Chapter 31

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She unlocked the door with her one hand, while supporting Rohan's weight on her right side and helped him up the stairs. She stumbled on her feet because of his dead weight and muscular build but successfully carried him to her bedroom. She removed his arm off her shoulder and made him sit on the edge of the bed before running inside her bathroom and returned with towels to dry him. She turned on the heater that filled the room with hot air and returned to Rohan to change him out of his wet clothes before he could catch pneumonia and she wouldn't have been much alarmed if he had after sitting in the rain God knows for how long. She knelt beside him and took off his jacket of her that looked ridiculous on his form. She slightly nudged his arms silently asking him to raise his arms up so that she could easily remove his drenched clothes. He complied and she bunched his shirt to his pale chiseled chest that had purplish blue bruises which she tried to ignore and brushed them off as a souvenir of intimacy between him and Melanie. He hissed aloud and goosebumps stood shamelessly when her cold knuckles accidentally grazed his stomach.

"Sorry". Annie apologized, cursing herself and gathered hem of his shirt in her hand and carefully removed his damped shirt off his head. She draped towel around his shoulder to cover his torso and threw another one on his head, ruffling his wet hair.
"Can you..." She trailed off gesturing towards his jeans and he nodded fumbling with his hand to unbuckle his belt.

"I'll get you something clean to wear", she told him and went downstairs to her brother's bedroom. She shuddered as cold air of the lounge hit her body through soaked shirt, thanks to umbrella that couldn't cover them both and her priority was to make sure that Rohan didn't get showered in the rain than he had already been. She opened the closet and looked through her brother's clothes to get Rohan something of his size and doesn't fall of his frame that was lithe compared to her brother. She picked up white long sleeved cotton T-shirt and black loose slacks before going upstairs. Rohan blinked up at her, standing in nothing but a towel around his hips that left little to imagination yet hid him with enough modesty before her to save the uncomfortable feeling which could have settled between the two friends.

"S-Sorry I-I..." He stuttered, colored with both the first symptoms of cold and half  embarrassment. She could have laughed or teased him about his nakedness and shyness or could make comment about his thighs if the situation had been different and less serious.

"It's not like I haven't seen you naked before". She remarked which made him to look up at her with tired eyes. Their friendship had been different since their childhood; being open and shameless around each other but nothing sexual or erotic except for few sniding comments about fats and bones. There had been little privacy between them. The pool lessons and changing in locker rooms, beaches and sun bathing made them quite comfortable around each other in little or no clothes. She poked his cheek to cheer him up and extended her arm to hand him the bottoms to wear. Rohan looked from her face to the bottoms with a shocked face as if this simple gestured took him off guard. It shattered something inside him and grabbed her arm, pulling her in a breath choking hug. He tightened his arms around her waist that constricted her breath and hid his face in her neck, a habit he had picked in his early years of teenage time. Annie blinked as she felt hot tears rolled down against her neck and she wrapped her arms around him taken aback by his sudden break down.

"I'm here". She gulped and kissed his head as his entire frame shook with silent sobs. She hadn't seen or heard him cry, not since his father's funeral. He's fourteen at the time and refused to attend the burial at the cemetery, running away from the spot in refusal to say his father a final goodbye. It's the second time when she held him crying in her arms. She remembered the first time, when she found him in the bathroom stall with a bleeding wrist after being bullied at the school when he came out as a bisexual and she assured him that he's still his best friend despite his sexuality and considered it as cute than being disgusted with him.

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