Somebody To You

Chapter 2: Ring Around Deveraux-y [Noah]

Dedicated to Nesiangirl_FJ for all the love on Chapter 1! Thank you for everyone who's given "Somebody to You" a chance and another read. Much love x

NOAH'S POV [IN CASE THAT WASN'T CLEAR]:

MY NAME WAS NOT DEVERAUX.

She—the girl—kept calling me that. "Do you want some more water, Deveraux?"

What time was it? I was too weak to ask and too parched to care.

I let the girl lift my head up as she gently tipped the cup into my mouth. She placed the back of her cool hand against my burning forehead. It was a surprisingly comforting and oddly familiar sensation.

The comforter she had placed on the floor did little to soothe the aching in my side. It felt wafer-thin. Didn't she have anything better to offer? Maybe even a bed or a couch at the very least?

I shifted to the left only to be met with searing pain.

Stitches.

I remembered the stitches.

"Ow," I wheezed aloud.

"Would you be more comfortable on the couch?" she asked.

I grunted in response.

Finally, she got the hint.

Maybe she wasn't so slow after all.

I felt her nudge me forward. "Sorry," she murmured a little too close to my ear for my liking. The hot puff of breath against my skin added to the tingling feeling the fever consumed me in. The girl positioned herself to lift me by my underarms. She was surprisingly strong for someone at least fifty pounds lighter than me, but her legs still buckled under my weight.

Once I got my footing, I gave her some much needed help. I eased myself onto the couch, careful not to exacerbate my wounds further. The couch was barely more comfortable than the floor, but it would have to do for the meanwhile.

It was both boiling hot and freezing cold at the same time.

Was this what hell felt like?

The girl...Adeline...covered me in a scratchy blanket. "Thank you."

I had managed to summon the energy to show this strange stranger some gratitude. She had gone beyond the usual "Good Samaritan". She must have been incredibly trusting i.e. dimwitted to let someone she didn't know into her home or she knew my new net worth and decided to make some quick cash off my situation.

"Don't die, okay?" I heard her whisper. It was so quiet I almost missed it. "I don't know who you are or why God led me to you, but I need you to do me this one favor and stay alive."

I was suddenly struck with her sincerity again.

I didn't want to trust so easily, but there was something about her that made me believe she would have done this for anyone. She reminded me of a puppy. "Adeline."

Her name was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

As I laid there, only comforted by the sound of her rustling as she walked around what I assumed to be her house, I wondered if it was really that important for me to stay alive. I had lost one of the people I loved most in the world already. Was there anything left for someone like me? If the world was so indifferent, then did it matter if I wasn't around to be in it?

I thought of Elliot. That little runt.

Would he even notice if I was gone?

Here I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, and the only reason I was alive was that some poor girl found a lost cause in my unfortunate situation. Part of me was grateful that she had stumbled upon my hapless body. Another part of me had resented her for it.