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1197 Words
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Brooke smiles reminiscing on the memory. She looks down at Cade.
Not like he has changed much in three months, at least on the outside. Even still he is a completely different person around her. A person, not a statue.
She falls asleep not long after that. It's not very long or restful though. She wakes up this time to a hot patch growing on her side.
"Ughh" she moans quietly. Cade has one leg swing over her, squeezing her body. He is shaking a little bit, but still in a deep sleep. She waits for the stream to stop before she nudges him.
"Honey." She bumps him.
"Cade." She tries again. Cade is out cold. She manages to escape his grip and creep to the bathroom.
In the mirror, her shirt is drenched. The entire side is a dark grey, dripping, sopping wet.
She honestly doesn't know how Cade handles it. Every night?
She walks back the bedroom. Shirt now getting cold on her skin.
"Cade." She sits next to him. His tired eyes start to flutter.
"Hey honey." She tries.
Cade rolls over and smiles, not yet realizing thier predicament. It doesn't take long. He rolls over, looks down, then slams his face into his pillow.
Brooke rubs his back.
"Whyyy?" He groans then aggressively throws the blankets up and kicks out of the bed.
He stalks down the hall way and slams the bathroom door. Brooke turns on the lights and strips the sheets.
She looks at the plastic matt. Little puddles fill the crevices. She doesn't really know how to clean it. She sees a stack of towels on a shelf in the closet with a hamper underneath. She assumes they were placed there for a reason. So she mops up the puddles and throws them in the hamper. She sees now there is a general anti bacterial spray bottle placed next to the hamper, confirming her assumption.
She sprays it and heads back to the closet to look for a new set of sheets. Low and behold, there is a stack of at least 6 sets next to the towels.
She makes the bed and plops down on it. She can see why Cade didn't want her here, or anyone here. It wouldn't take a genius to add all the peices together.
Cade walks out of the bathroom, bottoms of his hair dripping like he had just taken a seriously fast shower and not even bothered to dry off.
He takes one look at Brooke and bows his head. She stops in place.
"I'm sorry." He says leaning toward the doorway.
Brooke isn't sure what he is talking about until she notices she is still wearing the wet T shirt. She gives him a weak smile and tosses it in the basket with the sheets.
She hugs him, bare chest to bare chest.
"I am going to go wash off. I put dry sheets on the bed." She kisses his neck as she walks by. She can hear he doesn't move from the door way even when she walks in the bathroom.
She showers quickly, using his hair and body wash to scrub her torso. It smells good in a manly kind of way, but, honestly it's 2 in the morning and she could care less.
She gets out realizing she isn't 100% sure where the towels are. She starts digging under the sink, when she sees a mess of unfamiliar bottles, most of them orange with prescription labels.
She picks one of them up. It's dated nearly 3 years ago. It looks like only 7 or 8 were ever taken out of it, just like most of the rest of the bottles.
She turns toward the door. She doesn't really want to snoop, but if she wants to help Cade she probably should know these things.
She digs a little further back and opens up the next cabinet. It is filled with several packages of different varieties of diapers. They all look pretty childish, "Pull Up's training pants", "Good Night's 'real boxer' look".
"Can I help you?" Cade asks from behind her in a tone of voice she has never heard before.
"I was looking for a towel..." She hastily slams the cabinet door.
Cade eyeballs her and points a finger and as the universe would have it, there is a large stack of towels sitting on the back of the toilet.
Shit. Now Cade really does think she was snooping.
"Cade." She tries, but Cade stomps away.
She dries off and wraps herself in the towel, then tip toes back to the bedroom. He is sitting on the bed, back to the door.
"I don't wanna hear it, Brooke."
"What?"
"I know what you're gonna say." He stands up and turns around.
She is glad somebody does, since she sure as heck didn't.
"None of it works." He says in a shaky voice. His bottom lip is quivering.
"Cade..." She tries again.
Cade's whole body is shaking. He looks angry minus that his face is twisted as he tries not to cry.
Then he falls to the floor. Brooke is frozen. Cade curls up, head on his knees, chin to chest.
"I can't do it anymore!" He screams then throws a ceramic bird, places on his night stand across the room. It shatters as it hits the wall and falls to the floor.
Brooke can't breath. Her feet stay planted to the ground.
Cade's face is turning a dangerous shade of red, crying into his hands.
Brooke finally finds her feet and takes one small step toward him. She gets down on the ground and crawls the rest of the way. Her heart is still pounding.
She pulls Cade pretty well into her lap, wrapping her arms around him. He uncoils and turns to her, wraps his arms around her neck and lays his head on her shoulder like a child.
She can feel his heart racing in his chest, and he starts to hyperventilate.
"Honey, Honey, you have to calm down." She tries, like anyone ever had actually responded to that.
He doesn't.
He is desperately sucking in short awkward breaths. His face is turning purple, drenched with fat tears.
"Please, babe..." she can feel her own eyes starting to swell.
She grips him tighter, pushing his head into her naked shoulder.
She tries and tries again, but nothing seems to soothe him, so she stays quiet.
Cade sobs for an impressive hour before he finally calms down enough to where Brooke can talk to him.
"Are you okay?" She says, gently.
"Yeah." He puffs, then begins to ugly cry again.
"No, no, relax." She pushes his head back onto her shoulder, pulling on his hair, probably a little too hard.
Cade tries to take in a deep breath, but sporadically hyproventaltes, it sounds painfull and so so so sad.
"I'm right here." She tries, not knowing what to say.
That of all things seems to comfort Cade more than anything. He gets real quiet for a second, like he is thinkind deeply. He is holding his breath.
"I've got you. You're not in this alone."
"Not anymore."
- Writer
