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Enjoy the next chapter...
-Chapter 16-
Amy woke up with a start.
She shot up in bed and regretted that action immediately. Groaning, she covered her eyes as piercing bright light shone through her black eyelashes. Her head felt like it got hit by an anvil and her stomach turned violently, making her feel nauseous.
"Easy…" a voice spoke up softly. She was pushed back into the bed by a gentle but firm hand. "Or you'll get sick again."
Amy groaned again, recognizing the voice. "Sheldon?" Her throat felt raspy and dry. She wanted to open her eyes to look at him, but the light was still too glaring. "Uhh… my head hurts." Amy wailed, throwing her right arm across her face.
"Wait a minute…" Sheldon said.
His hand disappeared from her shoulder and Amy found that she instantly missed the reassuring warmness of someone being close to her. She heard him ruffling with the curtains and in the next moment she noticed that the light didn't seem so harsh anymore. Carefully, she blinked through the cracks of her fingers. It was still daytime, obviously, but the room was darker now. It was her room, she realized.
Amy spotted Sheldon standing by the window with his hands folded on his back and a concerned expression on his face. "What happened? How did I get here?" she cawed.
Sheldon's mouth remained sealed as he moved over to sit at the side of her bed. He picked up a glass of water and a little white pill. "Here, take this. It will help against the headache."
Thankfully, Amy took both and greedily swallowed the cold, fresh water. She handed the glass back to Sheldon when she was done, still feeling nauseous but much more awake. "What happened to me?" she repeated.
Sheldon's eyes danced nervously from her face to her blanket and back again. "Y-You should rest a while longer. You didn't get much sleep last night."
He attempted to push her further back into the cushion, but this time Amy struggled. "Sheldon, stop." she demanded, stilling his arm. "Why don't you answer my question? I want to know what happened last night."
Again, more averting eye-contact. "Because you probably won't find it very pleasant." Sheldon answered reluctantly.
"I don't care." Amy said quickly, but beginning to feel a bit worried. "I have to know. I don't like the feeling of this… this gaping black hole in my memory."
"I understand that." Sheldon said, finally brave enough to look back into her eyes. "Very well, uhm… what is the last thing you remember?"
Amy sat up against the headboard with her knees pulled up to her chest and her naked arms wrapped around them. She realized for the first time that she was still wearing the same short-sleeved dress she picked out yesterday; her cardigan was nowhere to be seen. She blushed a bit, feeling exposed in front of Sheldon. "I… I think I remember, seeing you at the party and then… talking to Mark and getting a drink from him… after that I'm blank."
Sheldon's eyes darkened and his narrow shoulders tensed upon hearing the boy's name. "Well, that's when it started to get out of hand." he growled. "Mark…" Sheldon all but spat out his name. "Dragged you along to meet more of his friends. They were… laughing and pointing at your clothes. A few of the girls who stood with them seemed especially vicious. They talked to you for a while, went away and then returned with rolls and rolls of toilet paper."
Sheldon paused, giving Amy enough time to envision what would most likely follow now. Too afraid to hear it, but also too shocked to stop him, Amy pulled up her knees even tighter until her nails dug into her own skin.
"They persuaded you to go along with their horrendous idea." Sheldon continued the narration. "You didn't want to at first, but then they apparently claimed that it was a fun party game, or something equally ridiculous, to make each other new clothes out of toilet paper and Mark gave you another drink and… eventually you gave in."
"No." Amy whispered. It can't be true. It should have been different this time. I should have been the lucky girl with a real date to a party.
Unrelenting, Sheldon kept up with his recollection of last night's events. "The girls were lying. You remained to be the only one wrapped up from head to toe in toilet paper. They sent you dancing… pushing you around from one guy to another, spinning you and l-laughing."
Sheldon's voice was getting thin and he was looking downwards again. Stupefying tears filled Amy's eyes, but yet she was too upset, too shocked to let them fall.
"Eventually you got sick f-from the alcohol and all that spinning and you ran out to find the bathroom." Sheldon said. "Mark and his friends were still laughing and I… I went over to them to… give them a piece of my mind," he growled. "And to make one of the girls look after you. But suddenly, they all claimed that they barely know you and Mark even denied that he had been the one who brought you here."
Sheldon paused again to take a breath and shake his head in irritation. "I don't care who his parents are, but I will definitely tell Kingsley about the stunt he pulled." In a much softer voice he continued, "So then… I went to look for you." Sheldon swallowed. "You passed out in one of the stalls in the girl's bathroom. I… I began to remove the toilet paper from you, but you were still too inebriated to walk. So I helped you to get back to your room, put you to bed and stayed with you in case you get sick again."
Amy knew this was where the narration ended, but she wasn't able to say a word. With tears still burning in her eyes, she couldn't even bring up the strength to move a muscle. Silence filled the room.
"J-Just so you know…" Sheldon nervously spoke up again. "I didn't do anything to defile your honor. I-I slept in the chair next to you."
And after everything he just told me, he still worries that I could view him as the bad guy.
That thought finally caused the levee to break and Amy let out a strangled sob, followed by a swell of tears, soundlessly running down her cheeks and her neck, dripping down from her chin onto her knees.
"Amy…" Her name on his lips; so soft, tender and caring.
She squeezed her eyes shut, spilling even more tears as her body violently shook with sobs.
"Amy, please don't cry." he begged gently.
She hid her face between her knees, gripping her arms that she had slung around herself so tight that her fingers turned white and the skin of her arms turned red. "They hate me!" her voice suddenly broke out screechingly. "I'm so stupid. H-How could I ever think… tha-that they would like me? How could I e-ever think someone was interested in me?"
"No, don't say that. I-I'm so… sorry, Amy." Sheldon quietly mumbled. "Please, stop crying. I don't know h-how to calm you."
He was talking more to himself than to her and Amy didn't hear a word. Her sobs came so quickly that she couldn't really breathe and the pounding in her head was so intense that she was sure her brain was about to explode. "Y-You we-re right. He's-He's ba-ad for me. I should've listened. I am s-stupid and you we-were right and my-my mom was right a-and everyone w-was…" The rest of her sentence got swallowed up by another heavy sob that took her breath away.
Amy felt the mattress shift beneath her as Sheldon scrambled to sit down right next to her against the headboard. With much less hesitation than the first time he did this, he put his left arm around her bare shoulders and pulled her body close to his. Seeking his warmth, his strength and his familiar smell, Amy turned her head to press it against his chest.
Sobs still shook her, but now they were both trembling since Sheldon encircled her whole fragile, petite frame. "No one likes me. I'm g-going to be alone f-forever." Amy cried.
"Shh, that's not true." he soothed her, stroking her hair and holding her tight. His low voice rumbled beneath her ear and soft puffs of air ghosted over her forehead. "I like you." Sheldon declared without hesitation. "And I'll be there for you whenever you need me. I promise."
Amy's tears drenched his double-shirts, but she was able to calm down a bit. She released her arms from around her knees to wrap them around Sheldon's torso instead and held onto him like a drowning victim would cling to a lifesaver. "Stay with me then." she whispered brokenly. "I'm not ready to get up yet. Please… stay here with me?"
The pause was only brief. "Alright." Sheldon said then.
She loosened her grip around him so they could slide down to lay on the narrow mattress together. Sheldon above the blanket in a supine position and Amy beneath it, nestling tightly against his side, her arm across his chest and his arm around her back to keep her in place.
"Thank you." Amy whispered.
Not long after they settled down like this, she fell asleep.
The sound of a steady heartbeat pulled her out of unconsciousness.
Amy's eyes fluttered open and she instantly noticed that she felt way better than the first time she woke up.
The first time.
When she learned about all those horrible things that happened to her during that stupid party.
I should have stayed in the library with Sheldon, she thought.
It was only then that she realized, the heartbeat that still thumped in her ear wasn't her own, but Sheldon's. She was still resting with her head on his chest and felt how his arm held her close.
Amy hadn't imagined that this would feel so wonderful. Like Sheldon, she wasn't too keen on long-lasting forms of physical contact. But waking up like this, having him hold her so close that she could hear his heart beating, feel how his chest rose and fell with every breath he took… it caused her to reconsider. Sighing contently, she snuggled closer.
Sheldon stirred beneath her. "Amy? Are you awake?"
"Yes." she whispered, not to disturb the peaceful silence.
There was a pause lasting two breaths. "Don't you want to get up now?" he asked then.
"Actually… not really." Amy answered lazily. "It feels nice."
Another pause; longer this time. "B-But… don't you think it's inappropriate for us to… lay together like this?"
At that she had to raise her head to look at him. Her irritated and slightly hurt gaze met his frightened one. "Do you?" she asked him back.
Sheldon's eyes widened further. "I-I… uhm, I'm not—"
Amy swung up from his chest, shook his arm away and scrambled backwards to the opposite edge of the bed. "I understand. You don't have to say more." She turned her back on him and stopped, needing to figure out what to do next.
Should I kick him out? Should I apologize for invading his personal space for so long? Oh god, whatever you do, don't cry again, she told herself, fighting against the rising tears.
"Amy? A-Are you upset?" his voice spoke up tentatively. As Amy glanced half-way over her shoulder, she could see him extending his hand towards her, but stopping right before he made contact.
Amy shuddered. The previous pain she thought she had overcome, threatened to overwhelm her once more.
Why is this so hard for him? Why is it always going back and forth?
"Yes." she exhaled, choking on her words. "I am upset."
"Why?"
The pure innocence in his voice frustrated Amy as much as it filled her with compassion.
She snorted humorlessly. "You know exactly why or you wouldn't have noticed it in the first place." Amy got up, pulled another cardigan out of her wardrobe and dressed without turning back to him. She knew, would she look into Sheldon's face, she wouldn't be able to hold her emotions back. Tears would come as well as anger. She didn't want to be angry with him. It wouldn't be fair after he cared so well for her last night. Or was it just that; his previous tenderness and the contradicting behavior right now that made her angry?
Oh, I hate feelings! Why does this have to be so complicated?
Meanwhile, Sheldon had risen up from the bed, too. Uncertain, he stood in the middle of her room, hands pressed to the sides of his pants. "I-I didn't mean to upset you." he said. "I was just concerned about what my colleagues or the principal would say, if they found out I have spent the whole night in your room."
"No, you're lying!" Amy exclaimed suddenly. She turned around so quickly that her dark hair flew around her face. "You're not concerned about that."
Dumbfounded, Sheldon stared at her. "Amy… how dare you accusing me of lying."
"Well, how dare you contradicting yourself all the time!" she shot back; the tears were audible in her voice.
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean…" Amy stressed. "That one day you're openly defending me against stupid physics students, making sure that I get to bed safely and comforting me when I'm crying and the other day you're so anxious that you can barely stand to touch me at all and you don't even look me in the eyes."
"Amy, I just told you this has nothing to do with you." Sheldon claimed.
"But it has nothing to do with your colleagues, either!" Amy yelled trembling.
"How would you know?" The volume of Sheldon's voice increased, too, and he stubbornly crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I… I…" Amy's whole body shook, but her voice faltered. "It just has to be like that. Because once you've said you didn't care what other people think of us. You said you'd always be there for me. Why would you say those things, if you don't mean it?"
"I do mean it!" Sheldon fought back desperately. "Of course, I do."
"Well, then I'm confused! What is still stopping you? Is it because you're afraid?"
"Afraid? Me?" Sheldon's voice rose higher, as if to emphasize the absurdity of this notion. "Do you hear yourself, woman?"
Amy threw up her hands in frustration. "What else am I supposed to think? You're not being very clear!"
"What exactly do you want to hear from me, Amy!" Sheldon shot back enraged.
"I want you to decide!" Amy yelled. "I can't stand this ambiguity any longer. What do you want, Sheldon?!"
Amy's wild gaze met Sheldon's. His normally bright blue eyes were dark and they seemed to bore right through her soul. And before she could form another thought, those eyes were suddenly mere inches apart from her.
She inhaled startled as Sheldon forcefully grabbed her face between his hands… and quickly, abruptly… pressed his angry lips against hers.
His lips were hard and tight and his grip strong as he attacked her. Amy didn't dare to move a muscle; too overwhelmed by the sensation of his breath on her, his clean smell and his pressing mouth.
Seconds passed and gradually, the forceful pressing softened. Sheldon exhaled seemingly in relief and all of his tension vanished. His hands held her gentler now. Amy had to crane her head upwards as he stepped closer.
Carefully, his lips began to move upon hers. Tentatively caressing them, tasting them. Finally, Amy's brain kicked in and she involuntarily reached for his upper arms as she responded to his tiny movements.
And as suddenly as it began… it ended.
Sheldon broke their contact and quickly held her at arm's length away. Amy's breath came short and deep and Sheldon's wasn't any better. Abruptly, he removed his hands from where he was still touching her and stared at her in utter shock.
So that was it, Amy managed to wonder, my first kiss…
Well, that was nothing like the kiss goodbye in the garden shed all those years ago.
Amy swallowed and cleared her throat. "That was… that was nice." she whispered almost inaudibly.
Sheldon blinked himself back to reality. "Good." He swallowed, too. Then his hands began to tremble violently and he balled them to fists. "I… I need to go now."
Amy didn't make any attempt to stop him. Sheldon had moved around her and out the door so quickly that she only realized that he was gone when the door closed and she was still blinking into empty space.
She didn't care.
Slowly, a smile spread on Amy's face.
He's so into me.
Sheldon wants me!
Haha, it finally happened! I hope it was worth the long wait. ;) ...but now Sheldon is maybe a little panicky...
As always, please let me know what you think in a review below!