Corrupted

Chapter Thirteen

“I’m sorry I’m not what you wanted.”

Sleep never came to me that night. When my clock said it was four in the morning, I gave up and snuck into the living room where Gemma was sitting on the couch. Her tired eyes look up at me and she manages a smile. Her cheek is bruised, her lip still a little busted up, but she looks okay. I’m sure she looks a hell of a lot better than all of us.

“Couldn’t sleep,” I explain.

“Me either. Join me,” she insists, so I do.

I walk over and plop down on the couch beside her. Her head drops onto my shoulder softly. I give her head a soft kiss and then sigh. “He left,” I blurt out.

“I heard.” Her thumb runs over my knee soothingly.

“Do they know?”

“No, but they’re starting to figure it out.”

“Great.”

“Besides the Derek thing, how are you?”

“In pain and I have to go to school in three hours.”

“Me too.”

“I’m so fucked up,” I breathe. “So, so, fucked up.” I squeeze my eyes shut and pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to block out all the thoughts suddenly flooding my head.

She jerks up, holding my face in her hands and peering into my eyes. “You are not fucked up. You are hurt, but there’s nothing wrong with you, okay? You are so lovely and you don’t need to think anything different.”

I just nod, burying my face in the crook of her neck, breathing in the familiar scent of vanilla. “I think I love him,” I mutter.

“I know you do,” she says back.

I pull away and stare into her green eyes. We don’t say another word, we just fall back into our positions with her head on my shoulder and her body molded into my own. We fall asleep for about two hours, but that’s as much sleep as I got.

Adam walks through the halls, saying it’s time for school. In my sleepy state, I just barely open my eyes and peer through to see him standing in the doorway, taking us in. I move slow, unable to wake up fully, but when I see his burning glare, I shake Gemma awake gently.

“Sleep,” she mutters.

“You have to wake up,” I press.

“No.”

I give a smirk towards Adam and slightly laugh. “Your boyfriend will get jealous.”

“So will yours.”

My face gets hot and I glance at Adam’s shocked expression. Shit, Gemma. I scramble to my feet, shoving past Adam and going straight to my room. My heart is pounding in my chest. Adam can’t know I’m gay. Quickly, I throw on black skinny jeans and a dark blue t-shirt with a maroon beanie. I dart downstairs and out the front door before anyone can see me.

I debate on skipping school and just going to Derek’s house, but I’ve already missed a week almost. Everything hurts and my head is throbbing. The fight with Derek is stressing me out too and I’m a complete mess.

I go straight to class when I get to school. Before class starts, I text Derek asking him to talk to me, but he doesn’t respond. Great. Adam joins me a little later, with his notebook in his hand. He plops down in the desk next to mine and stares at me curiously. I give him a quick glance.

“What was that about this morning?” he asks.

“Nothing happened,” I breathe. “We just couldn’t sleep—”