The next morning, I was sitting beside Ashley, who was still asleep, my elbows on my knees and hands underneath my chin. I had carried her into a guest room that we had just in case there were any guests who were staying the night. I kind of struggled a little bit, though. I didn't really have a good idea of what I was doing, and I had a hard time trying to not have her hit anything. After a few minutes of trying to get up the stairs, I finally reached the guest room. I laid her down gently, taking off her shoes and putting her underneath the covers. She immediately snuggled up and let out a content sigh. I had smiled to myself, and kept watch over her, making sure that whenever she started to shake again, I would be there, hugging her, comforting her.
I was tired, but I found it worth it, for some reason. Even though I had stayed up for basically the entire night. I looked up from my seat, and I saw that the sky outside was starting to brighten. The sun started to shine in through the window, and I stood up and left. I didn't want to be seen as a creep for watching over her while she slept, because that would be a whole lot of questions that I wouldn't know how to answer and overall just a very uncomfortable situation. I also wanted to make her breakfast, to show my appreciation to her for how she had taken care of me.
I went downstairs and into the kitchen, washed my hands, put on an apron, and cracked my knuckles. "Let's do this," I said.
A few minutes later, I had everything that I needed to make a good breakfast. I started to crack some eggs, pour some flour, and mix the ingredients all together. I made sure to turn on the stove, and I put a pan on, leaving it there for about a minute. I went to the fridge and took out a pack of bacon, opened it, and set it on the counter next to the pan. With the pancake mix done, all that was left was to cook it. I took out another pan and turned the stove on for that as well. I put the pan there and let it warm up. Meanwhile, I went over to the other pan, putting some bacon on it. As soon as the bacon hit the pan, it immediately started to sizzle and cook, and I smiled to myself. I guess I've improved my cooking skills, I thought. The other pan had seemed to warm up for enough time, so I poured some pancake batter onto it, and I set aside the bowl of batter for later use. I got out another pan and got to quickly making some scrambled eggs, cracking the eggs and whisking them all together before taking some cooking spray and spraying the pan. I poured the egg mixture onto the pan, and I let it sit there for a little bit.
I heard footsteps on the stairs, and I turned to look. There was Ashley, still kind of asleep and a little bit tired. "Morning, Ashley," I said, waving at her and smiling.
"Good morning, Chris," she said, yawning and putting a hand up to her mouth. Suddenly, she seemed to wake up a little bit more, and she said, "Chris!"
"Y-yeah?" I said, flipping over the pancake and bacon pieces. "Is something wro-?" I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and hug me tightly. "A-Ashley?" I raised my arms up to make sure that the spatula I was using to make the pancakes didn't get any batter on to her. "Are you-?"
"You-you scared me, Chris," she said, her voice full of tears. "When you fell…and didn't wake up…" Her body started to shake a little bit. "I thought…I thought that you weren't going to…" She started to cry, and I set down the spatula and turned off the heat on the stove. I turned around and hugged her. I didn't say anything, and I just comforted her, held her. Eventually, she stopped crying, but she still held onto me. "Are you okay with this?" she asked me quietly.
"Yeah," I said, and I tilted her head up to look at me. "I'm your friend, Ashley, your best friend, even. I'm going to be there for you even in your darkest moments, okay?"
She nodded, her eyes red and puffy. "Okay," she said, and she leaned her head onto my chest.
I smiled to myself, and I said, "But for the moment, could you let go now? I've got to cook our breakfast."
"Ah," Ashley said, and she let go of me and backed away immediately. "S-sorry," she said, her face flushed with embarrassment.
I laughed, but it wasn't a mean laugh. "It's okay, Ashley," I said, smiling at her. "You don't have to apologize for anything. Now sit down and watch the magic happen."
She went over to the table and sat down, and I started to cook the food again, kind of upset that the food wouldn't be as fresh as I would have liked it to be. But I decided to work with it, and soon, it was all ready. I took out two plates, loaded them up with pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and took them over to the table, setting them down in front of Ashley and where I was going to be sitting.
She looked at the food in wonder. "I didn't know that you could cook, Chris," she said, sitting down and staring at it even more. "It looks…really delicious."
I gave her a fork, a glass of water, and sat down. "Well…I hope that it tastes as good as it looks," I said, flashing her a smile. "Enjoy."
She hesitantly picked up her fork, cut off a small piece of pancake, and put it into her mouth. She chewed for a few seconds before her face lit up. "This is very good!" she said, and she started to eat more. "Careful," I said, laughing a little bit. "Don't want to have spilled food all over the place." I still wasn't really sure how I was going to bring up the fact that we were soulmates, and as I watched her, I couldn't help but smile at the way that she was eating. It seemed…really cute. I stood up and made another pancake, this time for me, and as I waited, Ashley walked over to the sink and started to do the dishes. "You don't have to do those, Ashley," I said, turning to her. "I can do those later-"
"It's okay, Chris," she said, and she smiled at me. "But I feel bad for not really helping you do anything this morning. Can I please do this at least?"
I sighed. "Okay," I said. I didn't try to fight her on this, and she continued to wash the dishes. I finished making my pancake and got out a plate and fork, so that way I could start eating. I sat down at the table and was about to start eating when I heard something shatter. "I'm-I'm so sorry, Chris!" she said, her voice panicked. "It was an-"
"It's okay, Ashley," I said, and I got up as quickly as I could. "Just don't try and pick up the-"
Ashley cried out in pain, and she dropped the shard of a plate that she was holding, and immediately, I grunted in pain as the exact same wound appeared on my hand, and I immediately grabbed some napkins and wrapped them around my hand to stop the bleeding, and I said, "Hold on, I'll go get the first aid kit." I ran to the laundry room where we kept it, and I ran back to the kitchen where Ashley was sitting down at the table, holding a few napkins over the wounds. "Okay, I'm going to have to clean the wound to make sure that it isn't infected," I said, opening the kit. I winced every few seconds as the wound in my own hand was hurting, too. The napkins wrapped around it weren't doing it any favors at all. I took out a bottle of disinfectant and a roll of bandages. "This is going to hurt," I said, popping the lid off of the bottle. I offered her my uninjured hand. "You can squeeze this so that way you can focus on something else other than the pain."
She nodded, and she held my hand. I carefully lifted the napkin off of her hand and poured some disinfectant on it. She grunted, closing her eyes and squeezing my hand really hard while I also winced as well, the burning feeling being felt on my hand, too. I poured a little bit more onto it and got to work cleaning up the wound with a cotton swab. After I had done that, I got out a cloth bandage, tore some of it off, and put the piece onto the wound. Then I got the other bandage and began wrapping it around it, making sure that it was tight but not uncomfortable. She looked at my hand and realized that it was bleeding. "Chris, your hand-" she said, her voice full of alarm.
"It's okay," I said. "It's not that serious." That was true. "Don't worry about it, I'll make sure to take care of it right now." I poured a little bit of disinfectant over it, and I noticed that Ashley had winced as the disinfectant cleaned the wound, feeling the pain. "So, uh…Ashley," I said, still bandaging my hand. "Have you noticed anything…weird…happening lately?"
She looked at me, her head tilted in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean, Chris," she said, confusion also in her voice as well.
"Well…" I put my hand on the back of my head. This was not how I expected this conversation to go. "I mean, have any weird things been happening to you, lately?" I tried to elaborate. "Like, things that can't really be explained, sort of…you know, supernaturally?"
She thought about that for a moment, then she said, "Well…something has been happening to me…" She took in a deep breath before continuing. "I've been…getting hurt when I haven't even done anything to hurt myself, happening almost out of the blue. And…it happened yesterday, too…after you fell and hit your head."
I unconsciously put a hand up to my own head, but she didn't seem to notice that. "I've noticed these for a while now…" She looked up at me, her eyes full of questions, confusion, and fear. "W-what's happening, Chris?"
I took a deep breath, and then I said, "Well…" Ah, fuck it, I thought, and I said, "Ashley…we're soulmates."
For a few moments, there was silence between us. I wondered what she was going to say. Her expression was…unreadable. Then finally, she spoke. "S-soulmates?" she asked, confusion and even more questions in her eyes now. "What…why do you say that?"
I looked at her, a little bit relieved that she didn't just flat out say something else. "Well…I think it's better if I show you," I said, and I poked an area where my hand had been hurt, and Ashley immediately winced and grabbed the spot. "Ow," she said, her voice full of pain. She looked at me. "Did you-?"
"Ashley, this is going to sound weird, but I want you to touch a part of your hand where it hurts," I said, and she looked at me as if I was crazy. "Please, just trust me on this." She hesitantly looked at a spot on her hand and poked it, and immediately, I felt pain in my hand, almost making me grab it. She looked at me, then she looked back down to the spot where she had touched. "S-soulmates," she said softly to herself.
I smiled, relieved that she had understood. "I don't know why we are," I said, and I put a hand (not my injured one) on hers (the uninjured one). "But it doesn't change the way that I see you." That was true. I still saw her the same way. "I'll always be there for you, okay?"
She nodded, and she said, "How…how long have you known?"
I scratched the back of my head. "Well…about that." She looked at me, her head tilted. "I didn't really know how to talk to you about this, and I found out….about a month ago. I thought that things would go wrong…and things wouldn't be the same if I had told you about it…"
Ashley smiled, and she giggled. "You worry too much," she said, looking at me. There was only kindness in her face. "You're too hard on yourself. You're still really shy…I'm still really shy. I don't think that I could have told you about it, either. And…" She took a deep breath. "I'm glad that you told me. Even though it took you a while to do so."
I felt my face begin to flush red, and I quickly stood up. "I have to put away the first aid kit," I said, rushing over my words. "I'll be back in a few minutes." I grabbed the kit, not before making sure that I had everything in it first, then walked away quickly. As soon as I was out of sight of Ashley, I leaned against the wall and put my head into my hands. "Shit," I said, my voice muffled, and I could feel the redness on my face. "You don't see her that way, Chris. She's just a friend. She's just a friend."
That was true. I still saw her just as I had always seen her: an amazing person, so kind and thoughtful and full of quiet, yet beautiful energy, and someone that I could be with when I can't be around others. She was someone that I wanted to be with.
My feelings, however, told me something else entirely. I was in love with Ashley Hendrickson, and I didn't know if I could keep it hidden for long. I leaned the back of my head against the wall, my entire face red and burning. I put a hand to my forehead.
Turns out the stupid nurse was right.