His Crybaby✓

Chapter 24 - It's A Simple Truth

Ashton

Something bumped into me and muttered a weak sorry. I turned around too see Femi standing behind me, breathless and barely standing. She didn't even have the strength to look up at me.

She tried to walk past me but lost her footing and fell on me but I grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Why're you in school?" I asked.

"For the test." She breathed out. "I can go home now.." Her speech was slow and slurred, to the point where it looked like she was dozing off.

"Alone? Like this?" I sighed and gripped her hand and pulled her out of the school.

"What're you doing?" She turned around, watching as the school got smaller.

"You said you wanted to get home right?"

"Yes but why're you coming with me? Don't you have classes?"

She always asked stupid questions. I stayed quiet and continued walking with her behind me. Just from holding her hand I could feel how much her body was burning up. To the point I questioned how she'd even survived so much of the school day.

Femi muttered a quiet sorry and stopped asking questions. All I could hear from her were her staggered breathing.

.

.

We got to her home and it had a chilling air to it. The whole house was dark, being only lit up by the lights from outside. "Is your home always this cold?"

She nodded and went up the stairs as she held the wall for support.

I'd never noticed it before but Femi's parents were rarely ever at home were they? She never really talked about them and didn't seem to worry about bringing a guy to her home to clean his wounds up. Most girls would've worried about how their parents would've reacted if they found out.

Even during kindergarten, did her parents ever show up during any of the parental meetings?

"Ashton." Her soft voice broke me out of my thoughts and I realized we were standing in her room. It was pretty clean and organized, something I would've expected from her. "Are you gonna stay forever or? Shouldn't you get back to school?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked around in her room with earned me a frown from her. She didn't really come off as threatening, more like a cute hamster.

"Are you gonna call your parents? You're pretty sick and they're doctors right? They could help you out."

She looked at me in a daze and blinked. "Why would I— Oh.. no, it's alright. The cold isn't that bad." She sat down on her bed and turned away from me, looking out the window.

Her voice came out in a low whisper but I still heard it. "Doubt they'd care."

I felt a quick but sharp pain in my heart. Had she grown up like this? All alone? Was her life always like this?

It filled me with a feeling of guilt, after all I bullied her and made her already tiresome life worse.

For several reasons, but one of them was how I thought her life was easier than mine. But I didn't understand her as much as I'd thought.

I sat down next to her bed and she twitched but still looked away from me.

"I could stay."

A sharp inhale could be heard. She shook her head and chuckled.

"No, you need to get back to class. Your mom will worry if you don't."

"Right," I groaned and got up. She looked at me for a moment and then looked down.

"Ashton."

"Yeah?" I had gotten to the door but stopped.

"Why did you," she sighed. "Why did you bully me?"

I remained silent and heard how the bed creaked. She was looking at me now.

"I deserve to know." Her voice while weak was still sharp. It must've come out in a harsher tone than she'd intended as she sighed right after. "Why?"

"Because." I looked back at her. "I was jealous."

I closed the door and walked out.

I doubt she even understood what I meant but it was as simple as that.

I'd been jealous of her. And reacted to it in a horrible way.

One that hurt her.