Page 75 of Piece By Piece

"I can't let you do that. This is your home," she protests.

I won't back down, though. Not on this. "It's yours too. Tell me what I can do to convince you to stay. I won't let you go to your parents'. Not after everything you've told me."

Sighing heavily, she shrugs. "We can both stay. Just, please, get rid of the drugs. I can't live in another house filled with drugs." She pulls further away. "And we should try to stay out of each other's way. I don't want to see you right now."

Ignoring the way hearing those words hurt, I swallow any further protests and nod, stepping away. "Of course. I won't bother you. Just know that I'm here if you need anything, okay?"

For six days, I barely see Aliena at all. It’s weird how unaware I was of how much she infiltrated nearly every part of my daily routine until she was gone.

I no longer greet her as soon as she steps out of the elevator in the evening, waiting in my room or the gym instead, although I always keep my door open to make sure I know she made it home safely.

I no longer tell her about my day as she prepares dinner, hell, we don’t share meals at all. I let her have the kitchen after she comes home from work, let her eat, and then follow suit once I know she’s in her room.

Still, she always leaves me a plate of whatever she prepared. It only makes not sharing the meals with her more painful.

I don’t deserve her kindness and her leftovers. She shouldn’t waste a single thought on me, not a second of energy, but I can’t tell her that without going back on my promise to give her space. Instead, I silently appreciate every bite of her cooking, unsure of what else I could do.

The few times I did see her in passing made my worry grow. She looks tired. Not as much as she did after I spent the night at my mom’s place, but there are dark circles beneath her eyes and every smile she throws me is half-hearted at best.

I’m sure I don’t look much better. She’s not the only one that’s been losing sleep. My mind is constantly reeling, trying to come up with ways to make things up to her, to make everything better but coming up empty. With every sleepless night, my worry that what I did is entirely unforgiveable grows.

But I try, nonetheless. I try everything I can think of to redeem myself because I can’t just do nothing and lose Aliena for good.

On the Monday after my party, the first thing I did upon arriving at school was tracking down the bastard that hurt Aliena. Brad, or Brandon, or something. Idon’t even care. All I know is that I dragged him into the alley between two of the school’s buildings, waited for the first period to start, and did a hell of a lot more than break his hand like I promised Aliena.

I beat him into a bloody pulp. Not enough to be life-threatening. I had enough of a mind to refrain from that. Still, I made sure he learned his lesson.

Tonight, the night of that sixth day, my mind is once again too restless to let me sleep. I toss and turn for three hours, getting more and more pissed with every minute I get closer to hearing my alarm in the morning. I hate being up all night when I have school early.

Finally, I go downstairs and make myself some warm milk, chugging it once it’s ready. Hell, if that doesn’t work, nothing will. Well, something might. The comfort of another body curled up against mine. Aliena’s body, to be exact. And only hers.

Since that is out of question for the time being, thought, I guess I’ll just have to hope the milk helps. If it doesn’t, I’ll call in sick tomorrow. What’s the worst that can happen? A call from the headmaster? Sure, I haven’t talked to my dad in a while.

With that bitter thought, I reach the top of the stairs. I make sure to tread silently from there on, unwilling to wake Aliena as I pass her room. As I sneak by, a sound from the other side of the wooden door makes me pause though.

Maybe my imagination is playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn I just heard her groan. Or moan.

Remembering how easily I dismissed a similar noise the last time, I hesitate, pressing my ear up to the door. Indeed, a few seconds later, I hear it again. Definitely not a moan, Irealize. No, it sounds more like a pained whine. A sniffle follows closely.

It sounds like she’s crying, and I don’t know what the hell to do. I want to go in, ask her if there’s something I can do to comfort her, but I’m not sure if I should now. Sneaking into her room in the middle of the night isn’t exactly giving her space.

In the end, I know that I won’t be able to ignore what I heard and just keep walking. I gently knock on the door.

There’s no reply, so I repeat the notion. “Aliena?” I whisper against the wood like an idiot. The other side of the door has gone really quiet but that doesn’t stop me from gently easing the the barrier open to peek inside.

There she is, curled up in a ball in the middle of her bed, on top of her blanket and with her back to me. “Aly? Are you awake?” I ask as softly as I can in case she is, in fact, asleep.

My reply comes in the form of a sniffle that goes straight through my chest. I finish the distance between me and the bed but hesitate again instead of getting on.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry to barge in here. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” she grunts breathlessly. It’s anything but convincing.

I know I should leave, boundaries and all. It’s just that my feet seem unwilling to move from this very spot unless it is to get closer to her.

“Doesn’t really sound that way. Is there something I can do?” I ask gingerly. Slowly, it dawns on me what date it is, and I quickly do the math. Unless I’m way off, my guess is that Aly’s on her period and while she didn’t seem to be in much pain the last time around, I won’t be bold enough to assume that’s always the same.

“Go,” she groans, not once moving. Sighing, I accept that I can’t force her to let me help.

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