Chapter 22- Forgive and Forget

‘Now, why is such a beautiful thing like you so moody?’ He stroked my cheek and I pushed his hand away.
‘Don’t touch me,’ I growled and stared him down.
‘Aw, don’t worry doll. I won’t hurt you,’ he put a hand on my shoulder I just looked at it. He dropped it after a second bringing it back to his side and smiled at me. ‘Mrs. Yakka prescribed you something.’ He began walking again and I continued by his side.
‘What do you mean prescribed me something?’ I asked cautiously. Maybe he was lying, Nadia did say they liked to deceive people.
‘She prescribed you an anti-depressant.’
‘If I was depressed wouldn’t I be in yellow clothing not white?’
‘It also helps you relax, Ms. Autumns.’ He smirked, but I wasn’t paying attention as we came around the corner to the cafeteria. Because as soon as we did I ran into someone.
‘Oh, s**t.’ I said as I went down. Right before the person landed on top of me they caught themselves on their arms. Those arms… there was a Death Bat on the bicep of this person. As I looked up into his face I felt as if my heart jumped into my throat.
Nick was hovering right above me with an apologetic look on his face. He shot up and reached out his hand to help me up. I looked up at his outstretched hand before taking it. He pulled me up a little to fast and I stumbled forward into his broad chest. Standing up straight, I looked into his beautiful midnight misted eyes. ‘I… I’m sorry,’ he stuttered, his voice booming out from him.
The Worker coughed for attention, ‘Good day, Ms. Autumns.’ He tipped his hat and turned back towards the office.
I looked back at Nick, who was turning around the other direction, ‘Hey, wait a second.’ I tugged on his black shirt slightly and he turned. ‘Why are you walking away? You didn’t give me a chance to talk.’
He looked at me, not at my body like most guys but into my eyes as if he was entranced. ‘I’m sorry, most people around here tend to ignore me.’
I smiled sweetly at him, ‘I’m Alice,’ I held out my hand for him to shake. He looked at it for a second before taking it.
‘Nick,’ he said a little louder, a slight smile on his face.
‘Nick, would you like to walk with me?’ He looked stunned for a second, before nodding slightly. We started walking towards the game room but Nick stopped. ‘What?’ I asked.
‘People are staring,’ he looked down. ‘Don’t you care about your reputation?’
I giggled, ‘I tend to not give a damn about what other people think of me. Do you?’ He shook his head and looked up at me. ‘Come on.’ He followed me to the game room and waited beside me as I scanned the area. Nadia, Kitty and James were nowhere to be found, but the room did go completely silent when we walked in.
There were whispers as we turned around and went back out into the cafeteria. ‘I wonder where they are…’ I put my hand on my hips and looked around.
‘Where who are?’ Nick asked.
‘My new friends. Oh well.’ I gave up looking for them and started walking aimlessly. ‘Guess they’ll have to meet you later. What do you want to do?’
He smiled slightly and oddly it didn’t seem as frightening as Nadia said it would. They have killer smiles so when they give you one, run. ‘Would you like a tour? Unless, of course you’ve already gotten one from your friends…’
I grinned and shook my head. ‘I would love a tour, anything interesting in this hell hole?’
He smiled even more, which lifted my heart and made it skip a beat. Holding out his arm, I hooked into it and stifled an adoring giggle. He is such a gentleman, I thought as we walked out of the doors of the building and into a mini park-like area. ‘Even though this place looks small it’s actually pretty big. I love walking through the park and trail… There’s swings hanging from the huge oak tree around that corner.’ I awed at the flowers and smelled them as we passed.
‘This place must have a fantastic gardener and with good taste too,’ I smelled the forget-me-not flowers. ‘These are my favorite,’ I gestured towards them. ‘They are the most gorgeous flowers ever… Well to me at least.’
He walked over to one of the flowers and smelled it. ‘They smell really good,’ he commented. ‘What are they called?’
‘Forget-me-not, my dad and I used to go to the store to buy some. We would put them in vases all around the house and on the window ceils… Let’s go see the swings! I used to love swings when I was younger.’
He led me to the swings, ‘Do you want me to push you?’ He motioned me to a seat and when I sat down he began pushing me lightly. ‘So, Alice.’ I tilted my head back as he pushed me and he seemed to hesitate before speaking as if he’d lost his train of thought. ‘Why aren’t you scared of us, the Malicious?’
I thought about it for a second. He didn’t seem like he’d hurt a fly, yet Nadia had said that he almost beat a Worker to death. No matter how much I wasn’t supposed to be associating with his kind, I couldn’t help it. There was something about him… ‘Alice?’ I looked back and realized I hadn’t answered his question.
I shrugged my shoulders, ‘You don’t seem as horrible as they say,’ I smiled. ‘Why are you associating with a Bleeder such as myself?’
He smiled back and stopped the swing to look me closely in the eyes. ‘You seem different than all the others.’ I could feel my heart beating a million miles per second and wondered if he could hear it. ‘Besides, not all of us deserve to be here,’ he pulled away and began pushing me higher.
‘True that… So, you didn’t really kill anybody?’
‘So, you didn’t really try to kill yourself?’