26

                                    

                                          


                          
After Alex's friendliness in the kitchen, we finish making the cupcakes and we take them back to her room to eat them. I'm still in shock about the way she acted earlier. Alex opens the door and sits on the edge of the bed with her cupcake and proceeds to remove the wrapping, letting a few crumbs fall to the floor. She bites into the cupcake and moans at its deliciousness licking the frosting from her lips. 
                          
I carefully make my way over to her and sit beside her biting into my own cupcake. I look at her cautiously from the side of my eye, she isn't doing anything strange but I'm so confused with what is going on right now.
                          
I reach out and clasp her hand in my own, her soft flesh radiates warmth, "Alex?" I ask her and she looks up at me with her big brown eyes, "what is going on?" 
                          
She furrows her brows in confusion, "What do you mean?" 
                          
I'm a bit taken aback by her question, doesn't she realise what she's doing? "You haven't spoken to anyone in weeks, you flinch when I touch you, you feared everything and you haven't ventured out of this room yet you've managed to do the opposite of all these things in the last two hours." 
                          
She takes her hand out of mine and I look at my empty palm feeling cold as her touch disappears. She begins to fidget with her hands and looks down at her lap. 
                          
"Alex, talk to me." I beg, "I've missed you so much and no one knows what happened to you when you were," I pause, "away." 
                          
Her breaths are coming out short and sharp and I can see her shoulders rising quickly. She's panicking. 
                          
"Alex, you don't have to tell me everything right now, but when you are ready please, I'm begging you, I need to know what happened because I need to know how to fix this." I say, "I promise to love and protect you, every day for the rest of my life but right now I'm very confused and worried and I just want to know what's going on because I want to help you." 
                          
She takes in a deep breath and I see her breathing slowing down. Her hand slips back into mine and a small smile graces my lips. Her amazingly soft fingers clasp mine gently and the sparks shoot through my arm causing a stir in my stomach, the things this girl can do to me. 
                          
"Sam," she whispers, "I want to tell you, I really do but I'm scared." She pauses for a second and I see her hesitate about what she's about to say so I squeeze her hand to encourage her. 
                          
"Every night I've had dreams about him, the way he treated me, the things he did." She closes her eyes and I see her swallow, "I had a dream last night that was different to the others, a lady in white visited me. I don't know who she was or what for that matter but she spoke to me in this voice that was like no other. It was mystical and magical and soft and she said things that made no sense but I believed everything she said. For the last few weeks I've been stuck between reality and my mind, the things he did, they got me so confused and I haven't known what was real and what was just a pigment of my imagination, something that I was just creating because reality sucks. When I was there I would dream about things that felt so real and eventually it got to the point where I knew they weren't real and my way of dealing with it was to just not react to anything. I've been stuck in that mindset for the last few weeks because none of this feels real but last night, the lady in white she told me that I was safe and that you were real." She says looking up into my eyes, "and I believed her and for the first time since being here everything makes sense and I don't have to be scared anymore because I know that I'm safe here with you." 
                          
Her explanation warms my heart, she hasn't been avoiding me, she just didn't know that she was truly thinking. 
                          
"I love you so much Alex and I'm so sorry I didn't realise sooner, I would do anything to protect you but I was so caught up in myself-" I am cut off by her lips on mine.