Piece by Piece

Chapter 67

Sebastian

For six days, I barely see Aliena at all. It's weird how unaware I was of how much she infiltrated nearly every part of my daily routine until she was gone.

I no longer greet her as soon as she steps out of the elevator, waiting in my room or the gym instead, although I always keep my door open to make know she made it home safely. I no longer tell her about my day as she prepares dinner, hell, we don't share meals at all. I let her have the kitchen after she comes home from work, let her eat, and then follow suit once I know she's in her room.

Still, she always leaves me a plate of whatever she prepared. It only makes not sharing the meals with her more painful.

The few times I did see her in passing made my worry grow. She looks tired. Not as much as she did after I spent the night at my mom's place but there are dark circles beneath her eyes and every smile she throws me is half-hearted.

On the Monday after my party, the first thing I did upon arriving at school was track down the bastard that hurt Aliena. Brad, or Brandon, or something. I don't even care. All I know is that I dragged him into the alley between two of the school's buildings, waited for the first period to start, and then beat him into a bloody pulp. Not enough to be life-threatening. I had enough of a mind to refrain from that. Still, I made sure he learned his lesson.

On the night of that sixth day, my mind is too restless to let me sleep. I toss and turn for three hours, getting more and more pissed with every minute I get closer to hearing my alarm go off. I hate being up all night when I have school in the morning.

Finally, I go downstairs and make myself some warm milk, chugging it once it's ready. Hell, if that doesn't work, nothing will. Well, something might. The comfort of another body curled up against mine, perhaps. Aliena's body, to be exact. And only hers.

Since that is out of question for the time being, thought, I guess I'll just have to hope the milk helps. If it doesn't, I'll call in sick tomorrow. What's the worst that can happen? A call from the headmaster? Sure, I haven't talked to my dad in a while.

With that bitter thought, I reach the top of the stairs. I make sure to tread silently from there on, unwilling to wake Aliena as I pass her room. As I sneak by, a sound from the other side of the wooden door makes me pause though.

Maybe my imagination is playing tricks on me but I could have sworn I just heard her groan. Or moan. Whatever.

Remembering how easily I dismissed a similar noise the last time, I hesitate, pressing my ear up to the door. Indeed, a few seconds later, I hear it again. Definitely not a moan, I realize. No, it sounds more like a pained groan. A sniffle follows closely.

It sounds like she's crying and I don't know what the hell to do. I want to go in, ask her if there's something I can do to comfort her but I'm not sure if I should now. Sneaking into her room in the middle of the night isn't exactly giving her space.

In the end, I know that I won't be able to ignore what I heard and just keep walking. I gently knock on the door.

There's no reply, so I repeat the notion. "Aliena?" I whisper against the wood like an idiot. The other side of the door has gone really quiet but that doesn't stop me from gently easing the door open to peak inside.

There she is, curled up in a ball in the middle of her bed, on top of her blanket and with her back to me. "Aly? Are you awake?" I ask as softly as I can in case she is, in fact, asleep.

My reply comes in the form of a sniffle that goes straight through my chest. I finish the distance between me and the bed, but hesitate again instead of getting on.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry to barge in here. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," she grunts breathlessly. It's anything but convincing.

I know I should leave, boundaries and all. It's just that my feet seem unwilling to move from this very spot unless it is to get closer to her.

"Doesn't really sound that way. Is there something I can do?" I ask gingerly. Slowly, it dawns on me what date it is and I quickly do the math. Unless I'm way off, my guess is that Aly's on her period and while she didn't seem to be in much pain the last time around, I won't be bold enough to assume that's the norm.

"Go," she groans, not once moving. Sighing, I accept that I can't force her to let me help.

"I'm leaving my door open. Call out if you need anything, I'll hear you," I promise before stepping back into the hall and closing her door.

Instead of going back to my own room, I head back downstairs to gather a few things. Once I have everything I might need, I finally return to the second floor. When I linger in front of Aly's room for just a second, I'm surprised to hear her call out my name. I'm back at the side of her bed in a second.

"I could hear you out there. What do you want?" she asks, sniffling after every word.

Suddenly feeling stupid and way more vulnerable than I'd like, I say, "I have a heating pad, if you'd like it." I fumble with my words. "And chocolate," I add quietly, feeling dumb. God, they don't prepare you for this shit in school. I feel like a nervous wreck.

"And pain meds," I finally say. Those were the first things that came to my mind when I thought of what might help against pain. Well, not the chocolate. That might just be a cliché but I thought it wouldn't hurt.

With another sniffle, Aliena turns around, wincing as she curls up anew, this time facing me. I hate to see her puffy, small eyes and that stricken expression on her beautiful face. I wish I could hug her.

"Hey there," I say softly.

"Hi." There's a beat of silence. "That's very nice of you. That you brought me all that, I mean. You can just leave it here and go back to bed, I'm sorry if I woke you," she says softly.

"I was already up, don't worry. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"That's okay. Just, please take the pills away," she whispers hoarsely.

"Are you sure?" I thought those might be the most necessary.

"I don't like to take medicine. We never had it in the house growing up and the habit just stuck." She shrugs tiredly and I curse myself for not having thought about that. It's not far-fetched that she's opposed to taking pills after seeing what drugs did to her mom. Not that it's the same, but I get where she's coming from.

"Of course," I say, picking them up again. Then, before I can stop myself, I reach out to quickly caress her cheek, desperate to provide just a little comfort, at least. Her answering sigh makes my heart flutter but I don't push it, pulling away and heading for the door.

"Good night, Sweetheart," I tell her.

"Good night, Seb. You can close your door now."

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Do we hate him a little less yet? Just five more chapters to go...

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