Chemistry

19: Stay

Avery's view

It's late at night and I'm barely finishing my homework, this is what I get for procrastinating so much. My parents have already gone to bed, so I'm the only one still up unfortunately.

I start putting all my work into my back pack when I start to hear weird noises outside. I widen my eyes in fear and turn to the window to listen carefully. The doors to the balcony is open since I wanted fresh air to come in.

I hear the leaves on the tree start to shake and I immediately run over to close the doors to the balcony right as I see someone jump onto the railing from the tree.

Just as I am about to scream the dark figure jumps on me knocking me backwards into my room. They immediately put a hand over my mouth to stop me from making noise.

I look up as the person on top of me takes off their hood revealing themselves to be Ezra. She removes her hand from my mouth and says, "Um, hi?"

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Ezra!" I loudly whisper to her to not wake up my parents.

"Hey, you cursed again," she states getting off me.

"No shit, Ezra. Who wouldn't curse when they get scared to death by their friend breaking into their home at night!" I say back.

Then I add, "Did you just climb my tree and jump from the top onto the balcony?"

"Um, yeah," she says looking at me sheepishly.

"What the fuck were you thinking, you could have gotten hurt," I say as she follows me to sit on my bed and I notice that she is limping.

"Oh my god, you hurt yourself," I say worriedly.

"No, I'm fine, it's just a small scratch from climbing the tree," she replies.

I sigh and help her on the bed, "I'm going to get the first aid kit, stay here and please don't make noise," I tell her walking to the hallway. Just before I leave my room and I turn back around to her and add, "And next time, please don't try to sneak into my house like that. My parents are already sleeping, you could have texted me and I would have let you in the front door."

Ezra face palms adorably and says, "Well, that's good information for next time."

With I quickly head into the other bathroom to grab the first aid and make my way back to my room and close the door behind me.

I sit on the bed beside Ezra and open the first aid to grab bandages and cleaning alcohol. I can see that her pants ribbed a little as she was climbing the tree and there is a little bit of blood coming out from a small cut.

"I need you to take your pants off," I tell her.

Ezra looks at me stunned, "I mean I've been wanting you to tell me that for a while, but I don't think now is the best time to have fun."

"Not for sex, stupid. Take off your pants so I can bandage your leg," I blurt out while blushing.

Ezra says oh and nervously slides her pants off to let me tend her wound. I scoot closer to her as I dip a cotton swab in the alcohol and gently put my hands around her leg to dab the cotton swab on the scratch.

I try to maintain my cool from being so close to Ezra and she clenches her jaw in pain. I put antibacterial lotion on the scratch and put a big bandage over the scratch. I put everything away and look up at her, she looks away from, down at her lap.

"So, are you going to tell me why you are here?" I gulp and add, "Is it about what happened earlier?"

Ezra looks up with tears in her eyes saying, "I don't know if you are mad at me for earlier because you wouldn't pick up your phone and the last thing I want to do is bother you, but I had to come. I have nowhere else to go, Avery."

I immediately wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me. I hold her as she starts trembling and sobbing in my arms.

"Hey, I'm not angry. I'm sorry I didn't answer. There's a reason why I didn't, but it doesn't matter right now. What do you mean by you have nowhere else to go?" I ask as I gently rub her back.

"I ran away, Avery. I can't stay there with her, I can't anymore. She won't change. She just keeps drinking, refuses to take her depression pills, refusing to help pay for anything and constantly says horrible stuff to me. My mom doesn't love me, Avery," Ezra explains as she holds on to me for dear life.

"Oh, Ezra. I'm so sorry, I had no idea you were going through so much. I can't believe you went through all that alone," I say.

"I don't know what to do, Avery," Ezra sobs out.

"Stay with me," I state, and Ezra looks up at me in shock.

"What? No, I can't, your parents wouldn't allow it...." She starts but I cut her off.

"Ezra, stay with me. I won't tell my parents now, I'll figure something out, okay. But, please stay here, I don't want you going back home or going to a motel. I can't picture you being all by yourself now, what if something happens to you? I wouldn't be able to live with myself," I explain.

"Why would you do this for me?" Ezra says wiping away her tears.

"Because I...I...You're just too important to me, Ezra," I say.

Ezra is more than just important to me. She's everything to me. I think I love her, but I just can't say that right now. Ezra is dealing with too much now, I don't want to add this onto her too.