Chapter 11: The Pair (part 1)

Almost.

Almost…

I almost had him. By the tip of his crown, I had given him the easiest opportunity to take me, but that was before he took charge.

“This is too fast.” And with his words, and steady hands, he held me perfectly still.

He had pushed me away. I questionably reasoned, ’He’s right, I’m wrong, and maybe I am more than just wrong?’

This was not me, and as much as we both wanted to go on, Adam recognized I wasn’t myself.

In silence, I rolled off of him and laid on my side by his side. After being rejected, I didn’t want to look at him. It strangely hurt, but I knew I shouldn’t have felt so strongly about a choice I gave him.

I thoughtfully hoped, ’But maybe I could persuade him...?’ I wanted to tell myself to ‘stop it.’

With my lack of sanity, the decision was his to make for good reason. And yet, the moment of opportunity to be completed had been lost.

That was stranger. I wondered, ’Completed?’ I didn’t understand, but I had not contemplated on that thought for long.

I didn’t want to know. Inside and out of me, I sensed a liquid heat pouring all over me. It was caused by that which laid beside me, in his bed, of what it would’ve meant if we’d continued.

If he had filled me with his --

“Stop it,” I silently whispered to myself.

As a guy, I wouldn’t have thought of this as a dirty deed. Then again, I wouldn’t have placed myself on the receiving end. I pictured a filthy mental image of spunk inside of me, and instead of disgust, I shuddered in desperate wanting.

After an extended silence, I finally asked: “Would you mind it at all if I may take a shower?”

Adam looked lost for a moment, but responded after that hesitation. “Ah, yeah! Let me get you something to wear.”

It sounded like he was glad of the change in subject. ’Or maybe he is happy I’ll be getting my tempting butt out of his bed?’

He slid out of bed first. I turned and stared at him as he stood and stretched.

That opportune moment was gone. But I realized if I stayed with him, there would be another chance for us. A countless number of times, we could try...

I winced at the unnatural desires still bubbling up and popping in my head. After I reigned in my lust, I slipped out behind him to follow his lead.

And the instant my eyes were on him, my mind was submerged thrown back in the gutter. To keep control, I had to distract myself from him.

As he searched for clothes, my eyes roamed over his nearly naked body. He had a light build.

Not a good start for me in finding a distraction, but I grinned because of an observant thought, ’I wonder if we share the same size clothes?’ He was thin enough to match how much my figure had slimmed up.

He took out a light blue tank top. I glanced over my shoulder at the bed with the knowledge that my green shirt might fit better than that, but it was also unclean. An irrational instinct in me wanted to never touch that shirt again.

Turning back to Adam, I saw him pull out a pair of boxers with a drawstring. Adam said, “I suppose these will work. You okay wearing this until we pick up something?” That confused me a little.

“Pick up? What are you talking about?” He offered me the boxers first and I took them. I began to slip them on while he explained.

“Well, if you stay here --” Immediately, I hopped on one foot, waved a hand, and interrupted him.

“Wait, I can’t stay here.” I had to come up with an excuse. “Mike, let alone the police, will be looking for me.”

From the look on his face, he was the one confused now.

“Last night, you said you couldn’t stay at your house. Now you want to go back?” His reasoning was a valid point.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to go back.” A split second later, I nibbled my bottom lip, unsure what to say. With a sigh, I made up an excuse, “But when they come here, they’ll know you were involved with my disappearance.”

Adam grinned at me. “Are they looking for a boy named Clint or a girl calling herself Clementine?”

His train of thought had taken me by surprise. Once I had tied the drawstring snug to my abdomen, he passed me the sleeveless shirt.

“I suppose you are right. I might get away with that, but I still kinda look like --” Adam was shaking his head. “...What?”

“No.” He kept shaking his head. When I didn’t understand, he explained: “You don’t look like you did yesterday. At least, not from yesterday morning. You’ve changed.”

I listened, wanting to hear more, and yet he cut off his explanation. Only my imagination was filling in what more had happened to me.

The recent nightmare filled me with dread. My invisible demon was visible and almost mirrored me. ’Or had she perfectly reflected how I now look?’

“Adam, what -- How do I look?” Mission accomplished: I was fully distracted now. “What’s different?”

I wondered in fear, ’Was I changed more than I thought from the time in my kitchen or did something happen overnight? Am I done changing or will this continue?’ As I thought about that, I pulled the shirt on over my head and down. The shirt didn’t reach the waistband of the boxers. I saw why and groaned at the curved shapes on my chest hiking the shirt up. “Okay, other than a pair of these, what else is different about me?”

Adam snorted a laugh. “Ah, well… Oh boy, heh, hold on.” He had to get his laughter out of his system before speaking. “Well, ah, hehe -- Sorry. Hate to break this to you, but they’ll grow more if you ever do become pregnant.”

I thought, ‘If that’s possible?’ My response to him was on a serious note. “Adam, if I stay with you, that’s --”

“Of course, yeah, that’s why I’ll be getting us some protection. Better to be packing heat when I don’t need it, ‘than not when I do.” I shook my head at this reasoning.

“I don’t know what came over me earlier, but it’s not gone. When I’m… I think when I am near you, I feel an uncontrollable -- I guess impulse? An urge? I don’t know what to call it.” Again, I shook my head.

“Kind of like you’re in heat?” I stared at him for a few seconds before I shrugged in response to that.

I had to ask, “That’s possible?”

He glanced up and away with a cringe. “I’m not really sure. Ah, you know how you’d --” Glancing back at me, he shook his head and dropped whatever he was about to say. “Never mind. You might not.” A smile formed and he nodded. “Okay, let us take having a period as an example. That special cycle makes a woman unbalanced, right?”

I shrugged, not really having compared Erin’s temper with her time of the month. Not to mention, I hadn’t had a mother to bless me with her fine sessions of bloody rages.

“Okay, ahmm, yeah, so just the same, there is also ovulation --”

“Wait, same as what?” I felt like he skipped something, but I was wrong. I supposed I had simply not paid him as much attention as I should have had.

“Sorry, I meant just like having a period, ovulating can trigger...” He shrugged and said, “Things. Getting horny, I guess is one of them. Since that’s… look, the primary reason for ovulation is procreation. Your body is trying to tell you that it’s ready, to go and find someone, and put a, ah… Hehe, a baby in you.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll buy that for now.”

I didn’t really take to the idea that I’d be ovulating, but I was new to this. So new, I doubted my body could jump straight into being a full woman. But I couldn’t discard the possibility either.

Only one thing bothered me about Adam’s theory, and I asked: “Should I only be feeling this way around one person? The way you describe it, it sounds like I should be going gaga on any guy I come across.”

Adam appeared to not think that was the case either. “Clint, even if you were ovulating, I don’t think you’d be going crazy. As you said earlier, an urge. An urgency. That’s what it should feel like.” He gestured at his bed. “This morning, you were in a state of frenzy.”

At this point, I didn’t want to hear anymore about ovulating, having periods, or going crazy. I thought, ’Is it just me or is he lecturing me like the doctor did?’ “Adam, I’ll be more careful next time.”

He smiled and went to open the door for me. “That sounds good to me. So will I.”

I asked him a question I might regret knowing. “What do you mean?”

With a hand on the doorknob, he paused to look back at me. “I mean, having a kid and all.”

“You --” That pain, the hurt of being rejected came back. “You don’t want to have one with me?”

After I had said that, I immediately felt the pinkening blush had skipped straight into a burning redness. It creeped up my entire face until I envisioned I resembled a red hot chili pepper.

But I had to wonder, ’Why did I just say that?’ I didn’t want a kid either. Not that way, at least…

Lowering my gaze down to the floor, a bare whisper left my lips, asking myself, rather than Adam, about my desire. “Right?”

“Ah, Clint? Right now, call me selfish, but I’d like to get through school and have my life set straight before considering a commitment like this.” I heard him and the door being opened.

I made a soft-spoken request. “Don’t open the door yet.”

“Clint, you should also figure in what you want to do with your life before making a -- ah -- If we have an accident.” He almost said ’ mistake’ and I knew it. What I was doing with him was not a mistake and --

-- and what I wanted to do wasn’t a mistake either. I felt it. I needed him and what he could offer me. I didn’t know why I felt this way, but it wouldn’t go away when he was nearby. Even if he wasn’t near, the longing I felt lingered as if I was still by his side.

“I gave you a choice. You made it, and your reasoning is… it makes sense.” I thought, ’No regrets, right?’

But I didn’t want to regret it. Not after what I tried and what could have happened if he accepted me.

I didn’t have control around him.

There was no way I would be capable of pushing him away. But he could do that to me. And each time, it would hurt.

Just thinking about that pain was worse than the burns I’d suffered these last few days. That wracking pain in me wasn’t letting up.

While I tried to overcome the overwhelming hollowed soreness in my bosom, I gazed back at him. Everything in me said I needed him.

“Clint, your eyes --” He couldn’t finish as I closed the distance between us.

With his back against the door, I pressed myself against him. Leaning my forehead into his, I nuzzled along his face, brushing my lips, breathing him in and wanting to share my own life with his.

“Hot.” My lips nearly caught his open mouth to breathe into him this fiery life in me, but I passed by his lips to heatedly nip along his chin, jaw, and cheek. More desperately, he mentioned that something was wrong. “Clint, you’re burning up. Your forehead -- I think you have a fever again.”

With what Adam said snapping me out of it, I broke away and freed him.

“I -- I need to cool off. Shower.” I stood and stared at him.

Barely keeping myself sane, I kept the idea that I’d chill out once under a frigid stream of water. That’d wake me up and clear my head. I just hoped it would dispel my current concupiscence.

Before I could do more, Adam was the one to close the distance between us this time.

He had me in his arms and softly spoke to me. “If you’re still sick, you’d be confused too. But I think -- No. I know there is a lot of stuff happening to you.” His hand went up behind my head to pull me down and rest on his shoulder. “Clint, you don’t know if what is happening is done. Am I right?”

Gently, I brushed my burning hot cheek against his neck as I shook my head. In a whimper, I said, “I don’t know.”

“That could be another contribution to your confusion. What if you, Clint, and what you are becoming -- the, ah, persona named Clementine -- are conflicting with each other?” I nervously laughed at that logic.

To me, the idea was absurd and unreasonable. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. ’I’ve got two me’s duking it out inside my head?’ And I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Just think about it, but don’t do that alone. I’m here.” I returned the hug and smiled. “Go get cleaned up. Don’t worry about anything that we did or what could happen.” He gave me a peck on the cheek and gently whispered next to my ear, “Not without me, okay?”

I had thought I was laughing out of amusement, but when I spoke, my voice broke with a sob. “Okay, Adam. Not without you.”

Even though I was granted a leave for the shower, I didn’t let him go. I didn’t want to.

After a minute, he made a good suggestion. “I’ll walk you there. Okay?” I started to nuzzle and nip at his neck in response, but inhaled sharply as I came to my senses. Then I nodded. He laughed a little at my affection. “Hehe, okay. Turn around. Might be easier than walking out the door backwards.”

Still holding onto him, I shifted to remain by his side. We walked out together the very moment he opened the door.

My eyesight immediately darted down the hall when I felt the wave of heat. “Adam, are you hot at all?”

“You’re burning up, so yeah?” I rolled my eyes at his reply.

“Sorry. Not what I meant.” Sighing, I held off my investigation. Either his house had lost its AC power, or that thing was in here. She followed us. “Has your home always been this hot?”

“Clint, you have a fever. You’re going to feel hot -- Ow!” I poked him in the ribs to get the answer I wanted to hear. “No. When the temperature reaches a certain degree, which I think is seventy-two, then the AC kicks on.”

That meant it was here. I didn’t need to find it. She would come and find me.

Across from his room, Adam’s parents had their bedroom door closed. I heard a slight noise in there, but I didn’t know if it was from his parents or if my stalker ’friend’ was in there. I hoped it was his parents.

That thing being here was enough to worry me, let alone what she could be up to in someone’s bedroom.

Farther down the hall, he opened a door to reveal the bathroom. The moment we entered, I heard a door open from the general direction we came from.

“Adam, you awake?” The voice was that of a woman. I guessed that could be Adam’s mother.

He called back to her. “Ah, yeah, I’m awake. Just a moment.” Then he whispered to me. “I’ll check on you in a bit. Okay?”

I gave him one tight squeeze before letting him go.

The door was softly closed behind me as Adam went off to see his mom. I stood still and waited a moment to feel for the direction that heat was being emitted from. To me, it felt hotter outside the door. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

“If you’re here, please stay away from them.” She never had responded to me, but nicely asking her couldn’t have hurt.

Before hopping in the shower, I figured I’d try an old method to calm down. I took a deep breath and exhaled only after I counted down from ten. Doing that made me feel a little dizzy, but that was about it.

Since I was in the bathroom, and Adam never answered me, I wanted to inspect what changes to myself had happened overnight.

There was a long mirror on the wall, which stretched from a closet, close by me, all the way down next to the toilet. This was definitely a big bathroom designed to accommodate a large family. That made me wonder, ’Does Adam have siblings?’ I had no idea.

“Might ask -- I will ask him after the shower.” Just as he wanted to know about me, I wanted to know more about him. “He still does too, right?”

I stepped in front of the mirror.

The first thing I noticed was how my hair had grown. Oddly, it wasn’t curled into my eyes like it usually would at long lengths. If anything, the hair was easily pulled back behind my ears…

That was the second thing I noticed. My ears were tapered up into points. Not exaggerated. I wasn’t a longknife-eared elf or a Trekkie’s vulcan. They’d simply lost that round curve on top. Angular, pointy, and apparently useful to hold back my hair.

Which revealed my eyes. They remained the same black-red color, but something was off about the consistency of my iris. No longer circular, the rounded colored bands around my pupils bled into the whites of my eyes. Like a drop from a brush soaked in watercolor paint had landed on a clear canvas to bleed its diluted highlight into the blank white background.

I remembered Adam’s reaction to my eyes when I almost lost control. I prayed silently, ’Let Adam have a pair of non-prescription sunglasses somewhere, please?’ I didn’t want to be gawked at by anyone.

Turning my face side-to-side, I searched for anything else that might have changed about me. My complexion retained that same feverish blush. The masculinity in my face had washed away. I’d been called a ‘pretty boy’ before, most of the time as an insult, but I was more than that now.

Again, I had noted: “If no one knew who I was, they’d think I was a girl.” Looking down my figure, I confirmed what I had just said. “I am a girl.”

Cupping my bosom, I felt the new assets in the palms of my hands. They fit perfectly in my grasp. That made sense when I considered the formation of these breasts by the burning hands of my invisible molester.

Sadly, I didn’t feel very interested in my new tits. I would have, as a guy, but not when they were on me.

Instead of ogling myself sexually, I became observant of other subtle changes. Tilting my head to the side, I caught on that my neck was gracefully slender.

“I guess this is what it means to be swanlike?” I let go of my chest to raise delicate touches to my collar and then throat.

It didn’t take much for me to imagine Adam leading up to my chin and lips with a trail of kisses, but first over and around my bust and before going higher. I wanted to know what his mousy hair would feel like when I placed my face down onto his temple.

There was a smile on my reflected face. I felt my smile with my fingertips tracing over the curve of my lips.

Closing my eyes, I snapped out of it. That was why I wanted a cold shower. I still had no idea why Adam had become such a big deal in my thoughts.

Turning to the shower curtains, I pulled them open to see what kind of equipment I would be dealing with. A white tub, a single gem-cut knob, and a single push button for the shower to turn on. I tried to figure out if the drain was stoppered or shut somehow just by looking, but I had to kneel down and feel around. The knob apparently could be pushed in and made a click in the drain.

“That’s new.”

Getting back up, I undid the tie to my boxers to let them naturally drop to the floor before I easily stepped out of them. I pulled off the shirt and held it under one arm. I snatched the pair of boxers off the floor to bundle them under the same arm with the shirt. Opening the closet door, I hung the two over the top of the door.

I was apprehensive about the shower. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought out loud about what I was going to do.

“Wake up.”

In my opinion, the quickest way to wake up was to splash cold water on my face. I was about to do more than that. Just like jumping into a ice cold lake, I was going to be freezing myself on purpose to clear my head and body.

I stepped in and stood bare and ready to unleash the frozen water.

With the knob turned to its extreme -- I let it run to allow my toes to get a test of the chill -- I then shut the shower curtain. One push of the button later, the shower head shot its stream down at me. I flinched --

-- and for a moment there was steam. It appeared, then disappeared, and was audible for that moment with a faint hiss. I wasn’t sure if that was from me or I had failed to notice that invisible creature coming in here with me. The water showered over me, so I doubted that she was standing right in front of me.

“What’s happening to me?”

My eyes widened at all the thoughts that ran through my mind. ’How am I so composed about being a girl? Why did I practically coerce Adam into bed with me last night? What came over me? It wasn’t me that clung to him in bed, right? He was not the reason I stripped down to nothing, was he? I kissed him and -- and, what all had I done…?’

It was as if the chilling reality had hit me of what I’d done.

With a hard thud, I dropped down to my knees.

Slowly, my arms wrapped around my slim waist and held there. I looked down at myself, then to the arms that barred my abdomen in terrible wonder of what could happen to me.

What might one day grow in me.

I shook in stunningly cold shock and bowed my head. The longer I was in the shower, the more thoughts came to mind.

...Like my dad and how I’d nearly forgot about him.

As if she sensed my distress, I heard above me the hiss of her shush. A hot hand stroked down my bare back. I glanced over my shoulder to see where she might be hiding.

The curtains had never opened, so that meant she was behind me again. I wondered, ’Has she been using me as a shield to buffer her from the cold water? Was she in here the whole time?’

Opening my mouth, I tested my voice a few times. A choked noise escaped me before I could coherently speak.

When I did, my voice was still cracked and I was faltering. “Why are you doing this to me?”

After I had asked her that question, I cried loudly. I didn’t think my crying would have alerted Adam or his parents over the noise of the shower, but I tried to stop. My attempts only caused me to start hiccuping.

The curtains opened and I felt an upward pull. She threw me out of the shower. Or rather than just me being thrown, we both were, like she slipped and tripped. I felt the heat under me.

Immediately, I struggled to scramble up onto my feet, but she dragged me back down.

She hugged around my arms and body to keep me still, with her, on the floor. I could feel her shift around, with an attempt to sit up, as I kept up the fight to free myself from her.

A few seconds passed before she managed to roll us and be by my side. Her arm slipped around the back of my head and she pulled my face down against her shoulder, chest, and collar as I continued struggling.

I tried to speak, to ask what she thought she was doing, but in my despair, I had lost my voice again in choking sobs.

Both of her arms went around my shoulders, a hand on the back of my head, the other to hold down at least one of my arms. I shook so very violently in her arms as I cried.

This was her fault. What I was becoming was her doing. She was making me do all of those things to Adam, and when he learned that wasn’t me…

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to beat her with my free balled up fist.

There was no way I could speak right now without being emotionally incoherent. I would wail and could involve Adam or his family into this mess, which wasn’t something I wanted to drag him into any more than I already had.

I didn’t want him hurt.

I shook my head against her as I silently screamed and cursed myself internally. ’Goddamit, I’m thinking about him again!? Why the fuck is he in my head!? Why should I care more about him than my dad!?’

Hissing that shush at me, she held me tightly. She was hot, but her heated skin no longer burned me.

She began to gently rock, trying to sway me into calming down. Her hand behind my head had attempted to stroke and pet me, but when she’d lifted her palm up, I jerked away. She had to resign herself to just holding my head against her.

After a minute, my crying had calmed down to silent tears.

She gradually warmed me back up. I would probably become dry in a few more minutes. I wondered in worry, ’Will I become a crazed, but docile, nympho for Adam after this?’

Against her, I shook my head again and nearly broke up crying again.

Carefully, I asked her again in only one word. Speaking any more would break me again. I croaked: “Why?”

She tapped me one time in the back of my head. I felt the grip around my shoulders become slack and the pull on my arm release. One more tap on the back of my head and she let go of me. Only her palm rested on top of my blonde head.

I sat up. I felt and saw the blur of heat brush by my cheek to wipe away my tears.

It took me a moment, but I managed to focus my sight on her face. Her head tilted and I followed her with my gaze. She tilted her head the opposite way and I trailed my sight after her.

When she leaned her forehead in against mine, I instinctively held my breath. I didn’t want to experience that suffocation again, like I had in my kitchen.

Next to my forehead, she tapped a single hot digit smartly on me. I continued to hold my breath.

When I could no longer hold it in, I backed my face away from her to breathe.

The instant I opened my mouth, she went on and in. Another kiss that took my breath away and invited her to breathe into me. It was entirely pleasant and the addiction to her heady breath had me hooked, but I fought.

My hands shot to her shoulders to push her away. All she did in response was hug me so it would be difficult for us to separate. I wanted her to stop changing me!

That had to be it. That was how I was transforming… I knew now that was what she had done by breathing into me. Last night, how dependent I’d been on her to breathe was the key discovery that led me to piece my transformation mystery together. I just needed to be clear headed to see it.

And I was losing that clarity the more she breathed.

No more. I couldn’t take this anymore…

Letting go of her shoulder, I reached up and around for something. Anything that might have an edge to it. From the counter beneath the long mirror, to opening drawers up and blindly searching, absolutely anywhere for something I could use.

A long and narrow point was in one drawer.

With a glint of shiny metal, I pulled the sturdy pair of scissors from the drawer and brought them down. I stared ahead at the nearly invisible face in front of me.

Maneuvering my grip, I opened the scissors up to hold tightly onto the thin half. The one point of those thin scissors was accurately aimed --

-- I jabbed it into my neck.

Just staring at her, I dug the sting deeper. She had let go of me to grab my wrist.

Sharp pain, which wasn’t as bad as being burned, but this certainly was the worst pain in the neck I’d ever had. I thought, ’Maybe it will be the last pain I’ll feel?’

It wouldn’t be. Immediately after, I felt a worse pain. The thought of Adam coming in here afterwards.

The kiss was finally broken and I had regretted what I had done. In a whispered voice, I said, “I’m sorry.” I tried to pull the scissors out, but I heard her hiss at me. That didn’t sound like a shush that time, but a real hiss that had both anger and pain combined.

Her hand let go of my wrist, and then I felt the scissors yanked from my hand.

In an instant, her invisibility dropped, then flickered back on. While she was visible, I caught the scratches, cuts, and even bite marks on her body.

The last moment of my nightmare, she and the dark demon got into a fight.

And as a close reflection of myself, she looked tired. It was like she was struggling for control…

Then I saw why. As if floating in the air, the scissors were not held, but stabbed through her hand.

She blocked my attempted suicide and I pierced her hand for it.

But she was concerned about me. I felt her slap a palm over my wound. In a split second, I felt her fiery brand on my neck. I didn’t cry out that time. It hurt, but I felt as if I had adapted to this sort of fire. Not resistant. I had become adjusted to the burns.

Softly, I whispered to her again. “I’m sorry.” 

I thought over what I’d done and why I now felt so very sorry.

To start, I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Slugging her was one thing, stabbing on the other hand was an entirely different matter. Even if I wasn’t sure she could be harmed, I didn’t want to find out and piss her off in the process. I didn’t know if she would hurt me or turn her vengeance on Adam.

That kind of thought had caused me to shudder. I should never had thought about striking her to begin with.

There were reasons I shouldn’t attack her. One was a big one: because I wanted answers.

I asked her about one. “Why?” I tested my voice to see if I could speak clearly. “Why do you keep doing this to me?”

Our foreheads were pressed together again. Through her transparency, I watched the pair of scissors slowly begin to bend. As if the once straight utensil was softening and being crushed.

With her other hand on my wounded neck, which held me steady, and took advantage as she nuzzled. Nose, lips, cheek, and brow were pressed, kissed, caressed, and brushed by me with affection.

She reminded me of when I was in need of Adam.

“You --” I had to close my mouth quickly as her lips brushed by mine. Once her lips passed, I pleaded: “Please stop.” She settled with placing her warm cheek against mine. “Do you like me? Is that why?” If she responded, I would finally know she understood me.

Her arm came around behind me and hugged. I didn’t know if that meant she did like me or that was her being her regular self.

That response didn’t stop me from asking her questions. “...Do you have a name?” Her cheek brushed back from mine and I felt her lips come close to my mouth again. I pleaded again. “Please stop.” I felt her lips move. “Can’t you talk? Maybe write or draw pictures? Something so I can understand you?” That made me wonder why I had not tried to do the same in return. “I will too. I’ll try, so please try too.”

The hand on my neck slipped down onto my shoulder. I raised my hand up to lightly touch the wound. I felt the tender skin that had once been the entry of my stab.

It felt like a scar. I wondered if she’d managed to completely heal the entire depth of my injury, but I wasn’t worried about myself. Her hand was obviously the worst injury between the both of us.

Pain. That had reminded me of how much I hurt before coming in here, and why.

“Adam. Will you leave him alone? Leave me alone when I’m with --” I was not with him. “When I next see Adam?”

That brought a kiss to my cheek. I think she recognized that name. I wasn’t entirely sure why.

She may have gathered a connection between us from yesterday’s encounters. I wondered, ’Is that why I’m feeling this way about him? Was that the reasoning why she influenced me to have stronger feelings for him?’

...Adam might have feelings for me too. If that was the case, it would make sense because of how considerate he had been. Adam truly cared for me.

As if I had summoned him, I heard the knock on the door and his voice. “Hey, everything okay in there? You didn’t slip, did ya?”

In a way, I had.

I swallowed an apprehensive lump in my throat before I spoke. “I did, but I’m alright.”

She was completely still. I tested pulling out and away from her to turn the shower off, at least.

She didn’t stop me, but it felt like she was going to hold onto me. I warily stood up and used the counter as support to balance myself -- just in case.

As per usual, she slipped behind me and hugged my neck and shoulders.

I wasn’t going to tolerate her riding me this time.

Gently, I whispered to her as I tugged at her arms. “Not this time. I’m going out to see Adam.” Her grip tightened for a few seconds, but she loosened up when I mentioned Adam’s name again. “Please, I don’t want you messing with Adam.” With one hand, then the other, I managed to break her lock and be free of her hug. “Thank you. Please, will you go home?” That might be a bit much. “Just not here.”

When something clattered to the floor, I jumped. I thought Adam had opened the door and dropped something when he saw the both of us.

I was wrong. What fell was by my feet. A twisted ball of steel.

The pair of scissors...