DREA (GxG)

9. {Never have I ever}

I had another nightmare that night. Tears were soaking my face and sweat was drenching me when I woke up. I knew I was screaming, too. I heard myself, but Drea never came. I didn't expect her to either. Even so, I didn't expect it would be so hard to get through all by myself. It was lonely and cold, and I spent the rest of the night terrified of closing my eyes.

I watched the week pass slowly. Over the days, it had begun to snow. As if the place wasn't already freezing enough, it got colder. I was wrapped up in a hoodie in my room on my bed, where I spend most of my days to stay out of Drea's way, trying yet again to draw a stick person. I had the head down, the body too, but as soon as I started drawing the hands, I couldn't keep my hand steady anymore, and it's starts cramping like a bitch. I dropped the pen with a defeated sigh and scooted off the bed. Drea was in the bathroom, and I needed to use it about fifteen minutes ago. Now, I absolutely could not hold it any longer. I don't know why she's even in there because she has her own bathroom. I swear she does things like this sometimes so she can see me while I'm trying my hardest to give her the space she so desperately asked for.

The closed bathroom door mocked me. My bladder protested, and I had to twist to keep it in. I banged on the door. "Drea? I very badly need to pee!" No answer. I banged again and again with no answer. Then I turned the knob and pushed forward. I found the toilet, pulled my clothes down, and sat down. Nothing has ever felt so good.

Now that I wasn't dying, my eyes found the bath. There Drea was, lying in it, completely naked. There was a half-full glass of white wine in her hand and her phone in the other hand, still playing videos. But she was long gone. Her head was slightly pressed against the wall as she slept. Immediately, I could see all the accidents that could happen. The phone could falls into the bathtub and it's dead. Wine glass falls from her hand, then she steps out onto it and boom, dead.

Well, maybe not dead, but hurt. She could get seriously hurt.

I hurried up my clothes, washed my hands and went over to her, peering the glass out of her hand. It gave easily, and I rested it on the counter. Then I was going back over to her to take her phone. This, she would not let go, and as I was taking it, her eyes opened. Confusion flashed across her face for a moment as she stared distantly at the bath water, then her head eased off the wall as she looked around. Her eyes found me, and her face grew sad again. Hopeless. As if I was something she yearned for, but was just out of reach. I didn't understand it because I was right there. Nothing had changed, yet everything had, since that afternoon with her mother.

She gripped her phone tightly and stood up from the bath, naked as the day she was born. Water dripped from all parts of her skin, a sight that tried desperately to captivate me, but I turned my face away, my heart pounding.

"What are you doing?" she asked. The first words she'd said to me all day.

"I needed to pee."

"Okay." She breathed then I heard the door opening. I turned around and saw her pause with her back to me. She was still naked. Fuck. "Julia."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry again....about my mother. I knew what she was like, so I should have never brought you there."

The shakiness in her voice made something twist inside my gut. I felt just an ounce of anger, too. It had to be when she was just feeling better. It had to be when she started smiling again that her mother said all those things to her.

"It's not your fault," I assured her. "Come here." She didn't move. "Look at me, Adreanna."

"I can't."

I walked up to her, wrapping my arms around her still-wet body. The water didn't matter. Nothing else mattered except her. She didn't react for a long time, but then, slowly, she leaned into my touch. I looked up into her face, and I saw that she was crying. Again. "You are not your mother," I told her firmly. "You are not responsible for her misbehaviours."