Knock. Knock. "Gemma?"
"What?"
"Can I come in?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, pretty sure." I'm laying on my bed with my eyes closed and a wet cloth over my forehead. It's been 3 days since that weird.. thing happened, and I've had a dull headache ever since. I still can't tell you what happened, cause I still don't remember. I groan as I hear my door open. Damn the non-locks in this place. "Can't you leave me alone?" Jackson sits on my bed beside my feet. "Besides, you're not supposed to be up here, remember?"
"No one's here to get me in trouble, so it doesn't matter."
"Where'd everyone go?"
"To the city for some Christmas shopping."
"Why didn't you go?"
"I don't like crowds, plus I volunteered to stay behind with you."
"How noble of you. Now go away."
"So rude." I roll my eyes but stop because it hurts my head. "Your head has been hurting."
"So?" He's silent for once, which is a nice surprise.
"I could help, if you wanted."
"I already took an Advil."
"That's not what I meant."
"What did you mean then? I'm not in the mood for riddles."
"I meant that I can take your pain away, for good." Despite myself, my curiosity gets the better of my mouth.
"How?"
"Let me show you and you'll see."
"Fine, go ahead."
"Scoot over." I move to let him sit beside me instead of at my feet. "Relax." I put a conscious effort into relaxing, and it finally works. I feel all of my muscles relaxing one by one, from my toes to the top of my head. "Don't move." I wasn't moving anyway, but I do as he says. I feel the tops of his fingers move in circles around my temples. Everywhere he touches me feels warm. I begin to panic as his fingers start to feel hot. "Shh, don't fight it Gemma." I want to make the feeling go away, but I make myself lay still. He does this for a couple more minutes, then finally takes his fingers away.
"What'd you do?"
"Your headache is gone." I start to tell him that no it's not, but I stop and realize, it is gone indeed. I sit up, without pain, and look at Jackson. He looks pale and he's sweating. I frown.
"Are you okay?" He smiles.
"Sure." I don't believe him, but I don't press the issue. I've learned that badgering him just makes him more quiet about what I want to know.
"What did you do?"
"I did what I said I would do, I took your pain away."
"How?"
"That doesn't matter. What matter's is your headache is gone." He gets up and walks to my door, kind of wobbly I notice, then stops. I get the feeling he wants to say something, but instead he closes my door and leaves me alone in my room. How odd. I shake my head, which doesn't hurt at all, and get out of bed. Now that I'm feeling better I plan to take a long, hot bath and make myself something to eat.
Before I can take one step I get this sensation as if I'm falling. I grab onto the wall to steady myself, but realize it's not me that's falling, it's Jackson. I open the door and stagger to the stairs, using the wall for support. I make my way down the stairs to the guy's floor to see Jackson laying on his stomach, blood seeping from his forehead.
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