Shattered Mirrors (On Hold)

Chapter 16

I wake up to a sickly sweet smell wafting in the air around me. Perfume? Carefully, I sit up. Clutching at my temples, a piercing pain shoots through my head. A headache, maybe? I’m not entirely sure; I’ve never actually had one before.

“Easy there girl,” Xander whispers. Something strong is grasping my body, muscles perhaps? Only then do I realize what the smell in the air is, its Xander’s axe spray. He’s still holding me tightly in his arms.

            “What am I, a horse?” Even with a vast pounding head I’m still able to recoil with my usual sassy remarks.  I jump to my feet, the blood rushes to my head, and again, the world grows shadowy.

            I begin to collapse, and I wait for the pain to come, but it never does. “Whoa, I think you better sit down a while longer Ari,” Yet again, Xander has saved my clumsy little ass.

            “Yeah… I think you’re right.” He lowers me back against a cold wall and then takes a few steps back, keeping a distance. “So, what happened back there?”

            “Don’t you remember anything at all?”

            I ponder this for a moment, and come to a conclusion. “Well, I must’ve blacked out ‘cause all I remember is hearing footsteps seconds before that retarded hell of a lowlife was about to aim a damn gun at my head!”

            “Well, that’s funny! Now what really happened?” Somehow, Xander is able to keep laugh this all out while I’m busy having an emotional meltdown over here. “I walked in on you chatting with the Principal and then he left and you started wailing and crying about something…”

            “Something?” I pry. “Care to elaborate on that something?”

            “Well, you were talking about you’re, umm, your mom and what happened and…” I don’t let him finish.

            “Oh, well I’m sorry that you had to hear all of that crap,” My curiosity won over my secrecy. “What else did I say?”

            “You were talking about Josh, you kept yelling out his name, like you were screaming at him. And then you, umm, you said that you didn’t love him anymore and you kind of told him that you two were over…”

            “Oh, well yeah. I’ve been thinking about doing that for a long time.” I don’t realize that I’ve spoken aloud until Xander breaks the distance between us to come and sit beside me.

            “Here,” He pulls out some crumpled tissues from the package he always carries in his back pocket. “I think you may need these more than I do.”

            I laugh, “Man, you must think I’m an emotional wreck.” I shake my head and blow my nose.

            “No.”

“Huh?”