Stroked

-Chapter 16 (uneditied!)-

-Chapter 16 (uneditied)-

-Oliver-

"Amy? You ready yet?" I finally button up my dress shirt and then make work on the ties of my dress shoes. She leans her head up slowly and shakes it like she's been animated by puppet strings.

"What's wrong?" I ask, a little confused, her hair is still un-brushed and wet from the shower, her makeup isn't even on, and her yellow shoulder straps are slipping.

She puts a hand up to her head and I notice it's bandaged, I wonder what caused her an injury. She doesn't give me an answer and I finished tying my shoes and walk over to her, bending on my knee. I look up at her and she won't even give me her eye contact. I reach up to push her dress straps back up more and she snaps.

"Don't...Touch me!" She yells, scooting away a little bit more from me. I feel an instant stab in my heart.

Why is she acting like this?

"Are you still upset about what happened in the library? I'm so sorry I pushed you like that...I shouldn't have."

Yeah, right, you knew you wanted to do it.

But, maybe she didn't.

"No. I'm not." Amy says back, in a robotic tone, like the answers are programmed in her brain.

I remain on my knee and I grab her hands which try to squirm away from my touch.

"Tell me what's wrong." I demand, rubbing my thumbs over her soft, little hands. Which are sweating a bit, but I don't really mind.

She finally looks at me with cold, gray eyes and bags sagging underneath them.

"You don't remember...do you?" She seems to be talking more to herself than me, like she's registering something. Her eyes flicker from direction to direction.

"What're you talking about?" I ask, truthfully confused.

"You..." She pauses for a second, looking like she's trying to decide something with herself. Like she's confronting an uphill battle.

"You were drunk last night." She finally states and I drop her hands and everything seems to stop inside and around me.

"What...did I do?" I ask, fearing the worst.

Amy hesitates and I feel another stab deep inside.

"Please tell me I didn't hurt you, please tell me I didn't touch you at all in any way like that." I shake my head at myself, truly disgusted.

I never get drunk.

Maybe that's why I don't remember anything past the kiss and the re-shelving.

Amy shakes her head and widens her eyes.

"No, nothing like that. You just started getting really angry at me and you starting shouting at me." She looks like she's about to burst. I can't believe it...

"Then you told me to go sleep somewhere else, so I spent the night on the living room couch." Amy says, like she should be wounded, but she still has no emotion being displayed.

I grab her hands again and lower my head, ashamed.

"I'm so sorry Amy. I must've been really upset to get drunk like that, and I never drink, at least that much. I guess, when you ran off to talk with Diana after our kiss I just didn't want to put up with anything." I let the words spill out like water.

I put my hand up to brush away some of her curls and she doesn't swat away my hand this time, she allows my touch. I push the curls away and rub the spot right next to her eye.