“Thank you,” I say with a grateful smile.
Before he leaves through the door, I call out for him, “So, Adrien, you and I were best friends before?”
He turns around so that he could face me and nods. “Yes, we were.”
He takes slow calculated steps in my direction before he stops, jerking his head to the diary in my hand. “You got that from there, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, apparently Evelyn’s memory wasn’t any better than mine,” at my joke, his sealed lips break into a chuckle, and suddenly the sound of his laugh was one of the most genuine, beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.
“Yeah, you’re not lying there,” he states.
“What happened to your hands?” I glance at his knuckles which were covered in dried blood, and it wasn’t easing my nerves not knowing whether it was his or someone else’s.
I kept wondering if it’s Adrien’s, or maybe -as evil as I sound- hoping it was.
“It’s nothing.” He unclenches he hands quickly and sets them by his sides. “Just a little misunderstanding- that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”
“Can I ask you something else?” I try to divert the spotlights from him, since he looked uncomfortable.
“It seems like all you have are questions, but I’m okay with that because all I have is time. Shoot.” He seems satisfied with the change of the subject.
“Do you know why Evelyn would’ve hated my parents? Because when I headed there yesterday to have a talk with my parents, my mom said something about why they did what they did so that I don’t have it in me to hate them again, and I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when she said that, so do you know?” My eyes look at his grey ones with hope swirling in them.
“I’m not a liar, Evangeline, so I won’t tell you that I don’t know what you’re talking about because I do but what I can honestly tell you.” He crouches down in front of me as he tenderly skims his fingers over my bruises. “Is that as much as I want you to figure it out and as much as I’m dying to tell you about it, I will not allow myself to be the reason why you hate your parents- why you might never want to see them again; I’m not that selfish.”
With that said, he heads out of the room while I was still, here, lying in the same spot on the ground with sensational tingles from his touch, wondering how I’ve never seen anyone as genuine as he is. His smile is genuine; his actions are genuine, and everything about him screams genuine. My mind couldn’t stop wondering how the hell I’ve only seen this guy about three times and how the hell I’ve known him since yesterday maybe, and I already feel like he’s one of the most people who has earned both my trust and respect in life.
Chapter 14
Three weeks has passed ever since I’ve started staying here at Adam’s. At first, I wasn’t used to this peace, to this silence and most importantly, I wasn’t used to this kind of loneliness. Having two floors all to myself surprisingly felt overwhelming- like two floors shouldn’t be meant for one person to live in- that I suddenly got the reason why Adam decided to rent a part of his house. No wonder he felt lifeless with all three floors all to himself. Back at my parent’s two-story house, we’d spend most of the day together- all of us. We had our meals together, we used to watch movies at night together, and we even played cards sometimes when we got bored, but here it was just Adam and I.
Don’t get me wrong; we spend time together, but all the time we’d spend was at the dining table with nothing to talk about. Even though Lexi would swing by every two days or so for a couple of hours, and Adam would knock on my bedroom door once a day to make sure there’s nothing I needed, I still felt empty- isolated. I’ve been reading the diary Lexi bought me, for it’s the only thing that keeps me company at this time. It’s the only thing that I can use to get my mind off the feeling of missing my parents that was starting to slowly sneak into my heart.
Speaking of my parents, they called me- a lot. I have one hundred missed calls, forty voice notes, and two hundred text messages. I haven’t bothered listening to any of them until I know why they did it- until I discover the answers to all of my questions. Although I wasn’t completely sure whether or not I’ll find the truth in Evelyn’s diary, I had an intuition that it’ll be there. I haven’t skipped through the pages, though, because I decided that other than finding out what my parents are hiding, I even have a stronger urge to learn who I was before the accident.
“Is it okay that I ordered pizza for dinner? I’m sorry I forgot to ask what you would’ve wanted to have for dinner.” Adam cuts me out of my trance.
“No, it’s okay; pizza’s good with me,” I reply as we both sit next to each other in front of the television in the living room which was featuring my favourite movie ‘Miracle in Cell no.7’, as we wait for delivery man to arrive.
At the scene were the little girl’s father appears with a swollen eye from the merciless torture he endured, Adam glances at mine. “How’s your eye?”
“It’s pretty much healed now thanks to your help.” I tilt my head to face him and offer him a simple smile because it’s true: I’ve been applying the ointment he gave me
