New To The Feeling

The following morning I woke up with a crippling headache. I managed to stumble down the stairs. I glanced into Wylie’s room as I passed; he was still asleep.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Felicity bubbled about Adam to me for a good full hour. Apparently, Adam had confessed that he did in fact like her. All I could figure was that it was in a way that a 13-year-old has a crush on a boy band. However, I let her ramble on and interjected a smile or nod every so often.

Wylie and I didn’t talk that day. He was tired mostly so I did my best to let him be. I wanted to know what had happened. Jake had mentioned that I asked for him to come to the hospital that night. I never said a word about that. I was going about my business, trying to move on the best I could. Why Wylie would have bothered to do that was beyond me. I didn’t want to ask, but I did, leaving me in a very awkward place. I ignored my thoughts and filled my head with mindless cartoons and overly dramatic shows from the 90’s like Boy Meets World. It was a slow day, but I needed one of those.

***

Over the next week I attended school and Wylie stayed at home. I returned as soon as I could so that I could tend to him diligently. With every day he became stronger and with every day he began to be more and more like himself. The drugs had made him soft and loopy. He had become kind and sentimental. He had acted this way before, like when he kissed me, but now, as the medication ran its course through his body, he became obnoxious yet again. I ignored it for the most part.

When I wasn’t with Wylie I spent some time with Jake. We hadn’t made our relationship official again. The whole things had only blown up two weeks ago. We wanted to make sure that we were positive before we got into it again. My head was now on straight and I didn’t want to fall into old habits of letting Jake baby me, like he had before. He knew not to. Wylie of course, made comments when I came home, referring to him as “the cheater” or “Captain Scores-a-lot.” Of course I never gave into his antics and let him make fun like he always had. His original habits became stronger, and the following week I knew would be tough. He was to return to school to ensure his ability to graduate. He would be living with his aunt, his mother’s sister, who apparently lived nearby, but he didn’t really know that.

That Sunday we helped move Wylie out of the guest room and over to his aunt’s apartment. She accepted him with open arms and a loving smile, nothing like what he had been used to before. I introduced my parents and myself. She thanked us endlessly for taking care of her sister’s son, even offering us money, which my father adamantly refused. We had driven two cars, so my parents left early, leaving Wylie and I to talk for a bit.

“I hope you’re feeling better.” I mentioned under my breath.

“I’m fine.” He said shortly.

“So, I’ll see you at school right?” I tried to avoid eye contact.

“Eh, only because I have to.” He responded shrewdly.

“Yeah.” I looked up at him, his face hard with emotion.

He softened his eyes and smirked, “Thanks for taking care of me.”

“No problem.” I smiled back.

Wylie wrapped his arms around me and hugged me closely with my face pressed against his chest. I hugged him in return, before he let go and walked into the apartment.

“Wylie!” I yelled, catching him before the door shut.

“What?” he turned around.

“You called Jake that day at the hospital.” I stated as if reciting history.

His eyes glared intently at me, running them over my figure, “Yeah, I did.”

“Why?” quietly I questioned his motives.

Wylie walked slowly in my direction only stopping about two feet away from me. He watched me, torturing me with his silence while I waited for his answer.

“I messed up.” At first I thought he would stop there, but he continued, “I pushed you in every direction I possibly could just to see how far you would go. I don’t like Jake, but at the end of the day, it would always have been Jake over me. I messed up and I needed to fix it. I called Jana and told her to come and then called Jake so that they would inevitably run into each other. I knew they would fight because I said some undisclosed things that would get her angry, while Jake would defend his honor.”

“You set it up so we would get back together?” I shook my head in confusion.

“Yeah, because it would always be Jake and not me.” He turned away as if to leave.

“How do you know that? You can’t possibly know that?!” I yelled in desperation.

At that, Wylie turned and forcefully pressed his lips against mine in a fit of passion. His arms wrapped tightly around me, never faltering.

He released me and held my shoulders, looking deep into my eyes, “It will never be me.”

And he left.