Double Life: Sewing buttons

They walked like that. At the entrance there was the woman in charge. “My father send you his regards” Nic said in an implying tone, forcing herself to have her usual demeanor. The woman blushed and turned around as if she hadn’t seen a thing but with the corner of her eye she followed them. Nichole forced herself to step all the stairs to the second floor but half way through she couldn’t. Josh carried her up. Luckily at this time in the morning no one was in the hallways.
 “Where to?” Josh asked
 “At the end” she said motioning the last door in the hallway. Once they were inside he placed her on the bed and tried to take off her shoes. she didn’t let him. “Just go, go, please” she begged
“No! you have a fever... let me help you”
“Don’t touch me!” she tried to yell “don’t get near me”
“I.. I won’t do anything to you but you should take off that jacket and gloves” He was really concerned but wasn’t sure what to do, he didn’t want to invade her privacy. From Nichole´s point of view he was getting closer to her and she knew she was not going to be able to resist and stay awake much more time.
 “All right, all right -she said shaking due to the fever- I need you to go to the bathroom and get me the aid-kit there” He went, when he came back she had taken off her jacket. He noticed her shirt was stained with blood
 “What happened to you?” she half smiled
“Have you ever sewn a button?”
“eh?” what that has to do with anything- he thought- she´s so random.

 It was one of the scariest experiences for him. She unbuttoned her shirt and there it was a large cut, bleeding. She made him clean it and then stitched it. His hand were shaking but he tried not to. She didn’t scream nor cry, she just closed her eyes tight every time the needle went in her skin and then opened them again to instruct him what to do next. Eight stitches, they both had to endure that. Once it was over she asked him to go again. He refused it.
“No matter what, do not touch me ok?” and with those words she closed her eyes tighter as if the pain was getting worse. She laid motionless for a while, barely breathing, after a while she fall asleep. She seemed to had bad dreams but when the day was turning night she started to talk in her sleep “no, no, no please, no” she begged crying “don’t make me do it, please, please. Nooo” she yelled. Her body twisted and her features contorted in pain. Josh wanted to wake her but he had promised not to touch her. She kept crying in her sleep and he started to get closer and called her name. “Guilty? no!” she whispered and her eyes went open. He saw Josh close to her

“I told you not to touch me!” she yelled angry, her eyes wet.
“I- I didn’t I just called your name. You were having nightmares” she looked away and sighed
“I’m sorry I …”
“What happened to you?” he asked worried
“It´s unimportant. You must go”
“Look at you! I should´ve taken you to the infirmary...” he raised his voice
“I apologize...I can’t do anything more”
“Yes, you can! you can tell me what happened!”
“I...” she started to talk when her phone rang. She took it out of her pocket and listened to it.

“Gone” she said as an answer. “Because I got a cold” was her next answer. “Can´t” she reply later. Some one started to yell. It was a male´s voice. “He cut me with a blade -she saw Josh while saying this- the nurse would ask too many questions...” The male voice kept yelling, she stayed quiet until she hung up.

 “Someone will come in a while to check on me... it´s best if you go. Thank you for everything” she said. Her eyes were watery.
“Will this person stay with you?”
“Of course not” she huffed
“Then no, I wont go”
“Stop it! just go! why don’t you go?!” she was on the verge of tears now
“You saved my life. I owe you this but more than that I want to help”
 “How stupid!” and she couldn’t contain her tears anymore. When he walked towards her, she held up a single finger to ask him to stay where he was. She closed her eyes and lowered her head, placed her hands over her temples and breathed slowly. Once she opened her eyes and saw him again she was another person, her eyes were a bit swallow but she seemed harsh and cold, all trace of emotion was gone from her eyes and face. This was the second time he had seen her do that. It was unbelievable that she could pull herself together despite all that she had gone through.

 After a couple of hours, Josh heard a knock on the door, then steps and then a voice greeting. He couldn’t see the person since the closet was too dark. She had instructed him to hide there and to look to the wall. “Nichole, your father was very upset. What happened?” Nichole didn’t answer “All right, let me see you”. There was the sound of fabric, clothes being removed. “For God´s sake, did you do this alone?”

Josh started to panic thinking that maybe he´d done something wrong with the stitches. Nichole didn’t answer again. For a while the scene was the same: Josh hidden in the darkness of Nic´s closet, the woman asking questions to Nic that were not answered. “Take care of yourself, ok?” she said and then there was the door sound. She had left. Josh didn’t move, his mind was blank, he didn’t know what to think... the answers she gave on the phone were so strange, he couldn’t stop replaying them on his head trying to figure out what they meant exactly.

 “You can come out now” Nic said dryly. He obeyed.
“I’m sorry that you couldn’t talk to..., who was she anyways?"
“Do not worry about her... she just helps me with... -she looked down at her wound, Josh furrowed his eyebrows wanting to ask again what had happened and why she didn’t want to go to the infirmary and above all who was the man that called, yelled at her but he understood that she didn’t want to talk about it and that perhaps she wasn’t used to have someone to talk to, after all , even though he had only been in the school for a few days he hadn’t seen her hanging out with any body besides himself. “No girl friends like every other girl that are always going in groups, like birds, yeah they are very much like birds or guys, even them have a group to hang out... now that I think about it -he thought- I am being just like her... except that first day that I got late due to Aaron’s friends.. I hadn’t been around many people though some girls seemed to be interested in me...maybe...they were- he hesitated at that part of his thoughts.

“you should go” Nichole´s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “Because of me you´ve lost not only todays morning classes but lunch as well... now you´ll have to buy something else instead... and you might loose dinner again” she sighed and her voice sounded tired and distant “There are some chocolate bars in the desk drawer... I think there are some other candies there too and cookies maybe... just go and take anything you want” her eyes were close and Josh could notice she was in pain.
“Does it hurt much?” he asked getting up from the chair he was seated on and going to the desk she pointed. There were indeed many candies and chocolate bars as well as some bills....not a small amount.
“duh!” she said and opened her eyes, a smile playing in her lips. I didn’t reach her eyes though.
“Do you want some cookies?” he asked, she shook her head , no. “You should eat something”.
 “You should do it too”. He couldn’t fight that
“then let´s go and get something to eat”
“mmm -she hummed- I´ pass...I´d rather not walk for now”.
“ok, I´ll go and bring something for you to eat”.
“don’t be silly -her eyes still closed, her right hand over her head, still laying on the bed- there´s no way you´d be able to come in again, you were lucky to get in here the first time kid” Again there was that playful tone in her voice, Josh wasn’t sure how she managed to pretend to be teasing him as if nothing had happened to her and then to go back to her emotionless demeanor...
 “Just go and have lunch I promise I´ll eat something later, ok?” she spoke again, maybe just to make him go. He got to his feet again and left a chocolate bar next to her. When she felt him she flinched, maybe she was afraid of getting hurt
 “It´s ok, just wanted to leave this clos- she stared at him and followed every movement he made as if she didn’t trust him and since she was making so much effort to make him go he decided to grant her wish.
“See you later”, he said and turned to leave.
“Take the emergency exit, I mean the fire latter ok?....that door has no fire alarm, but you gotta make it to the end of the hall”she instructed .
 “See you at later” he said again and left.