Breaking

Chapter 16.

Arabella

I check the clock on my phone. Two-thirty in the morning. It's late but Alex insisted I call him when I can so I text him to make sure he's up. I wait a minute or two and he doesn't text back, he calls me instead.

"Hi," I whisper into the phone.

He groans softly. "How are you feeling?"

He has no clue what happened yet he wants to know if I'm all right because that's what's important to him. I assure him I'm fine then tell him everything and I mean everything. I tell him the truth about how I ended up in the hospital. I tell him the truth about my mother again. I tell him the truth about my father and where he is. I tell him the truth about Tobias and who he is really is to me, what he means to me. I tell Alex that I'm fucked up and I like him.

He sighs deeply through his end of the phone and I hear what sounds like him sitting up. "Thank you for telling me. And I like you too. But I think I'm more afraid of Tobias now, he'll never see me as good enough for you."

I laugh softly. "I think you're okay. I plan on telling him soon, once he recovers from yesterday's evening. He took it harder than anyone else."

"I don't blame him. My chest hurts a little." I wince, and, as if he's sitting right not to me, watching me, he says, "don't make a face. I'm okay. We're okay."

I smile. Then he yawns. "I woke you up, didn't I?"

"I told you to call me. And technically no, I was...I was, um, up already, waiting for you to call me."

"Alex," I groan, rolling on my back.

"I'm seventeen, it's not the first time I've stayed up."

"Still..." I play with the hem of my shirt. "Go to sleep. And, um, talk to you later?"

"Always, Arabella," he promises, and blood rushes to my warm cheeks. "Good morning."

"Good morning," I whisper then hang up.

When I finish watching Twilight: New Moon, I get out of bed. I should be sleeping too but I've spent plenty of time sleeping at the hospital. I walk down the hall and into the living room to find Manuel sleeping on the couch and Tobias on the floor.

I crouch down and gently shake his arm. Almost immediately, he jumps up, startled and now fully alert, and I fall back on my ass and hands. When he sees it's me, he mutters a curse and pinches the bridge of his nose, his eyelids fluttering shut. "Kid," he breathes. He drops his hand from his face and looks at me. "What's wrong? Did you throw up again?"

I shake my head. "What are you doing on the floor?"

He points to Manuel. "He fall asleep and I didn't want to wake him." His voice is thick with sleep.

"Come on," I say, returning to my crouching position, then I stand.

"Come on where?"

"You're not sleeping on the floor, Tobias."

"There's nowhere else for me to sleep."

"Your bed."

The sleep clears from his voice. "No." That single word is strong and stubborn, but I'm me and I know how to work around stubbornness.

I decide to give begging one more try. "Hey," I softly kick the side of his leg. "Please?"

"No."

"Okay." I smoothly drop to the floor, lying on my stomach. I fold my arms in front of me and rest my head there.