Oh, Dakota

23- Wrecking Ball

“She’s not even getting out of bed,” John piped and I wondered why my health was such a topic of conversation for everyone out there.

“Dad’s on his way, so he’ll probably bring her soup or something,” Owen informed his worried friends. At least I think they were worried, although I didn’t know why they were worried at all, unless they knew what happened last night, which I highly doubted.

“Todd’s on his way too,” Braeden muttered.

I wanted to scream at them to not let Todd anywhere near me. I wanted to plead with my brother to not let him into this house, but I was voiceless and I was cocooned in a shell of my comforter in a cozy ball of pain, so I didn’t say anything. I just laid there like a lump, dreading every minute that passed by, wishing that the next minute wouldn’t be the minute that he arrived.

It worked for a total of eleven minutes before, on the twelfth minute of wishing on his absence, I heard his voice conversing with everyone in the hallway in the distance.

“What’s the emergency?” He wondered and my whole empty shell shivered just at the sound of his voice and again, I wanted to cry but I knew that I couldn’t. I’d implode or explode or some kind of other ‘plode’.

“Your girlfriend is sick and she won’t get up,” Owen filled him in. “And because you beat our dad here, you get to go see what’s wrong with her.”

“Why won’t you just go in and talk to her?”

“Because we don’t want to get sick,” John informed Todd. “We have playoffs soon, you know.”

“So you’re sacrificing me?” Todd wondered.

“Well, she’s your girlfriend,” Levi pointed out. “So yes, we are.”

“Just go,” Owen muttered impatiently as I was internally screaming through my seemingly broken twin telepathy that Owen shouldn’t let Todd into my room.

I heard his footsteps coming down the hallway so I spun around in my bed so that my back was facing the door and my face was buried in the pillows. I kept myself cocooned in the comforter so that I was barely visible to anybody, but I was obviously there I just didn’t want to- I couldn’t- face Todd.

I heard the door open and I began to tremble in fear because I wasn’t sure what to expect from either him or me. I had no idea how I was going to react, honestly, because I just didn’t want to see him at all and like I said before, this had never happened to me before so I didn’t know what was happening or what I was feeling, all I knew is that I didn’t like it at all.

“Hey,” He nearly whispered, probably in fear of waking me up, even though I was already awake. When I didn’t respond, I heard him close the door and at first, I thought that he left, but then I heard his footsteps again, so I knew that he was still in there, and he was walking closer to me, which I really didn’t want. “I know that you’re awake.”

“I don’t feel good,” I croaked in just above a whisper so that maybe he could just leave without talking to me, because that would have made it so much easier to be alone if he wasn’t there, reminding me of what I lost... even though he wasn’t technically lost yet.

“What’s wrong?” Todd wondered soothingly and I was about to break down because I wanted nothing more than to just leap into his arms and feel his arms around me and for him to tell me that it was okay, that I’d be okay, but I knew that I wouldn’t do that because last night, he fucked my best friend and as much as I wanted to, I would never forget that.

“I just don’t feel good,” I repeated shakily.

I felt him sit down on the edge of my bed and he put a hand on my shoulder through the comforter to try and soothe me or something. “Do you want me to get you anything? Aspirin or something?”