Don't Lose Sight of Me

(18) I Finally Understand

Emi
(A quick reminder that sections that are italicized are flashbacks. In this case, a flashback of the previous night.)

"That shit hurts." He hisses as I gently dab his lip with the damp towel. "Well stop moving." I mumble as I dab at it again. Josiah hisses in pain and raises his hand at me. I flinch and lower my head bracing myself.

I wait a few second, noticing nothing has happened yet. I raise my head to look at him. He looks at me puzzled, in his hand was the bottle of salt water we were using. "I'm sorry, I thought.." I chuckle nervously, setting the towel down. "My bad." I whisper.

"That's not normal, you know?" He quietly mumbles. I nervously tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear and take the bottle from him. "Are you ready?" I ask him. He groans and nods, squeezing his eyes shut. "Spray that shit." He mumbles. I smirk and grab the bottle, spraying the cut on his lip. He hisses. "FUCKKKK!" He groans as he shakes his leg, buckling over. He takes deep breaths, rocking himself to help soothe the pain.

There's a gentle knock on my door as she slowly creaks the door open. "Hi." She whispers. I blink a few times at her. I was surprised. "H-hi." I stammer. She nervously looks around the room, slowly taking one step in.

I look at what she was wearing. She had on a pair of gray jogger sweatpants and one of Tom's shirts. Her hair was thrown into a high ponytail with a few strands hanging out from the front. It was very tomboyish. I had noticed that about her. She liked to dress tomboyish, but not entirely. She always made sure it was well balanced. You'd think it was weird. But it wasn't. At least not on her.

"I hope I'm not.. bothering you." She mumbles. I sit up and shake my head. "Oh, no. I'm.. im not doing anything." I chuckle awkwardly. She nods looking around again. "Did you want to.."

"Yes." She hastily replies closing the door behind her and walking over to my bed. She makes herself comfortable, climbing on to the edge of the bed. As she sits, I catch a whiff of her perfume. If it even was perfume. But I can smell the vanilla caramel like scent. Her hair didn't seem as dark as I thought it was. Her eyes did though. They were dark brown, but fit her so well because of her complexion and long wispy eyelashes.

"I just wanted to know how he was doing." She asks me. "Oh." I reply.

She shakes her head and stands up. "Oh I'm so sorry if that's uncomfortable, I just—"

"No, it's okay." I hastily answer. "Sit." I say motioning to the edge of the bed. She shyly smiles and sits down slowly. "He's okay." I tell her. She looks relieved to hear this, exhaling deeply. "Thank you."

I smile back at her. Both of us quietly sit there. What should have been awkward, wasn't. We were barely saying a few words to one another, but I was oddly comfortable speaking to her.

"You still love her?" I ask him. He smiles, ever so small so as to avoid irritating his busted lip. "I do." He replies. I can't help but smile and shake my head. "What?" He asks slightly laughing.

"It seems everyone is in love with her." I mumble quietly. "You. Austen. Tom. I guess you could Alysa too."

He chuckles. "Austen and Alysa are different." He says. I shrug. "But she's very much loved by you and Tom." I tell him. "Juliette..I don't know." He mumbles. He smiles as he looks down at the bloody towel in his hand. "You can't be around her and not feel something. She's.." he wrinkles his nose, shaking his head. "I can't explain it."

"Did Tom go out?" I ask her. She nods, making a sour face that makes me smile. She smiles back, both of accidentally looking at one another and bursting into laughter. "I bet you, if he were to walk in, right now. He'd lose his shit." She laughs.