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I woke up the next day, not remembering I had gone to sleep. I blinked, and slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on a bed, in a pastel blue room. I sat up quickly, making my head spin as well as creating a painful pressure in my side. Every part of me was sore. After putting a hand to my head to calm the dizziness, I looked around. I was confused when I saw Logan sitting next to me on the bed. He looked upset and had tear tracks running down his face, like he’d been crying. He leaned over and brushed my hair lightly out of my face, and that’s when I noticed my other hand was gently placed in his. I slipped my hand out of his grip and looked away from him. Feeling uncomfortable, I began to get up. After sliding out of bed and standing up, I wobbled a little bit and began to sway. Logan was at my side in an instant and helped me keep my balance with a strong arm around my waist. I could sense the feeling of apology radiating off of him; it was only a matter of time before he would say he was sorry. I was waiting intently because I knew he owed me at least that much. After the way he had treated me last night.
“I’m so sorry Abby,” he began, his eyes glossed over. Unfortunately for me, Logan is what you would call a beautiful crier, which only made me want him more. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions; I should have asked you first.” I nodded my head, letting him know I had unwillingly accepted his apology, because believe me, I had no choice, my heart was continuing to control my thoughts. “But….” But? I pulled away from him. What else could he possibly have to say to me? “You shouldn’t have gone off and done what you did,” I was baffled. I hadn’t done a thing, accept try and forget about him.
“Shouldn’t have done what?” I shot back, my head continuing to spin. I sat back down on the bed to stop my dizziness and waited for his answer.
“Do you not remember what happened?” he said sitting down next to me and looking me in the eye with an unexpected seriousness. “Abbey, you’ve been unconscious for two days.” I shook my head, not believing him. “Okay, well, my dad told me what you said, and I felt like a total jerk afterward. So I went looking for you and saw you running. You didn’t answer when I called after you, so I followed you.” I raised my eyebrow, and he put up his hands in submission. “I needed to talk to you. But eventually I gave up running; you do realize you need to stop eventually right?” he asked me rhetorically and continued. “After about a half an hour of waiting for you to come back, I started after you again because I started getting worried. That’s when I saw you sitting down. You were shaking and breathing heavy, and when I asked you what was wrong, you didn’t respond; you were really out of it. So I helped you up and you kind of fell into me. You were completely unable to support yourself.”
At this point in Logan’s story I was terrified; what had happened that night and more importantly, why? I lifted my knees to my chest and hugged them there, waiting for Logan to continue.
“I basically had to carry you back here,” he said, putting a hand on my cheek. “Abby, what’s going on with you?” I didn’t look at him, “I mean what’s really going on?” I was shaking slightly and honestly had no idea what was going on; that had never happened to me before.
“I can tell you my dad’s opinion, I might not be true and it might not be something you want to hear. But he thinks because of the abuse, you haven’t been eating and that mixed with the toll your body has taken and the excessive running, you couldn’t handle the strain.” Logan was so blunt about it. That’s what caught me off guard; I sniffled, beginning to cry. He sighed, “My dad was right, wasn’t he?” Logan pulled me into his lap and let me cry into his chest. He just sat there as though taking it all in.
This couldn’t be happening; it wasn’t supposed to be this obvious how upset I was. He wasn’t suppose to know how screwed up I am. I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the drastic change in our relationship over the past day. Sticking with me like he had, made me realize he really was right for me. But it also made me feel unbelievably guilty. He shouldn’t have to deal with my problems; we’d only known each other for a little over a month now. I knew then that I really did love him; it was unlike I’d ever loved anyone before, almost a surreal love.
He pulled away from me. “I already asked my parents, and they’re ok with it, so no excuses. You’re staying with us; those people aren’t good for you,” Logan said with stern eyes. I wiggled out of his grip at these words.
“What about my brother? He came here to make sure I was okay, I can’t just leave him with them,” Logan sighed.
“I thought I said no excuses,” he said sarcastically, “Of, course he can stay over here all he wants, but we don’t have enough room for him to sleep over.” I sighed in relief and sank back into his embrace. Logan tightened his grip on me. “Do you want me to come with you to get you things?” he asked softly. I went ridged; I couldn’t face my parents with this. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. I know it’ll be hard for you, but it’s something you have to do.” He rubbed my back and hushed me when I began to shake.
After placing me on the bed, Logan got up and grabbed a hold of my hand. “Come on,” he whispered. Everyone knows what happened, and they respect you and your privacy, you’ll be fine,” he led me out of the bedroom. All eyes were on me as I cleared the doorway, but written on their faces, instead of pity, were genuine smiles. Logan’s family really knew how to make a girl feel welcome. I gave a small, barely visible smile of my own and continued following Logan into his parents bathroom.
“I can imagine you’ll want to clean up?” he asked.
