The Drastic
She was in the middle of practicing how to walk with her cane when there was a knock on the door. She paused mid-step, considering whether or not she actually wanted to open the door. Then she sighed and hobbled toward the door, slowly opening it.
Evin stood there, a tray held in his arms. He glanced down at her and her cane.
"How is your leg?" he asked her softly.
She blinked at him suspiciously. His soft, concerned voice was quite different from the tone he took when he flirted with her.
When he saw her suspicion, the corner of his mouth quirked into a roguish smile. That was something she was more used to.
"My leg is fine. What do you want?"
The rest of his mouth folded into his smile. "I brought you lunch."
"How nice." she said in a voice that said that she did not really think that was nice at all. "Here, I'll take it, and then you could leave--"
"I've also come to keep you company." He said.
"No, that's really not necessary." she said quickly, shaking her head.
"Thorn." He tilted his head downwards until she glanced up into his eyes. "Why don't you just stop pushing me out the door? Because I'm not going to go away." he said gently.
"Until you get what you want." she said, turning away.
"And what is it that I want?"
She didn't reply.
"I don't want anything from you."
She let out a laugh that was so bitter that it hurt her own ears to hear it. "That's a joke."
"Is it?" Evin asked her evenly. "Because I'm not laughing."
She gazed up at him uncertainly, not sure how to reply. She took a step back into the room, once again forgetting about her injured leg, and lost her balance.
There was a clatter as the tray with food fell to the floor. Surprisingly, she did not join it.
Evin peered down at her with a look of concern. "Are you all right?" he asked her as he carefully set her back on her feet again.
Thorn closed her eyes for a moment, resting a hand absently on Evin's shoulder. "Damn it." She murmured quietly. She opened her eyes and shook her head. "I'm such an idiot."
"No, you're not." He told her soothingly. "You just need to practice walking backwards with your cane." He glanced at the spilled tray of food. "Well, there goes lunch." he said.
They both stared silently at the splattered lunch.
"Perhaps you'd like to go--" He began tentatively.
"No." she interrupted.
He raised his brow and shook his head with exasperation. "You didn't even let me finish my sentence."
She smiled with satisfaction. "No, I didn't." she agreed.
The corner of his mouth twitched with the effort to keep in his laughter. But then he just gave up and laughed.
Strangely enough, she found that she wanted to laugh with him. She squashed down that feeling immediately. She realized that she still had her hand lightly on his shoulder and jerked it away.
"I've got to stop leaning on you." She said quietly. She glanced around and then took a careful step backwards, smiling when she found that she was able to do so without tripping.
"Sometimes, it's good to lean on people other than yourself." Evin said.
Her smile dropped. "Sometimes you don't trust people enough to lean on them." She retorted.
"Perhaps you just haven't met the right people." He replied.
"Perhaps I don't want to." She rejoined.
Evin tilted his head and glanced down at her, scrutinizing her. He gazed at her silently for several long moments.
"Stop staring." she finally said, flustered.
He held up his hands to her, palms upward. She stared at his hands suspiciously, almost expecting another flower. He saw the look, and she saw the corner of his mouth folding into his familiar roguish smile. Then it disappeared and he grew serious.
"Have I don't something to offend you?" He questioned.
She didn't reply.
"Have I done something to anger you?"
She glanced away.
Evin put his thumb under her chin until she was gazing at him again.
"Have I done anything to upset you? Anything at all?"
She did not like the way this conversation was going. She wanted to step back again. But then she might trip.
"Or maybe it isn't something that I've done." Evin went on ponderingly. "Perhaps this is the way you handle everyone?"
She pulled away and saw his hand reaching toward her again, this time she grabbed his wrist first and glared up at him. "How I choose to handle people is my business. Maybe you should accept the message and just leave me alone." she snapped.
Evin gave a silent sigh and stepped even closer to her. He knew that she was not going to give in and open up to him unless he did something drastic. "You're a cowardly b***h, you know that?"
Thorn's eyes widened in surprise. "Excuse me--"
"No, no more. Do you think that life is that simple? That you could just snap insults at people that you don't even know just to make them stop bothering you? Just so that you could retreat into your own little world with plants?" he asked, incensed. "No, sorry." he said flatly. "Life doesn't work that way. You can't just shut yourself off from things you fear. You've obviously been hurt, badly, by people in your past."
"No. Stop it." Thorn turned her face again and shut her eyes. "Shut up. You don't know anything."
"No, I won't. You just want me to stop because you know I'm right." he continued to press her. "You've had some bad experiences in the past, and now, because of them, you shut yourself off from the rest of the world and refuse to let them in. You don't want to risk the chance of being hurt again."
"No! That's not true! Shut up!" Thorn slowly slid to the floor and covered her face with her hands. Her brown hair fell in a curtain around her face.
"What were your words? A weapon to be used and abused? Well, maybe you're right. But how do you expect to change that? How can you change that at all, when you yourself are the one who is shutting people out without even getting to know them? People who could help you become more than a weapon. You hate your position, but you've locked yourself in it because you refuse to let people in and help you."
Evin knelt down next to the girl. "Thorn, open up and let people in. Otherwise, how are they supposed to help you?" He pulled Thorn's hair away from her face to glance into her teary brown eyes. He caught a trembling tear with his fingertip. "How are they supposed to help you? And most of all, how am I supposed to help you."
Evin tenderly put his arms around Thorn and let her cry her silent tears into his shoulder.
~~~~~
A.N.- Well, what do you think? Did Evin go too far? Or was doing the drastic the right thing?
I hope everyone likes this chapter.
~Krizsta
