Pricked

23

"I am a princess," she says clarifying the obvious, "a princess." As if that is the answer to my question and she turns away from me.

"Yeah?" I question again, "and I'm a-"

"I know what YOU are," she emphasis cutting me off with a vicious tongue, turning back to me she gets close, but she stops herself. As if she was any closer she might be infected with poor person. I stay firm and wait for her further explanation.

"You are nothing." I try not to laugh at her ludacris statement.

"I am nothing," I say falsely agreeing with her "and right now, so are you." Her mouth gaps ready to scream. "We both are lying here waiting to die." I gesture to her body and poke a finger at the wall where my room remains. I should have just kept my mouth shut, but I couldn't say nothing, she is just such a... well I guess her title suits her.

"Don't be such a princess." I say taking a step towards her, she tries to stay still and look as if she is brave and not scared to death. "We are in the same situation." But my tattered clothes, messy hair, pursed lip face draws her back.

"Go away and don't come back," her words are strong, but her body is shaking and weak. "I don't want to talk to you." She turns, her long blonde hair would have whipped me in the face, but I'm not really here, just as she isn't.

I now understand why she is alone. Why that amongst all her 'friends', why no one is here for her in her time of need.

***********

She doesn't want to talk to me? I go over the conversation in my head. As if I want to talk to her! We are the only people that can actually talk to each other! My anger is not worth wasting on her. So, I give up on the little princess and start back to my room only to find Arren examining me. I pace the room as Arren takes vitals and pricks me to see if any pressure points work. Nothing happens as per usual, but he always seems slightly disappointed when I do nothing.

I talk to him of Aurora and her rash behavior and how utterly pompous she is being for ignoring me. "She doesn't want to talk to me...Which was ridiculous because I'm the only person she can actually talk to..." Arren write something down in his notebook, but I no longer care for the results and numbers. "The little princess didn't want to fraternize with the riff raff," I huff. I continue my rant about her when he stops writing in his notebook as if to listen to my story better. "Can you believe her? She doesn't want to talk to me!" I sit near to Arren on the floor "I'm great, I'm wonderful, and I'm the only person that can hear her and she doesn't want anything to do with me!" Now I am yelling, but it doesn't seem to bother Arren. I stare at him waiting for an answer I will never get. So I pretend he agrees with me which, he probably would. I am about to continue, but before the words are able to leave my mouth I hear Arren start to cry. I move closer to him, try to touch his hand, but I can't feel him, just as he can't feel me.

"I'm so sorry," he says and put his face in his hands.

"It's okay, please don't cry. I love talking to you." I try to convince him he is doing everything he can and more. But as per usual my words do nothing. He is just trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle, a riddle with more than one answer, and book with missing pages, he is hopeful about the hopeless.

"I'm so sorry," he says again and grabs my hand, my real hand. I wiggle to the bed and sit on top of myself so I can see him better. "I don't know what else to do, it has been so long and I don't know how much longer your body can handle under these conditions." His eyes fill with tears, he wipes at them, but they keep falling. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." He thinks I'm dying. He thinks it's been too long in this death-like state, that I will soon be dead, for real.

"No," I scream, my volume surprising me. "No, you can't give up. Even if I gave up on me, I don't give you permission to quit!" You are my only friend, I reach out a hand to touch him, I don't want you to leave. "Don't leave," I repeat softly and slowly. He stands up, wipes his face and grabs his bag. He is leaving, this was it, I am losing him too. I thought I had lost everything, but I had him so if he goes then I have lost him too. I run to the door trying to block him from leaving, my hands barely touching the door frame and he stops. Right in front of me, he stops and stares at me. Not in my general direction, but at me. He can see me, he can see me! My heart would have raced, my palms would have sweat, I raised my voice, but it came out as no more than a scratchy cry for help.

"Arren please don't go." I whimper. "You can get me back into my body and I will forever be in your debt, please don't go! I have faith in you." He turns back to my body and slams down his bag.

"You are very difficult. And now with Aurora being ill as you are..." he hesitates his anger diminishing to humor and grabs his bag off the ground. He says nothing just turns around and looks to my body. He takes a deep breath and, "I will be back; I won't give up on you Rose, but I fell as though our journey has a timeline." He has done this break down and changed his mind before. I can't handle the stress of him possibly leaving for good then coming back as if nothing had happened, he seems to be bipolar with his rash emotions. He turns back towards me, his eyes meeting mine. He looks at me, not through me, but directly at me and as I wait for him to speak again, to declare some sort of excitement that he can see me... he walks right through me. I am both discouraged and hopeful, he didn't see me, but he's not giving up.