Trainwreck (14 page)

Chapter 25

It was hard for Sadie to sleep that night. There was too much going on in her head and because of that, she felt a headache coming on. It was 12:34am when Sadie pulled herself out of bed and headed into the dark kitchen. She poured herself a glass of milk before putting it in the microwave and warming it up for thirty seconds, trying not to think about anything. Her mother was spending the night with Sadie's grandmother again, something Ellen normally did when her mother needed her, and because Harry was such a deep sleeper, Sadie had no worry about waking him up in the middle of the night.

When the microwave pinged, she grabbed the glass cup and drank the lukewarm liquid, hoping that the folklore was true and that it would help her with sleep. When she finished her milk, she placed the cup in the sink and headed back to her room, slipping between the covers and closing her eyes. Maybe she should add to her sleepiness by counting sheep or something.

One hundred... ninety-nine... Why was Asher such an ass? I mean, all I wanted to do was to make sure that he was all right... ninety-eight, ninety-seven, ninety-six... God, this was just so typical. Okay, seriously, though, Sadie, time to get over the guy. If he can't even appreciate you then - ninety-five.

Cling
.


Sadie's eyes opened and her whole body froze. What, exactly, was that and where had it come from? For a long moment, nothing happened, and Sadie thought that it had all been in her head.

Cling
.

There it was again, and this time, it sounded as though someone was tapping on her window. Who the hell would be tapping at her window at midnight? Burglars wouldn't do that, right? They would just break in. She glanced in the corner of her room until her eyes caught sight of a metal baseball bat just in case this particular burglar was playing some kind of game with her. Sadie sat up and turned on her light before slowly, cautiously, walking over to her window.

Cling.

There it was again. Sadie could feel her heart race as she reached out and swept the blinds away so she could see outside. Standing just outside her window was none other than Asher Boyd, and from what she could see, he was injured. Badly injured. Without thinking twice, she removed the distorted broomstick that prevented people from opening and shutting her window, and tossed it on the bed without a second thought. She then opened the glass window and ushered Asher inside, thanking God that her mother wasn't here. Though Sadie loved her mother and Ellen could be incredibly understanding, Sadie highly doubted Ellen would be able to keep her mind open to what was happening at present.

Once Asher was inside, Sadie gently wrapped her arm around his waist and led him over to her bed, easing him onto it in a sitting position. Afterward, she closed the window and turned back to the boy, her full attention focused on him.

Now that Asher was inside, Sadie could see what the injuries were much more clearly than when he was outside. He had a bruise on his forehead and a gash somewhere on the top of his head because his hair was slightly matted with blood. She was sure there were other injuries as well, underneath his clothes because he seemed to be wincing whenever he breathed in deeply. There were millions of questions poised on the tip of Sadie's tongue, just waiting to be asked, but she swallowed them. It wasn't important at that moment to figure out why this happened, but to figure out where on Asher's body it did happen so Sadie could clean the wounds and get him more comfortable.

"Stay here," she told him. Her voice was quiet but her eyes were firm.

Asher nodded but didn't say anything. She walked over to the kitchen where she filled a pot with lukewarm water and a couple of washcloths. She grabbed Neosporin from the cabinet, as well as a pack of band-aids, and after doing a mental checklist of everything she had in her arms, she decided that if she needed anything else, she could get up and grab it.

When Sadie returned to her room, a small part of her was surprised to find Asher still sitting there, his breathing heavy. It was probably because she had thought that he was a dream, that he wasn't really sitting there in her room. Why would he be here? She shook her head as she knelt in front of him, placing the items she had collected on the floor in front of her, and it was then that she was thankful that she had cleaned her room this past weekend.

Okay... Sadie had no medical experience, but she had watched tons of movies and read tons of stories about how women bandaged up someone – always the love interest of the story – and then something happened, like the characters kissed or - Okay, so that probably wasn't going to happen, but she thought she could probably clean his wounds without problem. The injuries didn't look too serious.

"Um, I'm going to dress your wounds," Sadie told him softly, making sure her door was shut in case her brother woke up for whatever reason before looking at him. Asher nodded again, and Sadie glanced down and placed one of the washcloths in the water, getting it slightly wet before focusing her attention on his face. "It might hurt," she warned him. "If it does, grab me or something. Try not to cry out."

"What?" he asked, throwing her a small smirk. "You got some kind of boyfriend here or something?"

Though she tried not to, Sadie smiled. "No," she said as she began to dab the washcloth on his cheek where a small cut was. "I actually have a younger brother who may or may not tell of your presence here when my mom gets home later tonight, and I really don't want to take the chance, if you don't mind."

---

Asher watched with apt precision as Sadie cleaned his facial wounds comparable to how she probably studied for a really important test. He was lucky, he realized at that moment, to have someone like her in his life who cared about him the way she did. He didn't have anyone else like her in his family, in his group of friends. She was a rare oddity that he never thought he would ever encounter. But as he watched her take care of him, something he never let anyone do before, he could tell that she actually really did care about him, and the way he had been treating her was despicable.

"I'm sorry," he told her suddenly, unsure of what else to say. The silence wasn't awkward, but it was still important to him that Sadie hear it.

Sadie's eyes flashed up so they locked Asher's, and for a moment she didn't speak. "I don't understand," she said quietly, grabbing the dry washcloth in order to dry his face. "What, exactly, are you sorry for?" With that, she dropped that washcloth and picked up the damp one, pushing to her feet so she could look at the wound on his head. "Don't look at my chest while I'm in this position," she added, and his smirk only deepened.

"I mean," he said, keeping the chuckles from his voice, "for everything that I've done. For pushing you away."

---

Sadie was silent again, and Asher felt as though the two of them could hear his heart beat pound incessantly against his chest. He could, at least. "Let's not talk about this now," she finally suggested as she began to wipe the blood from his hair. As far as she could see, it wasn't too serious, but she knew she had to ask Asher anyways. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital, Asher? Just to make sure that you're okay? I mean
really
okay?"

"I've been through worse," he said as he shook his head so more chestnut strands fell into his face. He paused, and then looked up at her for the first time without the pretense of a shield masking his vulnerability. Sadie was taken by such surprise that she couldn't help but stare for just a bit. "I didn't know who else to come to."

Sadie looked at him and wanted nothing more than to wrap him in her arms and ask him what was wrong, and the two could fall asleep together as he told her everything he never told anyone else. But Sadie was sure that that was the least of what guys wanted when they were going through some kind of problem. They needed their space, so that's what she would give Asher.

"We'll talk tomorrow," she told him, kneeling down to grab the supplies in order to put them back. "If you do you want to talk about it, I mean." With that, she managed to balance everything with one arm as she headed out the door.

---

Asher watched her go, and though he felt as though he had went through hell that evening, with Sadie by his side, it didn't appear that bad anymore.

Chapter 26

Sadie didn't get very much sleep last night. Instead of getting on the bed to sleep next to Asher, she decided to fall asleep in the chair that was across her room and had originally belonged to her grandfather before he passed away. Sadie inherited it only because she was incredibly close to him and she had fond memories sitting on his lap while he was sitting in the chair. Now it was dated and falling apart slightly, but it was still just as comfortable as it was back then and there were moments when she could swear –
swear
– that he was there with her, holding her like he used to when she was younger and he was alive.

Her thoughts kept going back to the boy on the bed across from her, wondering what had happened. Did he get into a fight with his friends? Was this Tony's doing? Or was it his father? Was it her fault that this happened? Maybe she should have thought twice about going to check in on him the previous day. Maybe his father punished him for the unexpected visitor. God, she hoped not. She hoped this wasn't her fault.

And it seemed that he was actually willing to talk to her about it too. At least, that's how Asher felt last night. He seemed eager to get it off of his chest, but Sadie's main concern was that Asher was okay and well-rested before they talked. Hopefully, he would still want to talk to her about it in the morning. Hopefully, he would still be the same person he was last night and not suddenly revert back into the guy pushing her away constantly. But Sadie had to take that chance. And she just prayed that it would work well in her favor.

She wasn't going to go to school the next day. It was a decision that she had to make because she highly doubted Asher wanted to go to school looking like he did – no one would believe him if he explained his father did something like that to him. Sadie could see it now; everyone saw him as a criminal. High school sucked in that way; when it came to grouping people into different cliques, everything was black and white.

However, Sadie got up and grabbed some clothes when six thirty rolled around, and quickly changed in the bathroom across the hall from her room. She woke up her brother, after making sure the door to her room was closed, and after three tries, Harry finally got up, got dressed, and the two headed off. Though Sadie wasn't actually going to go to school, she still had a responsibility to drop Harry off, and this way, she was guaranteed alone time with Asher for a long portion of time. Not to do anything romantic with, of course, but Sadie did want to spend time with him before he had to leave and everything would go back to the way it was once more.

In fact, as Sadie headed back home, that was what she was dreading the most. What if Asher pretended that what had transpired between them last night never happened? He would wake up, give her a nod, and then leave without so much as a goodbye. And she was suddenly the fool once more, letting him use her, take advantage of what she felt about him, and then go back to pretending she didn't exist. Her tears started to blur her vision, but she blinked them away, hoping beyond hope that that wasn't going to happen, that Asher wouldn't treat her as though she didn't exist after everything she had done for him.

When she got back to the house, she realized that Asher was still asleep. Well, she couldn't exactly blame him, now could she? Whatever he had experienced, it obviously was traumatic (though, of course, Sadie highly doubted Asher would ever admit such a thing), and it probably took a lot out of him. She pursed her lips together, thinking idly for a moment of what to do. She knew that she wasn't going to wake him up, but she also knew that she couldn't get back to sleep now that she was up no matter how hard she tried. Ultimately, she decided that she was going to grab a book, sit in the chair, and read. This way she could wait for him to wake up and judging by what kind of mood he was in, take it from there.

She grabbed Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
and decided that there was no time like the present to catch up on the classics. Though many of her friends adored Jane Austen novels, it was hard for her to get into them only because it was about a bunch of women waiting to get married. Yes, Sadie knew there was more to it than that, and yes, Sadie loved the movies, but it was quite difficult for her to get sucked into the universe Austen created. At least, for her, anyway. Although, if she was being honest, Asher was quite the contender for Mister Darcy, if Mister Darcy wasn't as wealthy. It was a good thing Alice had her adventures. And that was what Sadie wanted more than anything. Adventures. And love, of course. Hmm.

Sadie leaned back in the chair and opened the cover of the book, trying to get comfortable. She let her eyes begin to read the text, but every so often, they would stop on their own accord and glance up to see Asher sleeping deeply on her bed. When she realized what she was doing, she would force her eyes back to the page and mouth the words so it would help her focus.

However, that didn't seem to work because Sadie found herself looking at him constantly, no matter how hard she tried not to. "Come on, Sadie," she whispered underneath her breath. "Get a grip. Focus."

But for the love of her, she couldn't.

Maybe if you just allow yourself to look at him for a portion of time, Sadie, you might get a better grip on yourself, hmm?
Sadie frowned at the taunting voice in her head, but she realized that what she had said was a good idea.

At that moment, Asher looked vulnerable and serene. He wasn't trying to prove anything to anyone; there was no need for him to pretend to be so tough when he didn't want to be. His eyes were gently closed, and his mouth was hanging opened slightly, though, surprisingly enough, he wasn't drooling or anything like that. His face seemed free of any distress; there were no wrinkles holding tension. His warm brown eyes were masked by his eyelids, and his nose was inhaling and exhaling steadily. His lips, slightly ajar, still looked quite soft, and Sadie was brought back to the kiss they had shared.

Goodness, it seemed so long ago, but just thinking about it caused her own lips to feel warmer than they usually did, and before she could stop herself, the edges of her lips quirked up into a soft smile. She definitely wouldn't mind experiencing that sensation again, but she highly doubted such a thing were to happen, at least not soon anyway. But the desire was still there, and somewhere, deep down inside of Sadie, thought that she would be able to do such a thing, if not now, than some time in the future.

"See something you like, Blondie?" a voice asked, immediately causing all of Sadie's thoughts to disintegrate and the smile on her face to turn into a scowl.

Sadie felt her whole face turn red at the comment, and though she opened her mouth to retort something, she knew that she couldn't. He had caught her, red handed. Of course Sadie had no idea how he did it because his eyes were still closed and his face was still relaxed, but somehow he did. Hell, his lips had molded together and quirked up into a knowing smirk, as though he could see her through his eyelids, as though he could read her mind.

A smile tugged at her own lips. The whole situation the two had found themselves in was quite ridiculous, if she was being honest. Finally, Asher opened his eyes so they locked with Sadie's, and though the two were silent, their eyes communicated in such a way that their words could never amount to. It was then that Sadie realized, for now, that Asher wasn't going to turn back into the guy who pushed everyone away, who handled everything on his own, who didn't want to deal with anything. For now, he would be open with her, vulnerable, who he really was.

Sadie felt her heart squeeze at the thought.

"So," she said, her voice sounding awkward as it filled the comfortable silence. "Would you like some breakfast?"

Asher didn't say anything for a moment. Instead, his eyes studied her face, her eyes, the slope of her nose, the curl of her lips.

"Yeah," he said softly, nodding a bit. "Yeah, I would."

Sadie nodded and stood, with Asher following suit, and Sadie led him into the dining room, hoping her lacking cooking skills would morph into something short of Julia Child.