My attention is focused on Axel.
His lips left heat on my cheek like I was burning up with a fever. My mind could go nowhere but to him. He was so close to me yet so far on the other side of the bench, his upper body leaning over so his lips can linger against my skin.
"You're okay, right?" He asks me once again with his eyebrows crinkled inwards just a tad. I don't want to look at him but I do it anyway and I nod.
"I'm okay," I mumble to him and only him. He's still so close and the space between our lips is almost unbearable. I can feel how soft they are without any contact. Thinking about it sends shivers through my skin.
"That's all I want," Axel quietly tells me as his attention is adverted to the juveniles picking up trash across the street.
His hand finds its way into mine and I realize what he's looking at and why he was making sure I was okay.
"I need to tell you something else," I say while studying the pavement and my beat up shoelaces which have turned from off-white to dark brown.
Axel lets his bookbag slide off of his right shoulder and onto the pavement. His legs swing up onto the bench and he sits criss cross to face me. My hand is still in his hand. "You can tell me."
His demeanor is serious and I struggle to match it. My eyes cautiously meet his. "Aspen is in the hospital."
I don't think anybody knows how hard it is for me to remain serious when other people are. I'm so prone to laughter and smiling when it's least appropriate.
"Is she okay?" He asked me again while still intently focused on me.
"I guess so. It happened this morning and I don't want to visit her while my parents are there," I told Axel, taking a deep breath in immediately after my statement.
Axel must notice how uncomfortable this made me, because he squeezed my hand so softly he could have never even done it in the first place.
"How about I go with you? You don't think your parents are there now, do you?"
I just shrug and try to examine my shoelaces again. Axel punches my arm lightly to grab my attention and signals with his fingers that my eyes should be up on him and not on the pavement. "Let's go see your sister."
Eventually we make it to the hospital and I have never wanted to turn around and run the other way more than I do right at this moment. Axel's hand is the only thing that keeps me grounded.
For the first time, it actually felt like we were a couple. I don't know how to explain it, but it was just something about the way he carefully guided me all the way to the hospital without once breaking the contact of our hands.
When we walk inside, the stench of bleach and rubbing alcohol hit my nostrils. The lady at the front desk is sipping an extra large iced coffee and she doesn't even bother to look at us before speaking. "Who are you here for today?"
I'm staring at the ground now because I don't want to make eye contact with anyone. My palms are sweating and I'm hoping Axel doesn't notice or doesn't care.
"We're here for Aspen Greer," Axel tells the woman behind the counter who has finally looked up. Her eyes are the palest blue I've ever seen and it makes me regret taking my eyes off of the ground for that split second.
"She is in room 304, the elevators are directly behind me," the woman says with a small smile that doesn't look fake like I had suspected it to be.
"Thanks," Axel nods while pulling me along his side towards the elevators.
I watch a few lights above the elevators change as they descend down or rise up each floor. I'm really nervous and I can't help but squeeze Axel's hand harder than I alreadywas.
YOU ARE READING
Bruised Knuckles
Teen Fiction[boyxboy] [#143 in teen fiction] [completed] *TW: Trauma, death, drugs, bullying, attempted suicide* His parents are drug addicts and alcoholics. His brother is in a gang. His sister doesn't talk m...
