My Little Experiment (James Gillies)

Chapter 10: Enlightened

Breanna didn't wake up until she felt a hand prodding her shoulder, waking her from a deep, sound sleep.  She slowly opens up her eyes, blinking several times before glancing up, coming face to face with James.

"James?" Breanna groggily asks and a small smirk comes to his face. 

"Did you intend to sleep the whole day away?" he questions and Breanna frowns. Gillies gestures towards the window and Breanna turns around in the bed, seeing the sun shining clearly across the sky. "It's nearly noon, Breanna."

Breanna sits up quickly at his comment, shocked she had slept in so late. But she instantly regrets her fast movements, wincing at the pain in her stomach and she lets out a small groan of pain, one hand moving over to cover her stomach.

"It seems you're a little sore from last night." James says and Breanna nods her head.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen. I thought I was fine." she whispers.

"Until you weren't," James scoffs. "You gave me quite the scare last night."

She looks over at him. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I didn't realize what was happening until it was nearly too late."

"And, if I may ask, what did happen to you?" he questions.

"If you haven't figured it out by now, my body quite hates me," Breanna begrudgingly says, earning herself a chuckle from James. "This has only happened three times now. My stomach - whether it be from a bad diet, too much medicine, a combination of both, or some other factor such as stress - decides to malfunction. Everything seizes up and it makes me vomit, but because my muscles are failing and because of the pain it causes, it makes the pathway to my throat a lot harder to clear. I nearly choked and passed out the first time it happened. Mrs. Thorne had to force the bile out of me. And ever since then, I've recognized it and been able to force it out."

James sits quietly as he takes in Breanna's explanation. She lets out a humorless chuckle and shakes her head. "Ironically enough, forcing the bile out to keep me alive causes me intense pain in body and leaves me weak. But you saw that." 

Her sentence ended in a whisper and James puts a hand on her knee in a kind manner. "I'm sorry your stay with me has caused you such stress and imbalance. That was not my intention." He says honestly, shocking Breanna. 

She feels courage rise in her and she puts her hand on top of his. "Then what exactly is your intention with me? Besides causing my brother pain?"

Instead of getting the usual 'that's all you're here for' answer from Gillies, this time he remains quiet, his eyes focused on her hand resting on top of his. 

"I'm not too sure." he murmurs softly. Breanna notices the change in his tone and tries to keep the smile from her face.

She stays quiet, waiting for him to react. Eventually James takes his hand from her knee and stands up, his eyes clouded over as he walks across the room. Breanna gets the covers off of her and moves to the end of the bed.

"You won't be staying with me too much longer. Hopefully that gives you peace." he says, picking up a tape and putting it on a machine. 

To Breanna's dismay, she didn't feel complete joy at the knowledge that she would be leaving soon, whatever form that would look like. At her lack of response, James turns his head and Breanna has to look down to avoid his eyes.

"You hesitate to rejoice? Why?" He questions and Breanna keeps her gaze down.

"While I may not agree with your motives or your treatment of my brother, you haven't truly done anything horrific to me, besides make me a pawn in your game. I can't say with one-hundred percent certainty that I would love being gone from you." Breanna admits lowly, playing with the fabric of her nightdress. She had never been a good liar. She detested lies, despite the few she's told over the years. But with James, she felt like she could be honest about anything, no matter her position.