We're Fine

Page 46

I faced Adrian's chest and just breathed. The shock had stopped my tear flow and my body ached. There was a stabbing pain in my hand from the splinters and I couldn't make myself move. No one said anything. We all just sat there and listened to the papers flutter around us. We would never get them in the right place. They would know we looked through them.

"Gale, it's okay. We're going to take care of this. You have to get up." I could hear the tears in Wendy's voice and she grabbed my shoulder. It wasn't okay. We weren't going to take care of this. And getting up wasn't going to fix anything.

Despite my inability to move she stood me up and Jay helped Adrian to his feet. My whole body shook like I was in subzero temperatures without a stitch of clothing on me. I may have stopped crying and could breathe shallowly, but I was far from okay. I was in pain of every kind. Nothing could stop it.

Adrian stumbled forward and weakly pulled me to him. His legs were shaking and the muscles in his arms jumped and throbbed under his skin. He clutched me to him as if his life depended on it and I figured then that it probably did. My arms were looser around him because I couldn't find any strength to hold on tighter.

"I'm sorry, Gale. This is all my fault. It's all my fault." He choked in a pleading way that sounded painful.

It was his fault. Had he not spoken to me that first day I wouldn't be standing her wishing I were dead.

"Your hand is bleeding, Gale."Wendy informed me. I didn't care.

Adrian sat me down and picked out every splinter that wasn't going to have to be dug out by a needle. My mind swirled as I watched him pluck out splinter after splinter. I was caught in a fog and didn't know what to do. The good thing was that I was starting to think more like myself. However, there was still one matter to take care of before I could make the voyage back to normality.

"Adrian, you have to promise me you won't do anything to get yourself in too much trouble." I proposed, carefully choosing my words because I knew he would get himself in trouble eventually. After all, we were sneaking around weren't we? Chances are we'll get caught.

"I can't promise anything, Gale." He already looked and sounded like himself. How could he compose himself so quickly? He was just as messed up as I was a second ago. Trying to comprehend him made my temples throb.

"Adrian." My voice shook with anger as I tried to think of something to say; something that would convince him. He looked at me with those cold blue eyes and made my vocabulary even more limited. "So they think I'm insane. I'm not. We both know I'm not and in a real psych evaluation everyone else would know that too." Wrong.

"Unless it's rigged to make you sound insane, which it would." He stated like it was common knowledge.

"Damn it, Adrian!" I snapped and slammed my good hand down on the hard ground. "Do you know why I don't want you to kill her? I really don't think you do. If you kill her they'll send you away and I'll never see you again. And frankly Adrian, I'm absolutely terrified to live without you!" That was it. In what felt like one swift slip of the tongue I spilled everything.