From Foes to Flames

From Foes to Flames-part 13

Chapter 13

Adeline

I jolt awake and I'm in the car with Matao, I remember what has just happened and I freak out a bit. I calm myself down and look out the window. "I'm not going to the hospital" I say seriously. He doesn't say word the whole way home after he has calmed me down and is mad, I don't want to say anything else in fear of him yelling at me. Once we get home, I open the door and almost fall to the ground as I feel a sharp pain run up my arm, I pull the sleeve of my shirt up and see a huge, deep cut that looks like the scar I have on my other arm. I walk into the house with Matao following me and I flop onto the lounge. I hiss when another jolt of pain hits me. "We need to clean that" Matao says as he walks to the kitchen, he comes back with a bottle of alcohol. I shift away when he opens the bottle "c'mon you need to clean it" he tells me, I know I do but I know how much that's going to hurt. I shake my head, still backing away from him slowly "your choice" he says as he walks over to me and pours it over my sleeve and onto my arm. I yell out in pain, and he holds my arm, I shake my head as he pushes my sleeve up. I shake my head violently not able to say anything as he begins cleaning my arm. It feels like my arm is on fire, but he ignores my protests and continues cleaning it. When he is done, he hugs me, he doesn't try to move me he just hugs me for what feels like hours. I eventually fall asleep in his arms, and he must have taken me to bed.

When I wake up its morning and I'm back in Matao's bed, when I'm finally awake properly I realise that's he's in bed with me. I don't yell at him to get off me, I don't get up and walk away, I stay there, still and letting him hug me. An alarm goes off and I finally move to turn it off, great the stupid alarm ruined it for me. He rolls over and groans as I move, I sit up and pull one of his hoodies over my head. My arm burns as I lift it and I look into the hoodie to inspect it, its dried up and it doesn't look infected. I walk downstairs as he gets up and I pull out some cereal for breakfast. "Making yourself at home I see" Matao jokes as he comes downstairs. I make him some while I'm going and put it on the table for him "thank you" he says.

"So, you slept with me last night" I say between mouthfuls. He takes a minute to respond while he chews.

"So, uhhh, well... yeah I did..." he finally says quietly "sorry."

"It's ok, I slept well" I reply feeling like I just made him nervous. His eyes light up when I say this, and he keeps eating his breakfast. I finish breakfast and go to get ready for school.

"Where are you going?" Matao asks me. To school idiot where else would I be going on a Wednesday morning I think to myself.

"School" I reply, he laughs and shakes his head. What? Why is he laughing? I feel like an idiot. I turn around to leave.

"You can't go to school, not with that area and I'm betting you are still going to refuse to go to the hospital, so you are staying here" he says seriously. Great I have to miss school now because I know there's no way i'm getting out of this house.

"With you?" I ask, he nods. Great, I don't know if I'm happy or not about this but maybe I can catch up in some work while I'm here. "Can I at least get the wifi so I can do some work please?" He nods and I go to get my computer. He types in the password while I watch, not that I'm trying to figure out the password but I'm watching his hands, he has really nice hands. He hands me my laptop and I thank him before going upstairs to his room. I give him and awkward look as he follows me up the stairs. He might just be going to the bathroom. Nope, he is following me into his room now, I sit down at his desk, and he flops onto his bed messing up the doona. "What are you doing?" I finally ask him. He shrugs and I continue with my work. I finish one piece of work and begin to move onto the next but I'm missing all the books I need. "Fuck" I mumble. He peps up really quick when he hears me.

"What's wrong?" He asks me sincerely.

"All my books are at school, and I need them" I groan as I throw my head back in the chair. He stands up and walks to the door, he looks back to see that I didn't follow him.

"Cmon" he demands, I heave myself out of the chair and follow him to the car. We get in the car, and he starts driving to the school. We are about five minutes away when he turns, and we are headed the wrong way. He notices I'm confused and reassures me "we are going to the mall calm down a bit". I'm still a bit confused on why we are going to the mall, maybe he needs some new clothes. We pull into the parking lot and walk into the mall. I haven't been to the mall in so long and this one is so much bigger than the one I used to go to with my mum. My breathing increases because of all the people around me and I feel Matao link his hand into mine softly. I feel slightly relaxed from his touch and I hold his hand as well. Out of the corner of my eye I see him look. at the floor to hide his blush but it doesn't work very well considering I have to look up to talk to him. We keep walking and he walks me into a clothing shop and starts picking up shirts, he looks at the shirts, then me, then the shirts, and he put all but one away. He did this about four times before we moved into the pants section. He repeated this with two pairs of shorts and three pairs of pants. I didn't really know what to do so I just let him drag me around by the hand he was still holding. We walked to the checkout and he paid. He then bought me a coffee and we went to the car; we drove to the school, and I waited in the car while he got my schoolbooks.

Once was back at his house; he took my books upstairs to his desk and handed me the bag of clothes. I stood dumbfounded for a minute before following him upstairs. "They are yours" he tells me, it takes me a minute to put it together but when I do, I'm so excited. My face lights up and I give him a huge hug. I didn't expect him to hug me back, but he did.

"Thank you so so much" I say excitedly.

"Well, my clothes are way too big for you" he laughs. I let go and sit them on the floor next to the cupboard. I sigh before I sit back down at his desk and start working again.