Little Battles (30 page)

Right?

I didn’t want her to be mad at me, but I felt desperate to confirm some of the things that I’d been wondering about, even if it would hurt both of us in the process.

Placing my hand on her lower back, I smiled when I felt that thing that flowed between us. I’d been wondering if she’d felt it too, but now that I thought about it, there was no way she could feel exactly what I did when we touched. If she did, she wouldn’t need to rely on drugs. We had enough feel-good chemicals surging between us to keep me high forever.

“W-w-why did your m-m-mm-mmmom’s boyfriend get you hhhhigh?”

Sophie shook her head and stepped away from me. “Stop it, Elliott.”

“Sssstop what?”

“You don’t get to know
every
fucking thing about me. I get high and I like it, okay? It has nothing to do with—”

“B-b-but you c-could d-die and I j-just told you that I n-need you and I don’t want you to d-die. I want to know b-because I want to hhhhelp you.”

“You can’t help me. It’s cool that you want to and all, but I do just fine on my own, you know?”

I shook my head. “I
d-don’t
know. If you just t-tell me, I can try to hhhhelp b-better.”

She got even closer to the bookshelf, nearly pressing into it as she rested her forehead there, mumbling something about wearing down, and then was silent. She gripped the shelf that held my art books with one hand, while the other stayed at her side, clutching the rock so very tightly that bits of her hand were red, while other parts were ghost white. I tried to remember how sharp the edges were; she could cut herself if she squeezed any tighter.

I needed to get her to talk. I was pretty sure I already knew why she was the way she was. I was aware of the reason that man had gotten her high. Sophie, as I knew her, was nothing more than a violent reaction to a violent past, and even with that knowledge, I felt it was important for her to say it. It was just like the story of the fork. She needed to let it come out and stop carrying it around.

Down deep, I realized that I was thinking all of these things about Sophie, but the same could be said about me. I needed to reveal my hidden secrets, and she would be the one to give those secrets to. Maybe if she would just get to the root of her need for drugs and admit that something horrible had happened with her mother’s boyfriend, I’d be able to spit out the words that struck fear into me.

I was cowardly and needed her to go first.

“I d-don’t w-want you to b-be liiike my m-mm-mmmom.”

She sighed and I felt like maybe she would give.

I waited, and I was right.

“He got me high so I’d relax.” She’d said that same thing to me before. “Because I…I, um…” Her breath was hard but shallow. “I, um, cried a lot because, um…” She shook her head and tightened her hold on the shelf and the rock. “Because it...it hurt.”

I clenched my teeth and balled my hands up in the same way I did when I was having trouble with a word. “W-w-w-what hurt?” Although I asked, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to have confirmation. She wouldn’t speak and I knew that I should keep my distance, but I couldn’t stop myself from getting closer to her.

Once more, I placed my hand flat against the small of her back. “SSSSSophie?”

She spun around and pushed at me. I stumbled back, standing there helpless as I watched her shake. It was actually more like a tremor.

I wanted to wrap her in a blanket.

“He
fucked
me, okay?” Her voice was hard, but not overly loud or angry. She paused for just a moment and I felt the physical pain as if Chris had just punched me in the gut. When she spoke again, her tone was angry. “Do you feel better now that you know?” The venom she spat wasn’t really directed at me, but I was in the line of fire.

While I was not surprised to learn what she just told me, it took my breath away to hear her say it. I didn’t want her to have gone through that. I didn’t want her to carry that kind of pain. I didn’t want that kind of pain to have shaped her like this.

“No,” I answered. I did
not
feel better, but at least it was out there and we could move on from it. At least now we could walk through the pain together.

“I llllike you no m-m-matter what, SSSSS-SSSophie.”

“Shut up.”

“N-no. You n-need to know that p-p-people lllllike you.
I
llllike you.”

“Please just stop.”

I felt odd. I had never really expressed anything like this to someone before, not even Jane. With her, we just fell into some kind of secret understanding of what we felt toward one other. But with Sophie, it had to be said out loud because I knew that there was a big part of her that thought she was completely unlikeable, completely unlovable, and completely too far gone for salvation.

There was a small part of her that I wanted, no
needed
, to access. It was the part of her that wanted something more than she had, that craved salvation. That part needed to know I liked her, that I cared for her, and that my life wouldn’t be as good if she wasn’t in it. She needed to know that I cared whether she lived or died, and that I would help her when she needed it, and leave her alone when she didn’t.

“I’m ssssorry that hhhhappened to you, b-but you sssaid my sssstutter didn’t define m-me and that doesn’t define you.” Oh, God, she looked so tired. I wanted to hold her, to feed her, to comfort her in some meaningful way. To help her, heal her, make her whole. “I don’t w-w-want you to die.”

“The world wouldn’t be different if I wasn’t in it. Most people wouldn’t even notice.”

I wanted to be clear. I wished that my words could be visual just like they were in an e-mail, because I didn’t want her to miss the point when she focused on my stuttering and not the actual meaning behind them. Not that I thought Sophie focused on my stutter, but I tried to be as calm as I could be to make it through without stumbling once.

“
My
…world…would.”

Thank God! I did it. It had taken a lot of effort to not mess that up, and perhaps I shouldn’t have been so proud of three little words, but I was. She needed to know.

I relaxed the tension that had built up inside me, my fist loosening.

She shook her head.

“Look at me, Elliott.” Her jaw tightened before she continued. “
Look
at me. I’m not—”

“I
am
lllllooking.” So much for speaking clearer, but her voice was loud and distracting. I cut her off because she needed to realize that I already saw her. She was awfully hard to miss.

“How do you… I mean, why… How can you just fucking…”

I went to her again, very slowly. I had never wanted to be close like this to anyone, but Sophie’s entire being spoke to me. Even though the situation was heavy and tense, horrible and nerve-wracking, it was made better by being close to her. If I felt better when I was near her, maybe she felt better being near to me.

Wishing my hands were healed and that I could deftly drag my hand through her hair, I gently pulled her to me, into my arms. My heart sang, rejoicing that she didn’t fight it, and she just let me hold her. I didn’t care if it was because she thought that
I
needed to hold her or if
she
needed me to hold her. I could feel her heart beat against mine and did my best to stop the quakes that shook her.

After a long stretch of quiet, she mumbled, “I’m tired.”

I could tell that she was. She had lost her nervous bounce and was currently just slumped into me.

“A-a-are you hhhungry?” She shook her head. “W-we hhhave leftovers from llllast night.” She shook her head again. “I’ll w-warm them up for you.”

“Elliott, I’m fine.”

I pulled away and went over to the door, hating to leave her, but needing to take care of her. “You hhhhaven’t eaten.”

“Fine.”

I went down to microwave the food she’d made the day before and stayed silent, even when Jane tried to rope me into playing video games. I just held up my bandaged hands as an excuse. As I walked back up to my room, I began to wonder about something.

I had never been allowed to have food in my room back in Chicago. Even now with Stephen, when it wasn’t a rule, I’d never eaten in my room. It was odd to step over the threshold holding a plate of food that could easily fall and stain the carpet. But regardless of my aversion, I had to do this for Sophie, because I knew she wouldn’t eat any other way, and she needed to.

Sophie was quiet for the rest of the night, and though she’d only picked at the food, I was happy that she’d even tried. My mother never really tried to eat. She was very thin and would fix something for us, taking a spoonful of this or a bite of that, and then just sit at the table watching us eat as she drank cup after cup of coffee.

The picture I had of her wasn’t what I remembered of my mother. In that family photograph, she looked healthier than she did toward the end. Her hair was still pretty and red, even if her eyes told me she was high. I wished I had more pictures of her, because then I might’ve been able to see when things started to get so bad for her. Maybe I could have seen the progression.

I knew my mother hadn’t started off a drug addict; I wanted to see what she looked like before it had begun.

After she died, my father rarely spoke of my mother, except to say that only the righteous survived and the weaker souls burned in Hell. He said it every night, beginning on the night that she’d done it. He could talk for hours about the perils of being like my mother, of letting the demons within us take hold and succumbing to their will. He would never say her name or the words “your mother.”

He always called her “The Fallen.”

Regretfully, I had to return Sophie to her home. Before she could open the car door, I took her hand. There was so much I wanted to say, but I couldn’t even form an intelligent sentence in my brain, so anything verbal was doomed from the start. Instead I just looked at her. Her eyes were so beautiful, so sad and so hurt. Why couldn’t everyone in the world see that about her?

Sophie was good at hiding.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Elliott.”

“D-don’t…I’ll hhhhelp you.”

She turned back to me, putting her hand in my hair, and I closed my eyes. It had been an emotional day, and I was tired. The sensation of her touch was almost too much, and yet not enough. Then she brushed her lips against mine, and I settled on not enough. I wanted more of her. All of her.

When I responded, she wasted no time licking my lips. Then I licked them myself, loving the flavor she left on them.

Before I could even think, she was on top of me, straddling me like she tended to do. Both of her hands were in my hair now, tugging and pulling, soothing and searching, her mouth frantic, her tongue sweeping everywhere.

I was hard underneath her and I knew she felt it, and the thought made my head spin.

It was incredibly wrong and inappropriate, given what she’d just shared with me, yet I couldn’t tell my mouth to stop kissing her, and I couldn’t tell my hands to stop gripping her hips like I owned them. I ignored the ache in my broken fingers and I pulled her closer to me as she rocked.

She moved her mouth to my neck and put her hand between our coat-covered bodies. When she pressed it against me, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“SSSSSoph-ph-phie,” I said, gasping for air as I grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands away from my groin and my hair. I shook my head, hoping that I wouldn’t have to speak, because I couldn’t.

“What?” She curled and snaked her body, searching for contact. “Elliott, I—”

“I c-c-c-can’t.” I took two deep breaths. “Your ffffather is p-p-probably w-wondering w-where you a-a-are.”

“My father?” She pulled her hands back and ran them through her hair. Then suddenly she was off of me and I felt cold. “You need to come up with a better excuse, Elliott. That one’s getting old.”

I shook my head, but knew she was right. “You’re ssssstill hhhhigh.”

I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t Chris and I wouldn’t have sex with her when she wasn’t in her right mind, but I doubted I could even say the word “sex” while I was hard like this. And her mental status wasn’t the real reason anyway.

Sophie turned and grabbed her bag from the floor, holding it to her chest. I hated that I disappointed her. I hated that she took it all wrong.

“Whatever.”

“I llllllike k-k-k-kissing you, but you hhhhave to understand that I c-c-c…”

“Yeah, I know, you
‘can’t’
do that shit with me.” I reached out for her because I hated that she thought I didn’t want her, but she wouldn’t let me touch her. She pulled away and opened the door.

“I don’t get it. How can you
not
do that with me but you can
fuck
Megan Simons at a bonfire?”

I froze. My breathing stopped. My fingers hurt as I gripped the steering wheel tightly. How did she know about that? Why did she have to use such crass language? There were strangled noises that I suddenly recognized as the stuttered sounds of my own voice.