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"A couple of hours. Are you okay?" I stood up and rested the tips of my fingers in my back pockets, unsure how to be in front of him.
"Yeah, just tired. Is Des still here?" He rubbed his head as if it was aching.
Keeping my voice as casual as possibly, I answered, "No, he left about fifteen minutes ago. Do you need something?"
He shook his head. "Nah, I rode with him, but I can get Ayla to take me home. I don't feel up to running home just yet.”
"She's gone, too. She and Jay went to town for some supplies. They're working on some protection stuff."
He sighed. "Oh." He grabbed his cell phone to make a call.
"I'll take you home." He didn't even want to ask me to take him home. That's how much he wanted distance from me.
"No, I don't want to cause you and Henry problems." He looked away and turned his back to me, still texting someone.
I let out a loud, unbidden giggle. "Henry isn't the jealous type. Besides, he knows that you don't want me. He's completely comfortable with you around."
I wanted to drag out the humor in his false assumption. I had only assumed that he had heard Amelia, but I guess he hadn't. Perhaps he had chose not to hear.
"Oh, does he know about… us? Does he know about everything?"
"About what exactly?" I smiled teasingly.
His face wasn't humorous; it was actually riddled with pain. "The kiss that almost killed you." His voice cracked slightly as he responded to me. "At least his lips aren't toxic to you," he muttered, and I don't think I was meant to hear that part.
Now I just felt like a jerk. "Henry and I are not a thing, nor will we ever be. He's a really good friend that heard those hyenas making fun of me. He heard them saying I was nothing special and stuff about you being better off. He was just trying to help me out. I needed a friend worse than I realized, and that's what he is—that's all he is."
His eyes came up as he winced. "Yeah I heard them, too. I was going to say something, but he beat me to it. Well, I don't guess I could have done anything that dramatic, but I promise I was going to do something. I wasn't just going to let them beat you down."
I just turned one corner of my mouth up in a forced smile. "No big deal. I've heard it all year. It's really nothing new. I never thought I was anything special, and it doesn't bother me that they point it out. I don't need anyone trying to shield me from their remarks."
"Aria, you—"
"Don't. Please don't," I said while holding my hand up.
I knew what he was going to try to say, but I couldn't hear it. Not right then, and certainly not from him. I was still too fragile. I couldn't let him be nice and tell me he thought I was special. It was too painful to have him feeling sorry for me. I felt low enough without having him throw me a pity party.
Fortunately, Henry walked up and disrupted our awkward moment.
"Hey. Is everything okay?" He was referring to Tallis's collapse—I think.
"Yeah, he's recovered and awake,… obviously." I was rambling, sounding like my mother when she was nervous. "Could you give him a ride home? Desmond ran off and left him, and Tallis worried you'll get jealous if I take him home."
I laughed slightly as I poked fun of Tallis's misconception again in an effort to nix the heaviness our conversation taken on. Henry laughed, too.
"Did you tell him that we—"
"Yeah, I told him." I shook my head as I walked in, escaping the tension cloaking me.
I could hear them both chuckling slightly. I was kind of relieved that Henry was the one taking him home instead of me.
Sinking to the floor of my room, I stared blankly at the wall. I sighed out deeply, and the tears began flowing down the trails they had carved out over the past several months. No one was there to see me, and I had held it back all day. I just didn't have the strength to hold it back anymore.
Chapter 5
Festivals and Festivities
I curse the saints who tell us to have patience and understanding, because I'm left feeling inferior when those qualities evade me.
