ABCtales serial (alternative) part 3

Gently she reached out a hand toward me and despite my flinch her fingers touched my lip and came away bloody. “Did I do that?” She asked quietly.
“It’s nothing. Are you okay?” I reached out to her but it was her turn to flinch away. Her reaction, given her earlier one, surprised me. All of a sudden I felt embarrassed. “Well, I’ll let you get back to sleep.” I stood away from the bed.
“Wait!” She had started to rise from the bed to follow but instead settled back, the duvet hugged close to her chest, “I don’t want to be alone.” She must have thought she saw something on my features because she added hurriedly, “Could you stay with me, until I fall asleep. Please.”
I looked at the old easy chair at the bottom of the bed; it certainly wasn’t the most comfortable… At that moment she had never looked so vulnerable to me and I knew that all I had to do to get even for the way she treated me in University was to simply say no.
“I’ll just get this cleaned up and I’ll sit there.” I pointed at the chair. She nodded and I quickly ducked out of the room.
When I looked in the bathroom mirror I could see that my lip was already beginning to swell. I took a mouthful of cold water to wash the taste of blood away, wincing at the sharp stab from my split lip. Fortunately the bleeding had almost stopped. I glanced at my watch 3:29 am. Taking a deep breath I stood for a time staring at myself in the mirror. What the hell had I got myself into? It had been foolish to just open my door to a perfect stranger and that was what she was, she wasn’t the same Susan Clark I’d fallen for all those years ago. I knew that too, but to me she was and always would be. I thought again of the bruises that I’d seen marring her body. What could cause them? Certainly no kind of accident. No they had definitely been inflicted but by who and why? More than ever I felt the need to ask those questions of her but I knew that it wouldn’t be wise to push her. All that would accomplish would be to drive her away and I didn’t want that. After all I was all she had.

I half expected her to be asleep when I came back but she was still sitting up in the bed, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Are you okay?” She asked when she saw me come back into the room.
“I’m fine. How about you?” I stood awkwardly, not sure if she still wanted me to stay in the room.
“Better. You can sit down.”
I flashed what I hoped was a reassuring smile and eased myself into the chair.

We sat in strained silence for a time. “You must be wondering what sort of maniac you’ve let into your life.” She said eventually.
I looked at her, looked away and then back at her. God she was beautiful.
“Everyone has nightmares.” I replied with a shrug.
“But not everyone punches their host out during one.” She said and forced a smile. Her voice was, I could tell, strained.
“It’s forgotten.” I smiled back.
She hugged her knees tighter to herself, her eyes taking on the same faraway look from earlier on. “You were my last hope.” The way she was speaking was like she was talking to herself. “I don’t know why I kept your letter all those years. I mean it isn’t like I ever felt anything for you…”
That stung but she didn’t seem to notice.
“…I didn’t think that you’d help me, after all you didn’t have to.” Her eyes focused on me and I saw the pain and tears there once more. “Why did you?”
I shuffled uncomfortably. What could I say? That I was still in love with her even after ten years? I wanted to, I really wanted to but I knew it would be a bad idea.
“Because I said I would. In the letter I mean.”
“Honour?” She asked half jokingly.
“If that’s what you want to call it.” I answered quietly. Why was she pushing me? Wasn’t it enough that I was helping her?
She leaned back and a laugh burst from her throat but there was no humour in it, “An honourable man.” She said mockingly, “what a find.” I realised then that she was mocking herself more than me.
I had to stop myself from asking her what was going on. But she must have read something on my face. “I suppose you want to know why I’m here, why I came to you.”
“I said no questions. I meant it.” I paused. “But if you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”
For a brief instant I thought she would open up to me. “Not yet.” She said eventually, “Maybe soon, but not yet. Do you remember Gavin Stuart?” The last was blurted out quickly, and it took me a moment for my tired mind to adjust.

Gavin Stuart had been another student in our English lit. Course. I could vaguely recall him.
“Yeah”
“He’s got his own IT business now, he’s worth millions.”
“You’re kidding.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“God’s truth. I met him last New Year, he hit on me. I mean Gavin Stuart!”
Obviously she knew Gavin better than I did, but then I wasn’t surprised; Susan had been very popular at University.
“It must be something about me; I always seem to attract the wrong kind of guy.” She continued unaccountably bitter.
That stung as well and I felt myself growing annoyed, why did she keep digging at me? What did she want from me?

She stretched out beneath the duvet once more, “It’s funny, but I feel safe here. I haven’t felt that in a long time.” The last words were slurred and when I looked at her I saw her eyes closed. Soon her breathing deepened and the tenseness left her beautiful features. I could have gone to my own bed then, should have in fact but I stayed in that old, uncomfortable chair for the rest of the night watching over her like some foolish knight-protector. A man of honour indeed.