"He WHAT?" Henry jumped up, nearly knocking me down in the process.
I didn't say another word. Anything I added now would only make him more furious.
"I can't believe he would even... I cant believe he'd DARE..." Henry hadn't quite finished a complete sentence in a while as he paced back and forth. Part of him was trying to comprehend the situation while the other half was laughing at how ridiculous the situation was.
"I swear, I will kill him the next time I see him. No, you know what I'm going to go see him right now... and I swear..."
I grabbed Henry's wrist as he was about to storm off. He paused to look at me and I could only shake my head. His eyes softened a bit as he looked away from my gaze. I could see the conflict within him. He was furious, he was mad, he was... everything a protective boyfriend should be But I was here to stop him.
"It's not worth the trouble Henry..." I said softly. "But he essentially called you a gold digger, he belittled OUR relationship. All because of what? Because he has some inferiority complex? Because he couldn't find what we did?" Henry's rage was boiling again.
"It's not his fault, he's angry and he's been angry for a while, but it's not our fault either. But right now, if you go over there and make trouble, it will be your fault." I said as I firmed my grip and brought Henry over to the bedroom.
"I know that I love you because of who you are, you know that I love you, and that's all that should matter. So... just let it go, I just thought... that you should know."
"Aiden... he went too far..."
I merely nodded but I stripped out of my day clothes and began to put on my sleeping "rags" as Henry called them. I threw off my pants and my shirt, just before I could pull anything on... Henry gave me a hug.
"I do love you Aiden." He said, resting his chin on my shoulder. "I know you do... but I don't want you and Landon to be fighting, it wont help anything."
I tried to put on my shirt again but Henry interrupted me.
"Leave it off for tonight... can you?" He asked. "My shirt?" "Everything." "I'm going to be freezing then..." "No you wont... I'll be here..." "Henry..." "Just tonight... please?"
Again, I gave into his request. He went to shut down his study and I began my nightly routine. A quick shower, with a few minutes to brush my teeth, and I scrubbed my face an extra few times. Today, I felt a little more... dirty.
When I came out, Henry was waiting his turn. I climbed into bed wearing nothing but my boxers and I felt awkward. The duvet slid over my body and while I was sure it would warm up to my body, the coolness of the fabric made me shiver. I could feel every part of me tremble, my abs had gotten a little more firm now, and my hips had gotten more defined with all the running I had been doing. During the time Henry was gone, I had actually lost weight still.
After a few minutes, Henry came out of the bathroom, his hair a little damp and messy. I could see the small gleam of the water drops that were still busy tracing down his physique before he toweled them off. Without a word he climbed into bed with me, his arms wrapping around me.
"Good night Aiden..." He whispered, and I smiled back at him before giving him a small peck on his cheek.
Life went on normally for the next few days, I had almost forgotten Landon's not-so-veiled threats but something kept poking at me, telling me that I shouldn't take my encounter lightly.
I went about my day, thinking that at any moment my phone could ring and something terrible would be waiting on the other side. That Henry would be hurt, or that something terrible had happened to my parents. These were, of course, completely unfounded.
After seeing almost 15 patients today, I sat down at the ER bench thoroughly exhausted, jumping back and forth between exam rooms was something we had gotten used to since we were a little short staffed this week, but it still took its toll. Somewhere around nine at night, a loud bang came from the doors around the corner to the ER. Another bang later a man stumbled in from the door and his hand was bloody, leaving streaks of red along the walls he braced himself on. He was angry and drunk, the nurses around him were trying to herd him into the ER admitting area and he was having none of it. He yelled obscenities at them and began to shove them out of the way.
"Sir! Please calm down! We're here to help you!" I said to him as I rushed over.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" He shouted back, shoving me back, a bloody handprint leaving itself on my scrubs. It seemed that there was a rather large shard of glass in his hand and a few scrapes along his legs.
"Sir, please, just calm down and come with us, we can help you get rid of the glass..." I repeated calmly, walking towards him with my hands out, trying to show that I meant him no harm.
When I had finally reached him, he had the sort of look on his face you might expect from a deer in headlights. He watched my hands carefully as I pulled him over gently to the gurney. Unfortunately security decided at that time to barge into the area and spooked the man again.
"NO!" He shouted as he reversed his grip on me and grabbed me, his bloody arm found its way around my neck and I could feel some of the loose glass shards on his sleeve dig into my neck slightly.
"S-Sir.." I tried to speak but the motion caused the small shards to dig in and I winced.
"I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!" The man shouted as security moved in. They pushed him against the main stairwell and the man was considering running up the stairs... and I hoped he wouldn't take me with him.
Unfortunately, I got my wish and in a split second the man had shoved me to the side, my oxygen starved body was a little too weak to catch myself. The minute he shoved me aside I felt a sharp searing sensation along my neck and nearly cried in pain. He had thrown me towards the stairwell railing and my head slammed into the support post. I felt an immense soreness hit me and the world around me went hazy. I could feel someone come to my aid but before I could focus to see who it was, I felt the dark curtain drift down and my body go limp.
I woke up an hour later, laying on a bed in one of the private hospital rooms. My head ached and I felt so weak, I had a bandage around the side of my neck and one of the nurses around me told me to take it easy before I injure myself further.
"You're still slightly sedated, things may be a little heavy for you, but you'll be okay Aiden..." She told me. My vision had cleared up slightly, it was Maria, the nurse who worked the ER rounds at night.
"M-Mari..." I could barely speak
"You're okay, the guy had some glass in his sleeve that cut you when he shoved you over, and you banged your head against the railing pretty hard. You'll be okay, we've already repaired the damage to your neck, and you don't have anything to your head... we did all the scans... you'll just be a little weak for a day or two. So we'll keep you here for now okay?" She said.
I found out later that she had lightly sugar coated the incident. That I had almost bled out on the flood from the cuts to my neck, but I appreciated her lying to me at that moment. When I had regained some of my higher thinking functions, I asked why I was sitting in one of the private rooms when the ER floor would have been fine and she smiled to say that Henry had already made arrangements and was on his way here from across town.
True to his word, Henry arrived a few minutes after Maria had finished giving me a once over. He rushed to my bedside and lightly squeezed my hand.
"Aiden!" He shouted at me, and even though he said nothing after that, I knew that he was wrestling with himself for what to say next. I understood everything he wanted to say to me before he did. I knew that he was upset with me for getting involved in such a violent patient, I knew that he was upset with me for even being in such a situation, but most of all I knew that he was scared, terrified that he had almost lost me. My poor Henry... I squeezed his hand back, and while I felt that I was using my full might, he felt as if I had lightly grasped his fingers.
His eyes looked watery and red with concern, and I smiled reassuringly at him. My throat was a little dry now, but I managed to croak to him that I was okay.
Henry had the nurses bring him a cot to sleep in the room for the night, and I grinned when he groaned a little as he lay down. Somewhere in the night, a vase of flowers had appeared by my bedside from one of the night couriers, and I woke up assuming that Henry had them sent here. But in the morning, he was just as confused. The card's writing seemed familiar and my eyes widened as I tried to swipe the card away but only succeeded in attracting Henry's attention.
He read it silently to himself before throwing it on the ground, and I could see from my position on the bed that the bottom bore Landon's signature.
"H-Henry..." "He did this Aiden... he did it..." "Henry... that's impossible, and you know that. There's no way he would have known that I was working tonight, or that I would even be in the ER.." "I don't know how Aiden... but he did it..." "Henry... please..." I repeated,
Sitting in the hospital all day waiting for the doctors to discharge me was driving him insane, and I ended up sending Henry back to the office. Henry had sent a driver to come pick me up and take both me and my car back home. Shortly after arriving he called to check up on me and ordered me to bed to rest. I envied him, his naïve ability to convince himself that I would do just that. Instead, I walked around the house, cleaning the small odds and ends that the housekeeper had forgotten. The couch was my final destination and I sat down feeling accomplished, but when I had finally taken a good look at the world around me... I hated it.
In just the last few months alone, I suppose that I had come to hate this house. For a long time this house was my prison, I was stuck within its walls waiting for Henry to come back, afraid to leave it for fear of missing him. I had felt pain in this house, I had cried in the house so many times, I had collapsed against the door the minute I got in, scared to death of the things that I had seen. It was unfair of me to think so, and I knew somewhere in the back of my head that thoughts like these were unreasonable, but at this exact moment, I hated it.
Henry came home an hour or two later, I was still sitting on the couch, my eyes open and staring at the small crystal bowl that sat in the middle of our coffee table. I was so concentrated and wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't even heard him come home until he shook me lightly. He was afraid that I was having some episode from my injuries.
"Are you okay?" He looked at me concerned, sitting down next to me "I-I'm fine. I just uh... I was... thinking." "About?" "Henry... can we... go away... go far away?" "What?" "Away from here... away from this..." "Aiden... whats the matter? You're... shaking." "I just... I don't want to be here Henry... I don't want to be here in the house, in this town, in this state where everybody and everything seems to be going wrong, and..." "Aiden... stop." "No! I mean it, I just... I want... to go somewhere. Please?" "You're just scared because something happened, and I know that... but-" "Please... Please... Please..." I repeated softly, looking at my hands in my lap. Henry's arm wrapped around my shoulders and I felt myself fall into him, my head resting along the cook of his neck as he held me and rocked me back and forth
"Anything you want..."
We left the next day, in his car, without a word to anyone. At least, I pretended it was without notice to anyone. I had caught him secretly calling his office and instructing someone to take care of things while he was gone and that someone should call the hospital and let them know that I would not be in for a few days.
Tree after tree after tree passed me, Henry drove out further and further down the highway until I had no idea where we were. After a day of driving we stopped at a small town somewhere and while we were looking for a place to stay I smiled as the small but festive town seemed to be holding a festival of some kind. There were colors, lights strung from the gazebo in the square and its inhabitants were dancing to what sounded like jazz music. After another 10 minutes of driving around, we found an inn, a small but quaint inn that we were able to get a room in. The owner was a nice lady who showed us to room three and insisted that we come down in the morning for breakfast.
I kissed Henry as he brought up our bags, refusing to even let me touch them in my "fragile and injured" state as he called it. I laid down on the bed and asked for him to join me. I knew that he was only here for me, that this was, in the grand scheme of things, a hindrance to him. At the same time, I was grateful that he put up with me, taking me to a place where we could be alone, and no one would know where we were. Brought him close to me and he again, carefully put his arms around me as if I were an easily shattered porcelain doll. Within minutes he was asleep and I was left to think, listening to the soft sounds of his breathing and staring at the stars through the window.
The next morning, Henry shook me awake gently, telling me that it was close to breakfast time and that I needed to get up to eat. Unceremoniously the clothes found themselves onto my body and I trundled down the stairs behind the back of who I hoped to be my boyfriend. A table in the corner awaited us and a nice breakfast of eggs benedict with a side of extra crispy hashbrowns later... I was as perky as I had ever been.
Henry and I walked around the town, noting the small idiosyncrasies that a big city wouldn't have. Everywhere I turned, everyone knew everyone else... except us. A fresh chance to make new friends. We got to know the local bakery's owner who treated us to a few samples of the cakes in her store. She sent us home with the small red velvet cake we had bought, and another angel food cake we didn't. Her defense was that I was entirely too thin and needed something to "put a little meat on those bones."
The local diner owner thought we were an adorable couple and had her husband throw in a few more sides to our order before she decided that we "city-folk" were born with too small a stomach to eat any decent amount of food. At about two in the afternoon the festivities for what we learned was the town's founding festival began again. A band of high school aged kids were playing and the townspeople gathered again in the town square. It was charming and adorable and a simple life that I had not known that I wanted until now. Henry was kidnapped by a girl who simply had to have a dance with him and I nodded approvingly as he dipped and twirled her around. Another girl came up to me, telling me that she liked me even if I couldn't like her back. I felt... warm and welcomed. Things were easier here, and I wanted them to stay this way.
"Can I have this dance?" A voice came from behind me, a hand offering itself to me. "U-Uh.. s-sure..." I accepted, turning to see a boy who looked to be about my age, his face was familiar but I couldn't quite place him. "Do you remember me?" "Uh.." "I'm Terence, the-" "The bellboy from the inn!" I quipped "Yes..." He smiled, pleased that he had been remembered. "Dance?" He asked again, jerking his head over to the dance floor.
His hand intertwined with mine and we pressed our body together and joined the rhythm of the slow song playing now. He was quite gentle with me, and for a moment, I found myself lost in his eyes. Henry cut in after a few minutes and I smiled as he thanked me for taking him in.
"I think... my feet have been stepped on at least 20 times." He said under his breath "I think they like you..." "I think they like you too..."
We danced for a while, my head rested against his shoulder and I felt the world melt away. My feet ached after the songs were through and the townspeople began dispersing. Over the course of the night almost half of them had invited both Henry and I to join them for lunch the following day, and by some mistake, Henry and I had agreed to be in two difference places at once.
"I like it here..." I told Henry as I unlocked the door to our room. "I do too" "Can we... stay here...?" "Aide-" "Just... a little longer?"
I knew from his face that while I had hoped to stay here indefinitely, it was not a possibility for him.
"Just... a little longer." I repeated.
He nodded and I smiled, taking off my clothes and heading to the restroom in my boxers. When I had drawn a bath in the inn's garden tub, I climbed in and felt my aching feet relax in the warm waters. A minute later, Henry came in and smiled as he stripped himself and climbed in. putting himself behind me. I felt his strong muscular arms wrap around my waist beneath the waters and I leaned back into him, my damp hair clung to my forehead and my cheeks were flushed from the hot waters.
"I love it here... this town... these people..." "I do too... but we have our own lives to go back and live remember?" "I know..." "But that doesn't mean that we cant come back and visit every now and then.. right?" He said, trying to make me feel better. "Yeah..." I agreed.
Henry kissed me gently on the cheek before lightly bringing up some water and splashing it against my chest. His hands ran down my body again, caressing my soft abs and I trembled.
"Just... for tonight... just forget about everything..." He said to me.
We climbed into bed that night fully refreshed, I hadn't felt this way since... the first night that I had moved into Henry's house so long ago. It was so freeing not to have to wake up for anything, not to have to worry about what lunatic was going to show himself in my ER... not to have to worry about what terrible thing Landon would do to split Henry and I apart.
Then... maybe that was what I was afraid of most. The cut on my neck was getting better, time would heal my wounds, but if something were to strike at Henry... I don't know what would happen. My worries had brought me here, to this town, a temporary paradise where no one knew anything about us... but in just another two days... I had to go back into my hell, a place that I would give anything to stay away from.
As these thoughts roamed around in my head. I felt a sense of great pity towards myself. How much of a coward I had become, how much of a pain I had become to Henry, dragging him to this middle of nowhere town... That night, the notion of staying here and going back warred within me, and I found no peace.
In the morning, Terence had come up with Henry's breakfast order and I had eaten one of the pancakes from his plate before claiming that I was not hungry. We drove in relative silence back to town, our home stood waiting for us and I took a deep breath before stepping in. Everything was as we had left it, the same warm inviting air that I had personally tried to cultivate, the same small stain on the back right leg of the sofa that I desperately tried to ignore... all of it.
"I still have the next two days off.." Henry announced, when we finished putting away our things. "You should go back... things are probably falling apart without you."
He nodded, but then surprised me as he came closer and held my hand
"Or... I could spend the days at home with you..." He tightened his grasp.
I didn't say anything back, a small nod forced its way out and he seemed to have accepted it.
The peace that I found with Henry didn't last though, that night after we had finished dinner and begun to prepare for bed, I heard a small knocking on the front door. It was a courier, and he handed me an envelope before leaving. Somehow I already knew who it was from, but seeing the small tight letters written on the front sent shivers down my spine.
"Welcome back Aiden, I've missed you. Are you going to come and visit me? Or should I come to you?"
I threw the message into the trash and I felt my heart racing. Was he watching me...? Was he... outside at this very moment?
"Aiden? Are you coming?" Henry called from the bedroom.
--- Author: Thank you so much for sticking with me! I love hearing from you all and if you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to let me know at Keito.Nakagawa@gmail.com.
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