Chased by Bad Boys

Chapter 4: Alistair Rhodes Cares?

Hearing some hushing noise in the background, I slowly became conscious from my sleep. I opened my eyes slightly and noticed how bright it was. Rubbing my eyes to wipe away all the sleepiness, I tried to get up from my bed. My sudden movement did not go unnoticed by the two persons talking in low voices. By the foot of my bed stood Casimir and Alistair who looked at me like I was some fragile thing that would break any moment.

“Good morning”, started Casimir with a smile, “We did not want to wake you up. It is just this i***t could not keep it low”. Forgetting that I was barely presentable in front of two guys, most probably with morning breath and a bed head, I just giggled to his exasperation. That was after all the magic trick that Casimir could play on me, making me forget my worries and instill a sense of calm.

As I calmed down, I responded, “Good morning, what are you both doing here? What time is it?” After our conversation last night, Aziel fell asleep and even started snoring since he could not find a comfortable position to rest. I woke up few times throughout the night, sometimes the sadness just came like a blow and I sobbed as I thought of my mother, of how I would not hear her laugh, of all of our little conversations and so on. I would cry until I felt tired and drained and feel sleepy again. Every time I was up, somehow Aziel was immediately aware of my crying. He would just silently place his warm hands on top of mine and rub them and just let me get through it until I would be ready to sleep. To say that I was tired would be an understatement but I knew I had to get up and get going, I had to take care of things and I had been out of it too long already.

“We were just waiting for you to wake up,” piped Alistair, “We heard from Aziel that you woke up last night and had the green lights to get out of here. I was so relieved to know that you were okay and I could not wait patiently. I am sorry if I woke you up!”, he said while lowering his head to face the floor. He peeked back up to look at me and stopped to stare at me. In that moment, words failed me. Is this really Alistair Rhodes, the one who since day one of being at St. Andrews had not stopped pestering me? Is he really the one who has been in the face of Aziel ever since he joined our school? He cared about me? He was talking to Aziel? What in the world was happening?

Lucky me, right when I started forming words, Aziel came in with a bunch of paper in his hands.  With slightly dark circles under his eyes, I know he also did not sleep well and was exhausted. After a short moment of awkwardness, he cleared his throat before going, “Good morning, I got your paperwork ready. Since you are up, how about you have the breakfast the nurse brought you and then you can get ready and we can head back to campus. We can talk along the way.” I just nodded since I was too exhausted to think at this point.

With that Casimir walked towards me with a tray of food and placed it on a mobile stand in front of me. I don’t know if it was the sight or the smell of food that caused it but right then my stomach started grumbling in the all too quiet room. Embarrassed, I tried pulling the blanket on my stomach even though I knew it would not help. That earned me a set of chuckles from the three standing around me, causing me to blush even more. In that moment, some sort of comfort washed over me making me smile a little bit before I started attacking my food.

As soon as I finished breakfast, the boys left me in the room to have some privacy. With the fresh clothes that Casimir was able to buy from a*****e close to the hospital, I went to the bathroom to freshen up. After a quick and hot shower, I untangled my hair the best I could with my fingers and I just let them loose to air dry. I stepped out scanning the room for any of my belonging and realized that I had nothing around. I opening the door slightly to see if the others were around and I walked right in a conversation between Aziel and Casimir, “Alistair is already on the way back to the campus. I suggest you take her car back and I will drive her. I think she will be more comfortable in my SUV than in her small car”, explained Aziel. Casimir nodded in response as he turned his head and noticed I was ready. A smile formed on his friendly face and it just made me feel slightly better.

After a good half hour of Aziel ensuring that I was comfortable in his passenger seat, with water, with the heat and some water in the door, we finally started driving back. As he drove along the highway, I got lost in my own thoughts. Staring at my reflection, I started to give myself a mental pep talk, I had to stay focused once I reached campus, I had to go back home for the funeral and I had to go say my goodbyes to the wonderful woman who gave birth to me and raised me. At some point, I started feeling ready for this, suppressing all other distractions, I felt ready… or so I thought.