Recovery-4

 I stayed up through another news show, then five or six of the half hour long infomercials.

    Who would ever buy this stuff?

    5000-piece scrapbook set?

    A juicer so powerful it can turn marbles to slush?

    Who would eat marbles?

    Or be crazy enough to put them in a juicer…?

    It's six am and more news started up. I wonder if Alise's death was on the news. Probably not. People die everyday. Statistically almost none make the news. I wonder if Dr. Melburne is going to come back today. God I hope not. I don't think I can stand to see that man ever again. Yesterday He came at about nine. So if he comes back I can assume it'll be around then. So about three hours until I get accused of shoving her off again. Shifting about in the chair uncomfortably made me wonder how he ever fit in this thing. Thinking about it I don't think there's a single thing I liked about that man.
TV started to bore me so I picked up her jacket and curled up in bed with it. I lay there and remembered better times. I remembered the day she got this jacket.

    Last summer. Sunny Wednesday afternoon. She came over in her shiny new red car and said, "let's go to the mall!" I reluctantly agreed. She knew I hated malls though so she took me to a small one on the edge of town. After an excursion through every store we went to the food court. She offered to buy me food, but it was all fast food. I hate fast food. Never had any before meeting her. She had me try it once. I was sick for days. So I decided never again. So she ate and I just sat with her. Once she finished she realized we skipped some stores. So of course we had to go back. We went through the first two with no luck of anything interesting. The third we were almost ready to leave. Just had to look through the clearance rack. There it was. Last one. Just her size. She had to have it. So she scurried to the cashier and bought it. We headed out of the store and went to leave the mall. Then she saw it. Kevin sitting on the edge of the big centerpiece mosaic water fountain. All over and I'm going to assume that he was performing some sort of kiss, with an overly done up brunette. Wasn't sure why. The little that I did know on the rules of relationships was that he had Alise for that. I was confused. Alise certainly wasn't. She called his name and waved. He jumped, startled and hurried to come talk to her. I don't think she had any intention of talking though. She turned and just went out the doors. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I stood there a little longer before realizing she was actually leaving. Ran after her to catch up. She was already waiting in the car. On the ride home she was mostly quiet. I asked what happened. That's when I learned what cheating is. She says they're split up now. I'm not sure if she finds this good or bad. I've never seen her like this. Just so quiet. No laugh. No smile. Nothing.

    It worried me a little.

    We got back to my apartment complex still without another word from her. We went up the stairs. Usually she skips up them. She just walked. One at a time. I opened my door, we went in and she just sat on the couch. I sat on the opposite end like always. I watched her. She just sat there staring straight ahead.

    I couldn't stand the silence anymore.

    "Alise…?"
    
    She snapped out of her train of thought and looked at me. Wouldn't say anything. Just looked at me with a non-specific expression.

    "Are you okay?" I asked one of her silly questions. She teared up, leaned away from me and into the corner of the couch and cried. I panicked. I hadn't a clue what to say or do. What on earth was I supposed to do? I've never seen her cry before. So I went out on a limb and did something I thought she'd do. I leaned over put my arm around her shoulders and moved her so that she was sitting in my lap, and wrapped my other arm around her waist, and just held her like that. She turned put her chest to mine, snaked her arms under mine and grabbed onto my shirt on my shoulders with her tiny hands. She cried more. I felt her hair in my face when she rested her head on my shoulder, it was so soft. She smelled like flowers, fruit, and soap. I felt her heartbeat through our shirts, erratic and almost in tune with her sobs. Her arms against my ribs, shaking. Her legs on mine. I felt the wet spot on my neck from her crying into it. Her hot breath on my collarbone. Me holding onto her. She was so warm. Shaking all over though, not sure if that's normal or not when you're crying. It took everything in me not to freeze up or push her off. I didn't really want to though. It was odd. I wanted her off. But I also wanted to keep her right there. I couldn't worry about what I wanted now though.

    The crying got harder so I held on tighter. When she was finally done she didn't move like I expected. Instead she told me that the overly done up brunette was her best friend. I assumed that that was no longer true. I kept waiting for her to move. But she didn't. She started yawning and fell asleep. On me.

    For a while I just sat there. Soon though my leg went numb. Hoping she was fast asleep, I slowly and carefully moved so we were laying down instead. I reached behind the arm of the couch to my end table. Grabbed the remote. Flicked the teli. The twilight zone marathon came on.