09 - 25 - 15

"Can I ask you something?" Sam asks as I walk to Carol's room. I stop and turn to him. "I know it was wrong of me to look, but I just- just wanted to see what you wrote about. I wanted to understand what had happened to you and I know I went about all wrong. I wanted to say I was sorry and I won't tell anybody if that's what you're worried about-"

"I know you won't tell, but somethings are meant to be personal and you shouldn't know about. Out of all the people, I thought you would have understood that." I say even though I know I'm going to forgive him. Curse him. I've always trusted him and now he knows everything, that is if he went threw the whole book.

"I know, I just. Um. I don't have a good excuse. I just wanted to know more about you. I feel like this goes in circles." He says and I know I'm not mad at him any longer, but I can still act like it to annoy him.

"I see why you did it now, but I'm not pleased about it." I respond and he nods his head. Carol then steps out of her room.

"See, I knew you guys couldn't be mad for long." She says and smiles at me. Sam rolls his eyes before looking back at me. He looks at me with a weird look in his eyes before walking away. I then notice Carol has a bag. She sees me looking at it. "I have to go get a new girl, great I'm going to have to make up a ton of school. I'll see you in a few days. I have to go to California." She says before walking down the hallway. Well, what to do know. Wait. I can finally read. I run down the hallways and into my room. Sam looks at me confused until I pull out a book. He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Only you'd get excited about reading again." I open to the first page and start reading Graduation Day.

***

"I'm seeing lines and words." I say putting my book down. We both missed dinner, but neither of us care.

"You have been reading for six hours straight," Sam says a looks over at me. I shrug my shoulders making him roll his eyes. My stomach hurts, but it feels like cramps. Great. I quickly walk to the bathroom and sure enough. I don't want to go back to the room, but I need a pad. I grab toilet paper and put it in my pants. Quickly walking back to the room I grab a pad and run back out. After I change and walk back into the room Sam raises his eyebrows.

"Period." I say and he nods his head. Oh ya, he had lived with three women, I was expecting him to freak out, but with his sisters, he's probably heard everything in the book about them. I sit on the ground again and pull the blanket over me. Resting my head on the bed as the pain gets worse. It's always the first two days. You're supposed to try and walk around when having cramps, but I can't even stand let alone walk. It was probably a guy that thought of walking around made it better.

"Corrine, do you take aspirin or anything for the pain?" I hear Sam's voice.

"No, nothing that I've tried helps. Just curling in a ball and waiting." I say not moving a muscle. At least it can't happen at school anymore. That's the worst.

"Lay on your stomach." I look up at him confused. "Just do it." He says. Still confused I lay on the cot. My stomach still hurts, but Sam starts to massage my back. I want to protest, but it feels good. My stomach still hurts, but the massage takes some of the pain away. I move my hands and lay my head on them.

"When did you learn-" but before I can finish he interrupts me.

"My mom got them really bad and nothing worked, but this helped." He says and I can imagine him helping his mom. I feel my eyes shut and then I'm out.

***

I hear voices and pull a pillow over my head. "Corrine?" I hear Matt's voice.

"Mm." I grumble in response.

"You have to get up and go to the daycare." I hear him say, but I groan again. It must be like 6 o'clock then. "She still won't get up." I hear Matt before the footsteps fade away. Finally, leave me alon-

Sam interrupts my thought. "Alexis get up or I'll make you go in public with what you're wearing." He says. I open my eyes and see I'm in sweatpants and a tank top. I groan again and sit up. Grabbing a shirt and bra and start putting them on. Forgetting that Sam's there. Not like he's going to look. I change into jeans and then glare at him. I go to walk, but there was a blanket on the ground and I fall into Sam. "There's a blanket there." He says and chuckles.

"No shit Sherlock." I say looking back at the blanket.

"Crabby on your period I see." I glare back up at him.

"Only when I get woken up and why is there a blanket on the floor?" I ask. Sam removes his hand from my waist before answering.

"I didn't want to invade on your space since you still seemed mad." He says looking down.

"Not anymore. I was just pissed off before, but it happened, might as well move on and not dwell in the past. Why did you call me Alexis?"

"In your book, you said you prefer to be called Alexis so I did." He says looking at me. "Get whatever you want or need and put it in this backpack. Hurry up." He says and walks back out. I grab my phone and female crap putting in the bag. When I see my reflection in the mirror I try not to scream. My hair is everywhere, I have some drool, some new zits, and now my boobs hurt. Just great to be a girl.

After putting my hair up and wiping my face I walk outside to Sam. He puts the helmet on my head and then he puts the backpack on my shoulders. Glad I put my Colombia on, it's cold this morning.

***

"Now that's not fair," I say out of breath. Sam laughs because I'm out of shape. Jerk.

"You're the one who tried to cheat." He says back.

"Did not," I claim, a small smile forming on my lips.

"Cutting threw the grass trying to beat me is cheating, me pulling you to the ground and running again is not." He says and I stand up again, regaining my breath.

"Fine a tie," I say and he shakes his head at me.

"Sure, if it makes you happy." He says and we start walking to the building. I stretch once I get to the room and Sam gets on the floor with me. "I'll try to do this." He says and puts his legs out.

"Now lean down," I say doing it. I stretch my arms out as my chest touches the floor. Sam leans a little bit and then a noise comes out of his mouth.

He tries to lean further, but it doesn't work well. "Owowowow." He says before sitting up. "Maybe I'll do the next stretch." He says holding his legs close to him. I can't stop myself from laughing at him. "It's not funny. That hurts, like everywhere." After he tries to do some more stretches and fails I do the splits making him shake his head no. "I have something in the way. I'll pass." He says and I start laughing again.

"Ok, promise me you'll do the next one," I say laughing. He looks at me skeptically.

"Fine can't be worse than the splits." He mumbles and I hold back another laugh. I get up and do a back-bend. He just stares at me and shakes his head.

"You promised," I say getting back up. "Are you a person who breaks their promises?" I ask and he stands up.

"You purposely did this." He says and I laugh.

"Well DUH." I say and he groans. He starts to go down and then falls on his back. I crouch down next to him. "A-are you ok?" I say trying not to laugh, failing miserably. He turns and faces me wincing. My smile fades. "Are you ok?" I ask more stern. I didn't want him to really hurt himself. He winces again and I lean over him. "Does your neck hurt or your back?" I say over him and then he pulls me into him. I scream and he rolls us both over. He looks down at my face and I glare at him. "That was mean, I thought you were actually hurt," I say staring up at him.

"My back hurts a little, but seeing your face was payback for making me do that." He says standing up and brings me with him. Me being me, I fall right into him. "Always a damsel in distress." He says making me roll my eyes. Sam looks behind me and then pushes us to the ground. Him completely on top of me. I hear a big crash and then what sounds like something going threw the air. Then it stops. Sam slowly gets off of me and we both look at who made the commotion. Carol and a frightened looking girl standing at the end of the hallway. This must be the new girl Carol had to get. She's back earlier than expected.

"Are you guys ok?" Carol asks walking towards us, while the other girl stays behind.

"I'm fine, you?" I ask looking at Sam. He nods his head.

"Nora come here and meet some of my friends," Carol say in a friendly tone. The girl slowly walks down to us.

"Sorry about almost hurting you. I don't know how to stop it, it just goes sometimes." She says and I nod my head.

"I know what you mean," I say, she nods her head looking apologetic. "What can you do?" I ask looking at the wall and seeing metal.

"She is a metal-bender and a mermaid so to say," Carol says and my eyes go wide.

"I didn't know there was metalbending," I say and Carol laughs.

"Yea, there are many different gifts. Like bloodbending, control with the mind, and weird stuff. We are still learning all of them. Well, I'll see you guys later. We get to go met Jake, oh and if you feel like you can't control it again, tell me." Carol continues to talk as they walk down the hallway.

"Thanks," I say turning to Sam. He gives me a questioning look. "For making sure I didn't get metal in my head." Then he smiles and I'm the oblivious one. We walk back to the room and I feel my stomach start to hurt. No, don't even. I tell my stomach like it will help. I grab my notebook and pull the blanket over my stomach.

"Writing more?" Sam asks making me nod my head. "You can always tell me. I understand it may be nicer to shut it out and put it on paper, but it does boil up. Just a thought." He says grabbing his phone. I want to tell him, but what if I want to write about him. Oh, crap, did he read the last two pages. Those were about him.

"Hey, how much did you read...of my notebook?" I ask. He looks up and I see something in his eyes.

"I didn't get to the last four pages." He says making me almost sigh in relief. I nod my head and start writing.

***

"Hey, we should go eat," Sam says interrupting me from my book. I glare up at him and finish my page.

"Fine, but don't walk fast. May stomach is having a war with me." I say slowly getting up. Once the blanket is gone from my stomach, I feel sick. I quickly run to the bathroom and puke. I've never thrown up because of my period. Great, something else to annoy me.

"Alexis?" I hear Sam enter the bathroom. Must have forgotten to shut the door and lock it. "Is this normal for you?" He asks as I stand up and wash my mouth out. I shake my head and he rubs my back. "Your face went really pale." He says, but before I can reply I'm back with my face in the toilet. Sam stays and rubs my back. It's weird having someone there when I'm sick. Normally it's just me taking care of myself.

After the white toilet isn't so white I flush and stand up. I feel dizzy and grab my head. "You haven't been hurting yourself have you?" Sam asks. I shake my head. "You've been eating and drinking water." I nod my head. "Then you must be sick, but it must have just came all at once." Of course. It can't warn me with like a cough or stuffy nose, nope had to make me puke. Sam has his arm around my side, but I feel like I'm losing control.

"Sam.." I look down at my hands and sure enough, water is around them. Really, again. At least I can stop the confessor thing.

"Ok, let's go to the room." He practically carries me to the room and then bubbles form.

"Why? I don't feel threatened." I ask Sam and he thinks before answering.

"Your body must feel this will help you get better. The body does that when you're sick, normally it's just coughing or sneezing to make the germs get out, or when you get the stuffy nose that's to prevent more harmful germs going to your lungs. Why your body feels that waterbending will help is beyond me." He says and I groan. Sometimes I wish I was normal.

Once Sam and I are soaking wet the feeling goes away. "Sorry," I say and he holds his hand up and makes us dry. After he bends all the water out he comes back.

"Hopefully your body is too tired to bend anymore. I'm glade it's water though." He says sitting next to me. I lay on the wall feeling the cool cement. It makes the pain in my head sustain. "I'm gonna get some water and bread." He says and quickly leaves the room. Not even two minutes pass when Ashley rushes in. She starts feeling my head and asking a ton of questions. "You're making my head spin." I say wincing when I open my eyes. Sam walks in and she starts picking on him. Ha, that's what he gets for telling her. I close my eyes again.

"Alexis, you should drink this. It's honey and water. It's supposed to help." He says and Ashley sits next to him. I grab the cup and take a drink. It makes my throat feel funny and then I can't breathe. My head hurts again and Ashley runs out of the room while Sam lays me in a weird position. I can't keep my eyes open, but I see Ashley rush back in.

"Poor girl. Well, that's not going to work either." Ashley's voice echos in my head. I slowly open my eyes. "Hey, sorry about that. Found out you're allergic to honey, like really bad." She says and I raise my eyebrow. "What you just had was an allergic reaction. Your throat gets swollen making the rest of your body shut down. Do you know if you're allergic to anything else?" She asks and I shake my head.

"I've never been allergic to anything, but bees," I say making her nod.

"Allergic to the substance and the cause." She says and a small laugh comes out of her voice.

"Not funn-" But I start coughing up a storm. I swear every breath I take in is pushed out by a cough.

"All good?" Sam asks. I sneeze three times before nodding.

"You just seem to have a normal cold on steroids," Ashley says giving me a sympathetic look. "Just gonna have to fight it out and you need to stay inside. You'll get everyone else sick and trust me that's the last thing everyone wants in a place like this." She stands up and I close my eyes feeling tiredness wash over me again. She talks to Sam for a while and then leaves. He puts his hand on my forehead and takes it back.

"Drink, I'll help." I hear Sam say. I open my eyes and raise my eyebrows. "No honey promise, it's not even the same glass." He says making me laugh, which is bad because I start coughing again. I take a few drinks of the water before laying my head on the cot.

"You're not going to leave if I ask are you," I say as a statement.

"Nope." He says and I smile.

"Of course not, but when you get sick don't yell at me," I reply opening my eyes. He stares at me, normally this would make me feel weird, but all my energy is gone to feel embarrassed, confused, or anything else. I smile and then my stomach churns. "I think I'm going to puke again." I say and he pulls the little basket by me right as it comes out my mouth. I didn't know I had more food that could be puked up. I sit up again taking a drink of the water. I feel sweat form on my body and wish it was over already. My hair sticks to my face and my lips feel dry. "Can you put my hair in a bun?" I ask and he nods his head. He grabs my new brush from my bag and takes out my hair tie. He brushes my hair making the tingling feeling come over me. I always love when people play with my hair. He brushes it for longer than necessary, but I'm not going to complain. He puts my hair up and I mumble a, "Thanks." Before laying on the cot. I start coughing again making me sit back up.

"I'll put a movie on." Sam says grabbing his phone and pulls the Netflix app up. He picks a random movie and we start watching it.

I hear the movie playing, but don't want to open my eyes. I'm leaning on Sam's shoulder and his arm is around me. I don't want to lay down because then I start coughing, so we are against the wall. I've dozed off a few times, but wake up coughing or puking. Opening my eyes to see what's going on in the movie they start to water. Every time I've ever been sick they water. It annoys the living crap out of me. "Emotional?" Sam asks and I shake my head.

"Every time I'm sick my eyes water." I say wiping them again. Once my eyes stop I start sneezing. Once I'm done I groan and lay back onto Sam. After another painful 20 minutes of sneezing, coughing, watering eyes, and sniffing my nose, I have to pee. I lean over to my backpack and grab a pad. Once I stand up I wobble. My head spins and I feel Sam's arms holding me. He takes me to the bathroom and then waits by the door. Good, I'm already embarrassed for needing help to get to a flipping bathroom.

After I'm done I walk to the sink. I splash water on my pale face. I go to walk out the bathroom when my stomach churns again. I just make it to the toilet before emptying my already empty stomach. Sam walks into the bathroom and rubs my back. "This sucks." I manage before puking again.

"Yea, it always does." He says and I close my eyes leaning over the bowl. I feel Sam pick me up and walk us back to the room. He sits me in his lap, my back is on the wall and his on the other. I'm leaning on his right side my head on his neck and my legs over his. He wraps an arm around me pulling me close. He smells like fresh woods. I smile before falling asleep.

***

"Ok, thank you... Hopefully...Yes, I'll tell her...Bye." I hear Sam's voice, but stay put. I move my head a little making me sneeze. My legs come up and I sneeze away from Sam.

"Sorry, I tired to be quiet." He says and I shake my head.

"It's fine." My voice comes out as a whisper.

"Thanks for not sneezing on me." He says and a warm smile forms on his lips.

"No problem." I want to make a sarcastic comment, but my voice hurts too much. I look around the room confused. All of our clothes and stuff is in a neat pile in the corner by the door. There is a little table next to me, also where I just sneezed. It's got water, a tissue box, and some bread on it. There is a waste basket next to that. A clear walkway to the door and like three blankets on me. Where the desk went, I donno.

"Desk?" I ask confused.

"Jake had a better place for it. Doesn't the room look so much bigger?" He replies and I nod my head. I lean on the wall and pull the blankets up to my neck. "Cold?" Sam asks and I nod my head. "Your face is really red. Stupid cold." He says feeling my forehead. "You're really hot." He says and I smile.

"Thanks, Anthony." I say and he raises and eyebrow.

"Is that what you're going to call me?" He asks chuckling as I nod my head.

"Or Jones. AJ, no, that sounds funny. SAJ, to hard. Yup Anthony." I say and smile as he shakes his head. I grab the cup of water and take a big drink. I don't want to try the bread yet. My eyes start watering again and I just lean my head on the wall and let them fall down. No point in making my skin raw when more are going to come. I'll just wait for them to stop. but then I feel Sam's hand gently wipe away my tears. I open my eyes and stare back at him. We stay like this until Carol knocks on the door. Both of our heads go to the door immediately.

"You don't look so good." She says staying by the door.

"Gee thanks." I say and she smiles a small smile.

"I would come in and help Sam, but he looks fine and I don't want to get sick. I just wanted to see ya and I have to come and tell Sam that Matt is not happy about picking up your shift. Hope you feel better Corrine." She says and leaves.

"Oh, I forgot about that. You should be at work." I say my voice not happy with how much talking I'm doing.

"It's fine, Matt needs to do something anyway." He says and then I start coughing again. My eyes start watering once again. "Wanna watch a movie?" He asks. I nod my head. He leans to grab his phone making me lean with him. I almost forgot I was on him. How his legs aren't numb is beyond me. Leaning back on the wall he holds the phone up to us. I close my eyes and pick a random movie. Listen to Your Heart. Sounds romantic, great.

"Curse this movie." I say wiping the tears away. (It's a really good movie, but warning it's also sad.) Now instead of my eyes watering, I'm crying. "This is only the third movie that makes me cry." I say wiping the tears away again. Sam pauses the movie.

"What are the other two?" He asks looking down at my sick face.

"Where the Red Fern Grows and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," I say as my tears finally stop. He nods his head and plays the movie again.

Once the movie is done, I start feeling dizzy and my hands shake. I lean over and grab a piece of bread. Taking little bits so my stomach doesn't feel hunger anymore, just cramps. "Question?" I ask and Sam nods his head motioning for me to continue. "Could you read a new book for me?" I ask and he nods his head. I smile and point to the book next to my backpack. He moves me off him making me colder, but I keep my mouth shut. He has already been helping me and his legs probably are numb or seriously hurting.

"Blood Red Road?" He asks and I nod my head excitedly. He pulls me to his side and opens the book to start reading. As he reads I lean my head on his chest and listen. I won't be incomplete misery if he stays reading.

***

"You have to sleep sometime." He says as I act like a child not wanting to go to bed.

"I can't. Once I lay down my nose and eyes water, I start coughing, sneezing, and puking." I respond looking up at him. He huffs. It's already ten o'clock and I haven't sleep at all. I want to and try, but it doesn't end will.

"Fine. We'll do it this way." He lays in the corner of the two walls and pulls me in a weird position. I'm kinda on my side, my face in his neck, my hands laying on his chest, but I move them down a little by my stomach. "Now all those things won't happen." He says. The light is already off so I huff closing my eyes and trying to get sleep.

"You're so weak."

"Can't even defend yourself."

"Patheidic."

"Go cry to your parents." They all shout at me. My feet won't work. I can't escape them.

"J-just l-eave me alone." I whisper as the weird feeling starts.

"Why it's entertaining. All you do is read anyways." I hear before they all start hitting, kicking, and punching me. Then I'm back in my old room. Greg walks in beer in hand. I walk back until I hit the wall.

"Bitch. You're the reason I don't have a date." He says throwing the beer bottle down. If you were decent looking you couldn't even get a date, but I would never say that. He pushes me into the wall making tears fall out of my eyes. "You deserve a punishment, but this one will feel good." He says and pulls his pants down. I scream no over and over again, but it doesn't stop him. He covers my mouth and I stop screaming, but I go numb, numb to everything around me.

"ALEXIS WAKE UP." My eyes pop open as I see Sam's scared face. I wrap my arms around his neck and start crying. "Shhhh." He says rubbing my back soothingly. "It's ok. No one is hurting you." He says pulls to wipe my tears away. "What was it?" He asks as I try to get my hiccups to stop.

"N-nigh-t w-were h-h-he ra-ped -me." I get out before the tears come back. Sam pulls me close to him and let's me get it out. In my notebook, I know he read that night. There was a lot of personal feeling and thoughts that night. I had almost killed myself, but he had walked in and took the rope off of my throat. He had shoved me to the floor and said if I tried to kill myself again I would regret it. Every time I tried I had failed either thinking about what he said or I didn't cut deep enough.

What I think is a half an hour later the tears and hiccups stop. I don't let Sam go and he keeps his arms wrapped around my waist. His shirt is soaking wet, but he doesn't seem to care. I don't remember when I started straddling him, but I don't want to move. I'm sitting on him with my arms clung around his neck. His knees are up holding me to him and his warm arms rest on my waist. I'm actually comfortable. I feel a coughing fit come on and pull away. I cough to the left of me and when I stop and wrap my arms around him again. I feel his cheek come up, like he's smiling, but I'm probably just going crazy. Why would he like me on him? I'm a nervous wreck, sick, and all I seem to be is a pain to him. With those thoughts in mind, I pull away and he looks at me. "He won't hurt you when I'm around. Promise." He says and I think I'm starting to believe him.