Page 18 of Bleed Me

A gentle, angelic smile crossed her face as I sat. I don’t know what I had done to deserve it, but I was rewarded with a tender kiss.

She was so wholeheartedly breathtaking to me, I literally patted my chest, promising where she would be, forever. “Right here, Delilah.”

Those big, golden-brown eyes teared up. “I know.”

My chest tightened. “Why are you cryin’?”

She tenderly admitted, “I don’t have cramps, Kenny.”

“W-What? Then why did you say—”

“I need to talk to you.”

Her words put me on edge, but I nodded, willing to do anything she asked of me.

“You know how sometimes you experience… time loss?”

Her knowledge of something I wasn’t ready to deal with was like being electrocuted. “How do you know about that?”

That is when my naïve veil—the one I had hanging between Delilah and me—began to fall…

Laced with sadness only her closest friends or family could hear, she told me, “You sometimes don’t remember us doing things. You sometimes claim to have been sleeping.”

I could barely breathe. “What do you mean?”

Even though everything she was saying was alarming to me, she was utterly calm. “Well, I wasn’t sure, but…” She pointed to her laptop for me to see, but I couldn’t move. I didn’t dare see the typed words on her laptop screen.

Delilah didn’t give up. It was as if she had made up her mind to make me see what I preferred to be blind to. “I think I’m understanding more now.” She placed my water bottle on her desk, then took possession of my hands. “See, when you think you are sleeping or simply forgetting where you are, there’s another side of Kenny that comes forward.”

My ears rang as blood rushed through my veins. “No.”

Her incredible lips trembled through a soft smile. “It’s happened to others, too.”

I could barely get my throat to operate—lubricate—in order to speak. “O-Others? What are you trying to say?”

“It’s okay, Kenny. Look at me and remember who I am to you. How much I love and adore you.”

She loved me.

“Thank you,” she said with relief.

I could feel the tidal wave about to drown me. I could feel the ocean of lost memories booming forward. No matter what was coming, though, I needed her to know, “I love you, Delilah.”

A hiccup of air escaped her as if fighting so many emotions it was impossible to count. “I know you do—”

Boom! The slamming sound echoed from Delilah’s front door. The loud noise was followed by Viola’s hot temper flaring. “Delilah! Where are you?”

She was the last person I wanted to see right now, but I followed Delilah as she ran into the hallway, replying, “What’s wrong?”

The moment of the final unveiling had arrived.

Viola, now at the top of the stairs, was frozen in place. She took one look at her best friend, then her vengeful eyes found mine. “What did you do to my friend, you bastard?”

Delilah’s shoulders seized with guilt, so I made her face me. When I turned this young woman around, I finally saw sunken eyes, pale skin, and a sadness that was haunting.

Is this because of— “Did I hurt you?”

Delilah was already shaking her head, but now I could see she was lying.