulled a chair from the kitchen into her room, and they were sleeping with their head slumped forward. It had to be crazy uncomfortable on the hard wood, their legs stretched out long.

She reached over to flick on her lamp, her heart in her mouth because she thought she recognised the sleeping individual but didn't want to get her hopes up.

She wasn't disappointed. Brett didn't notice when the light came on but Jem's heart soared when it cast a yellow glow on his face. He looked completely blissful, his eyes shut and one hand closed loosely around his phone, dangling beside him. An old bed throw was covering him up, keeping him warm. When she looked at his eyes a feeling tugged in her gut, something bothering her about the way they were closed and he seemed so still, but she couldn't place why.

She tried to be as quiet as possible as she moved the sheets back. Someone had changed her into an old jersey and her legs were bare as she slid them off the side of the bed so she was facing him.

"Hey" she whispered softly, reaching a hand over to Bretts and brushing his skin gently. Her words hung in the air for a moment. She was scared he'd take his hand away like he had yesterday, that as soon as she woke up he'd leave. Maybe the only reason he was here was to make sure she wasn't bleeding out, just being rostered on 'Jem duty' by Scott.

She really hoped he was here because he wanted to be. Because maybe he was worried about her, or wanted to make sure that she knew he was here for her when she woke up. He stirred and she took her hand away, hesitant as doubt swirled in the back of her mind. He'd never called her yesterday after they argued. He wouldn't have just forgotten they fought.

"Jem?" he seemed confused for half a second as his eyes opened slowly. Before she'd taken her hand away fully he closed his around it. "Oh thank God" he came to his senses, standing up off the chair groggily and wrapping her into his body. Her heart swelled as she buried her face into his stomach, his sweater was warm and smelled like him.

"You're here" she whispered, her voice muffled by the soft material as his chest rose and fell against her face.

"Everyone's worried" he replied, gently pulling away from her though she wished he wouldn't have.

"Everyone?"

"I was worried" he corrected, taking her hands. "I texted and called, about a hundred times. You weren't answering anything" He handed her a damp cloth so she could wipe the skin on her face, cleaning away the blood until the cloth started coming back clean.

She wanted to kick her shins. Of course she hadn't answered because she hadn't seen any of them. The frequency distributors in the school had blocked her signal. So even if Brett had been trying to reach her he couldn't have, and the whole time she thought he was still ignoring her.

"I'm so sorry Brett" her throat started to sting, as everything came back to her. The way she'd lied to him, and tried to hide things. How they'd fought and how she'd let him walk away thinking he couldn't trust her anymore.