Take Back

Chapter Six

*Tommy's POV*

My heart hasn't been beating this strong in a long, long time, I think to myself as I hurry along the sidewalk, nearly running to Allyson's house. I can still feel the blush consuming my face and the heat gushing out from my body. My arms fold themselves uncomfortably— my skin is extremely bothersome and inconvenient, it seems. I want to get this burden of my chest.

I can't believe I just almost did that. My throat tightens and I swallow hard, forcing out the quivers hat still held onto me.

I wish it was a little cooler out. I hope Allyson is still able to talk to me. What time is it anyway? Damn... I must've stayed with Adam for a few hours—it's really dark out. We had lost track of time, space, and everything in between. For however long I was with Adam, we forgot about everything else. It was just one thing leading to another; embracing to kissing, kissing to touching, touching to roaming bodies, roaming bodies to shedding clothes, and shedding clothes to... whatever it was that happened...

I reach her house in a matter of minutes and I hesitate knocking on the door, but I see her from the corner of my eyes through the bay window in the living room, and she comes to the door, wearing her pajamas and with her hair wet from a recent shower. Again I wonder how long exactly Adam and I were... together. Allyson slips on flip-flops and heads out onto her porch to talk to me.

"What's up?" she asks, furrowing her eyebrows with confusion, "It's freezing, aren't you cold?" I blink at her a couple times, taking the time to measure how I really feel—yep, I'm hot, but apparently it's just me.

"No," I shake my head, clasping my hands together, "Can we talk?" She reaches inside for a second, grabbing a sweatshirt to put on then offers us to sit down on the steps.

"Everything okay?" she looks at me in concern, shoving her hands into the hoodie's pocket.

"Yeah," I lie, "I just want to talk." I hope I'm pulling sincerity off.

"Okay," she accepts warily. "What do you want to talk about then?" I sigh and shake my head, brushing out my knotted hair with my fingers.

"I don't know, really. Anything, I guess." She hums in response, thinking. I can tell she's having a hard time coming up with something, so I dig deep into my clouded mind and pull out, "How about David?" She nods her head.

"I think he's pretty cool," she says, now putting up the hood. I scoot a little closer to her to hopefully warm her up and get the heat out of me. "He and Rose really hit it off." I nod.

"Yeah." I wait for a moment, thankful that this side conversation is helping me calm down a bit. Just a bit. "I feel bad for snapping at him, though." Allyson waves me off and shakes her head.

"I'm sure he accepted your apology," she reassures, "He told Rose that you were really nice."I smile a little bit.

"That's good. At least he knows I'm not always like that."

Huh. What am I truly like these days?

Adam texted me that he never gets to see my good side anymore, and that I should try to be nice to him. Well, wasn't I being nice to him just a half an hour ago? Butterflies pour back into my stomach like they were long lost buddies and a frenzy of tingling sensations tickle my insides. I clutch my side and turn the other direction away from Allyson to hide the redness that's about to cover my face.

I had held onto Adam for dear life. I never wanted to let him see my cutting scars in such a way, when we were having such a nice little moment. The look on his face when he asked me what they were... That was just too much. When I had told him I loved him, I realized how badly I wanted to say it, how good it felt to say it. It was almost better than hearing him say it to me.