Strings Attached

Chapter Twenty

Louise left the next morning, and she said she had a lot of fun and thanked me for having invited her over.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, for Mom, Brianna, Teddy and I spent the whole day watching cartoon marathons.

At night, Brianna and I were already asleep when a sound woke me up. Someone appeared to be knocking on Brianna's door, so I got up and opened the door, revealing a sad looking Teddy.

"I... I can't sleep, Chris," he said sheepishly. "Could you please keep me company?"

I smiled. "Sure."

We walked to my room, and Teddy closed the door after him. "Sorry. I've just been having nightmares about my dad... It happens sometimes."

"About your dad?" I asked, worried.

Teddy lowered his face. "It's a long story."

"It's okay," I told him. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

He smiled sadly. "Thank you, Chris," he said.

I sat next to him on the bed, and he started at me firmly. "I'm sorry for waking you up," he mumbled.

"Hey, it's okay," I said, running my hands through his hair gently and pushing it out of his eyes. They looked really beautiful, even at night.

"You're amazing, Chris," he muttered. "I really, really wish we could be together."

"We still can," I told him in almost a whisper.

He shook his head. "The demons of my past come back to haunt me all the time," he said. "I don't want them to haunt you, too."

"I actually want them to," I said. "I don't care if they come every night and keep me from sleeping. I don't care if they threaten to kill me. I don't care if they come and take away my every breath in an effort to keep us from being together... I just know that I want to be with you, and they cannot keep me away from you, even if they try to."

Teddy sighed. "You're very brave," he said. "I wish I were that way..."

"You are, Teddy," I told him.

He turned to see me and smiled sadly. "I love it when you call me that."

I blushed. "I love calling you that."

He sighed. "I... I really wish my past didn't matter, Chris, but it does. Every time Mom leaves, I have to look for her, and it's very tiring, you know? I have to look for her and look for her, and just when I move on and think I can be happier without her, she appears again, and I feel this urge to help her, and... I become convinced that she's going to change, and then she changes for a while, but when she remembers my dad, she starts doing drugs again, and... It's a never-ending cycle."

"But I can help you," I told him. "I will be with you every step of the way. If she comes back, I will still be there for you. I will never leave you. I know you are used to the people you care about leaving, but I won't leave you. I promise."

He sighed. "I know you wouldn't leave, but... I'm still afraid you will. I'm afraid we'll be together one day and the next we won't. That's why I don't want us to be romantically involved. I want you to be my friend because a friend is more permanent than a girlfriend. Girlfriends come and go, but friends stay."

He was crying now, and that made me want to cry, too, but I had to be strong for him. I wiped away his tears and pretended to be strong.

"Okay," I said. "Like I said before, if you need a friend, then that's what I'll be."