How Are You? (Delena Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Angels and demons

"Owwkay, here is the book." I placed a book on Demi's lap. She thoroughly studied the pictures while waiting for me to sit down next to her on her bed.

"What do you see?" I began.

"A girl." she answered. I nodded.

"Okay so, this girl has a name. And we just studied the alphabet, so can you figure out what this word says?" I went on. She looked at the name next to the girl. She looked at every letter and tried to remember how to pronounce it.

"M.. a.. r.. y... Mary?" She asked hesitatingly.

"Yes! Really good! Okay, next page." I turned the page and saw in the corners of my eyes how Demi brightened up a little. She smiled again, proud of her achievement. I loved to make her smile. I pointed at the small sentence next to the second picture.

"M.. Mary, h.. h-a-s, has, a, B -a -l -l. Bal-l?" She frowned.

"Good! See, you spell a ball with two L's, but you pronounce it as one." I explained. I tried my very best not to sound childish to her. She wasn't a baby, she just can't read. But the fact that I made her smile if I sounded excited, made me do it automatically.

"Next page." I said. She lubberly turned the page around. This time, a picture of a boy was printed on it. It said 'Tom loves ice.'

"Mary.."

"Now whoa, does that say 'Mary'?" I corrected. She frowned again. She looked at the word again.

"Uh.. m, uh.."

"What is this letter?" I pointed at the T. She kept staring at it, but she made no sound. She bit her lower lip while she tried to remember the letter. I let her think, she could do it.

"I don't know." She said harsh and closed the book. She raised her arm and made an attempt to smite the book across the room, but I quickly placed my hands on the cover before she could.

"Easy, it was just one letter you didn't remember." I tried to calm her down. She was scared of failing, I noticed. It somehow didn't surprise me. She frowned, looking away, still disappointed in herself.

"You know what, we'll proceed tomorrow." I stated. I took the book from her and placed it on the table. I pulled my hair elastic out of my hair and placed it next to the book. Demi looked me in the eyes. I shyly looked down and played with my ring, but her eyes kept glued to my face. Her eyebrows were slightly raised, she didn't frown anyway, which I already wasn't used to from her. I couldn't really think of something we could do, it was way too early for her to sleep. Most of the caregivers would just send the patient to bed earlier, but that wouldn't be fair in my opinion. We sat straight next to each other. Her bare knee touched mine, but she didn't withdraw. But I didn't either, just like Evette said.

I secretly peeked at her legs. They were really pretty. She didn't shave them, of course, but that didn't really matter. I looked at the difference between my shaved legs and hers. Why do people even shave? I barely saw any difference. My sight slid down to her sneakers. They were grey, dirty. She sat with her lower legs crossed and wobbled a little with them.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked. I looked at her, feeling a little busted.

"Nice things." I said and smiled. I couldn't let her know that I had such a detailed view of things, she'd think I'm a creep.

"H-how are you?" She almost didn't dare to ask. We were both scared that I was going to disappoint her again. I seriously wanted to find out what she meant with it. I looked straight into her eyes, what if it was a trick question? I was feeling great, especially because I sat next to her. But if I told her, I would kill her good mood. I gulped. I wanted to make her smile, or at least not disappoint her. I was tired of seeing her look down and sigh. Especially if she repeated the question. The anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks.