Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

“You’re alive,” I said. “That’s a start.”

“Barely.” Kennedy’s hair was plastered to her sweaty forehead. She looked pale, too.

I ran my finger across her face, pushing the hair out of the way. She flinched back at first from my touch, then gave me a small smile. “I think my mom wants to burn your house down, for the record.”

“What’s going on? Are you sick?” Her head had felt like it was on fire.

“Yeah. My mom has me taking some new meds and she said this was normal, but it’ll pass in a couple days.”

“You ever consider just… not taking the medicine?” I asked.

“Not really. Mom says it’s the only thing keeping all my conditions in check.”

“But she has never let you see a real doctor about these conditions, right?”

“My mom is a nurse.”

“Yeah, I remember. What’s the worst that could happen, though?”

Kennedy looked slightly disgusted. “I don’t know. One of my conditions could kill me?”

“Fair point. What if you just cut out a couple pills at a time. Figure out which ones are giving you the shittiest side effects and start taking them again if you start to feel weirder.”

“That sounds really dangerous.”

I shrugged. “If the alternative was being stuck in a wheelchair with a fever and whatever else you have going on, I’d say a little danger is a small price to pay.”

Kennedy looked thoughtfully to the pill bottles by her vanity. “I’ll think about it.”

For the rest of the week, I made a routine of bringing takeout to Kennedy’s after practice and sneaking it in her window. For an overprotective nurse, her mom did a really terrible job of looking after her. So, I filled in where I could.

I brought her chicken noodle soup. I hardly ever got sick, and when I did, I never wanted to eat anything. But Kennedy seemed to appreciate the food. It also gave me an excuse to hang around in her room.

Two days later, I let myself in while she was still sleeping. I figured if she didn’t want me to come in, she would’ve kept her window locked. Then I noticed she was lying in bed with the covers down to her thighs. She was also wearing a long t-shirt and a pair of dark blue panties, which I could clearly see because her shirt had ridden up above her belly button.

A decent guy would’ve looked away, or maybe pulled up the covers. I never pretended to be a decent guy, so I enjoyed the view, feeling my dick harden. Kennedy was the first and only girl who had ever tried to hold me to a higher standard. Maybe that was what kept drawing me back to her. She was like the only fucking mirror in the world clear enough to show me what a piece of shit I was.

Maybe that should’ve scared me away, but I liked the sting of it—of seeing who I really was.

After I’d had my fill, I kicked the foot of her bed. “I brought some subs. You hungry?”

She groaned, sat up, and then looked down, hastily pulling her shirt down. She shot me a questioning look. I responded with a shit-eating grin and a nod. I deeply enjoyed watching the red creep into her cheeks.

“The window as unlocked.”

“Yeah, well, you could’ve—”

“I did wake you up,” I said, shrugging. “Want help with your essay, or not?”

Once she recovered from her irritation with me, she got a strange look on her face, setting her feet on the ground.

“What?” I asked

“Watch this.”

Kennedy didn’t just stand. She hopped to her feet, spreading her arms and biting back a smile. I stared for a few confused seconds, realizing she wasn’t swaying or looking faint.

“Holy shit,” I got up, squeezing her in a hug and lifting her. Her small body felt so fucking good in my arms, and it took all I had in me not to throw her on the bed right there and get a repeat performance of what we’d started in my bed—except this time we wouldn’t be interrupted.

Kennedy pushed me back though, sitting back down as her expression fell. “I don’t get it, though.”

“You stopped taking some of the meds, right?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s nothing to get, then. The dizziness was a side effect. So you can ditch the chair now if you stay off that pill. What about your other symptoms?”

“The usual stuff. Tired all the time. Achy. Weak. But I can walk,” she added with a bright smile. “It’s so crazy. The last time I could do this… I was probably like, eight years old. I still remember when the dizziness first started, because it was just a few weeks after I tried to run away.”

I crossed my arms, leaning against her dresser. “Sweet, innocent Wheels making a run for it? I call bullshit.”

She flashed a smug smile, flicking her eyebrows up. “Nope. I really did. I had this crazy dream that my dad was back. And I—” She trailed off, picking at her fingernail in her lap.