“Buggar off?”
“I read it in a book. I wanna be left alone.”
“I would love to do that. But you’re ill. I don’t think you should be left alone. Now, sit up and drink these.” He waited for her to obey.
Instead she rolled over and blew a raspberry at him.
“That was mature.”
“I’m sorry, maybe you should have kidnapped someone else if you wanted someone ‘mature’.”
North let out a small sigh. “I’m trying to help you.”
“Don’t care. Go away. I wanna be alone.”
Fine. He walked out of the room and shut the door, storming off. But as he left the building, a wave of something hit him. What was that?
Pity?
Worry?
Surely not.
But, turning, he made his way back to her. As he opened the door, he heard her sob. Then a running noise. Walking into the room, he found her back in the bathroom, bent over the toilet.
This time, when she stood, she would have fallen over had he not rushed forward and grabbed her. He helped her rinse out her mouth, then picked her up and carried her to the bed.
Her head lolled back against his arm as though she couldn’t hold it up.
“You’re a poop-head,” she grumbled.
“I know.”
“Don’t like you,” she added as he tried to sit her up so he could get some liquid into her.
However, she wouldn’t cooperate.
“I know. But why don’t you try and get better to spite me.”
Tears suddenly filled her eyes as he held up the bottle of water.
“What’s the point?” she asked. “Everything just always goes to shit, anyway. I wasn’t meant to have ordinary or normal.”
“You want that?” Didn’t everyone want an extraordinary life?
“Oh yes. Imagine how nice it would be to be normal. But I won’t ever have that. Because stuff like this keeps happening to me. I must have done something awful in another life.”
“That’s ridiculous. We aren’t reincarnations. Now, drink.”
“No. Go away, poop head. I want Theo and Theo.”
“Theo and Theo?” he asked, confused as she reached for her whales.
“Wally and Wallina.” She gave him her back again. “I’m just gonna lie here with them and die.”
Fuck.
For the first time in a long, long time, North was worried.
