02

I scanned his entire face without missing any detail. When I looked closer, I noticed that he was much more attractive. He was really handsome.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked amusingly, pulling me out of my ponderings while a crooked smile came out of his mouth.

"Ah. . . ah. . ." I babbled. I closed my eyes tightly and turned my face away. I heard him laughing.

Damn it! What a shame.

"Shall I help you get up or can you do it alone?" He asked, but I didn't look at him. I won't look at him to spend another embarrassment.

"I can by myself, thank you" I felt like hitting myself for sounding so nervous. I tried to get up, but I felt my knee numb. I made a grin of pain when I felt it and I better stayed in the same position as before.

"Well, I don't think so. Let me help you" he said giving me his hand to help me to get up.

I hesitated a little, but I finally took it. When I got up, I couldn't stretch my leg, so I had to keep it bent upward by holding my weight on one foot. When he noticed it, he grabbed my arm so that I wouldn't lose my balance and fall again. My body trembled as I felt his touch.

"Come with me," he said, pushing me to walk beside him. I stopped dry.

"Wh-where?" I sounded more scared than I expected.

"I'll cure that for you," he replied in a kind tone.

"Ahm, no, no thanks. I-I'm fine" I said trying to sound determinant, but it came out awful.

"No, of course you're not. You are bleeding" he said looking me directly.

"But, my mom's waiting for me at home" I lied. Even nervousness took hold of me preventing me from pronouncing the words correctly.

"I'm only going to cure you" he smiled at me. I swallowed hard and he scoffed at it. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out of it. It was like he had a power to make me act this way. I took my eyes off him because he was affecting me more than I'd like to accept.

"I think I'd better go. "

"I won't let you go like this" He took me by the shoulders. I lifted my face to look at him.

Oh, God. Why is this happening to me?

"And besides that, you can't even walk, how do you plan to go at home?" he said raising both eyebrows eloquently.

"I can jump" I tell him, while I do a little demonstration. He laughed making me smile. Her laugh is beautiful.

"Oh, right, when you get home you let me know," he said, in a tone that seems sarcastic to me.

"I will," I said the same way.

"Come on" he insisted "If that wound gets infected I will not forgive myself because it was my fault that you stumbled" I made a nervous face and denied with my head its clarification "Come on, I have an emergency kit in there, I'm not a professional at all, but I can do something about it" he says to me as he points at my knee wound.

My parents always, from my childhood to this day, have told me not to trust strangers, who are never to be trusted. Maybe he's the kind of guy who pretends to be good in movies and turns out to be an abuser or something much worse, or maybe he's just a product of my paranoid mentality that makes me think 10,000 times about something before I do it.

I have to think about the possibilities, maybe this guy in front of me has the best intentions in the world and just wants to help me, something in him makes me confident enough to accept his offer to come into his house, but another part of me tells me that I shouldn't, that I should trust what my parents have taught me and not trust strangers, but do I have a choice? I don't know, I'm not thinking clearly, not when these intense green eyes are staring at me.

"Okay," I said quickly, accepting his proposal and repenting instantly.

He gave me a smile from the side and moved to stand next to me. I was surprised at how he grabbed me by the waist helping me get up, as I didn't have enough strength in my leg to do it.

Control yourself, Marylise! Control yourself!

I was telling myself as I tried to walk to the boy's house with his help. As we walked past me, I looked backwards, finding Delilah at the window making an expression of total emotion, her mouth open, her eyes like dishes and her hands on her face said it all.

At that moment I thought, why didn't I just go back to her house? Why am I breaking into a stranger's house? Why did I say yes? I'm afraid.

When we entered, he helped me to sit on one of the armchairs, which was still covered by a blanket that protected him from the dust.

"Sorry about the mess. It's just that I just moved in and. . ."

"No, no. Don't worry" I interrupted "It's okay" I faked a smile by making him smile back.

"I'm coming now," he warned "I'll get the first aid kit" I nodded and he left.

While he was going for the medical kit, I took a look at the place. The whole living and dining room was covered with boxes and more boxes. The furniture had a battered blanket over it and, I swear, there were spider webs in the corners of the ceiling. But I don't blame him for that, since he's just moved in, I don't think he's had much time to clean up and tidy up the place a bit. If I remember correctly, this house was alone for more than 3 months, its condition is understandable.

"I'm back," he announced, as he arrived in the living room.

He put the first aid kit on the small table in front and opened it. He took out a gauze, cotton and what looked like a wound sanitizer. He wet the cotton with the solution and squatted in front of me.

"Tell me if it hurts, okay?" I nodded at him. He took the alcohol soaked cotton, but when he got to my knee he stopped. I looked at him confused "Can you lift your skirt up a bit?" he asked, looking me in the eyes.

What? Did he just ask me to. . . ?

“Uh?” I inquired, frowning my frown in confusion. I can swear my face was utterly terrified at the time.

"Yes, your skirt is too long and won't let me clean the wound," he explained. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought. . . Oh, God! I have to get those ideas out of my mind, I have to trust him, he won't hurt me. . . I hope.

"It's all okay?" He asks, curious I suppose, because of the gesture of terror and panic that invades my face.

I swallow hard.

"I can tell you're very nervous, are you okay? Do you want me to call a doctor? Do you feel well?" He asks me, restless, looking for my eyes with his, but I dare not look at him.

I hear him releasing a deep exhalation and withdrawing, leaving the disinfectant cotton on the table and turning towards me again.

"My name is Harry, I'm 24 years old, I just moved in. . . " He pauses a little and it's until then that I dare to look at him "I like to play the guitar, there it is stored" He points to the black case that is reloaded on the dining table "sometimes I sing" he smiles and pauses again, frowning his eyebrows thinking and sighs "It's hard to talk about myself I don't know what to say anymore. I guess that's enough, I'm not a complete stranger anymore, am I?

I withdraw my gaze.

How did he realize that precisely because he's a stranger, I'm afraid of him just seeing me? I don't understand.

"You don't have to tell me your name or anything, I only told you to you could know the name of your kidnapper. "

My eyes open like dishes and a hasty aspiration makes me drown a little. I hear a laugh from him as I begin to hyperventilate.

What the hell am I doing here? I have to go, but now!

"Wait, no, it was a joke, I'm sorry" He hastens to clarify when he sees that I am trying to escape by my own means, while he stops me from my arms with his big hands "I'm sorry, it was a bad joke" he apologizes "I just wanted to lighten the situation, but it didn't work" He sighs and looks me straight in the eyes "if you want to leave, it's okay, I just want to help you" he lets me go "I won't hurt you" he turns to take a new cotton with product and shows me "if you want to do it yourself, here is it"

I inhale and exhale a couple of times before I make a decision.

I took the edge of the skirt and lifted it up a little to show the wound on my knee. He looks at me for a moment, his eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer. I withdraw my gaze. I hear him whispering an "Okay" before he prepares to clean my wound. He put the cotton on my living skin and started cleaning it. Immediately I felt a burning in the area causing me to jump and make a grin of pain. He stopped.

"Did it hurt?" he asked, looking at me with concern. I nodded "I'm sorry, it'll only be a little" he apologizes, but I sit back, giving him permission to continue.

He left the cotton on the table behind him and took a local painkiller spray before applying it to the area. At first it burned very little but then the feeling was refreshing. He left the spray and turned to me.

"Now we have to wait a moment for the anesthesia to take effect" I nodded. He sat completely on the floor for a more comfortable position. Place one of her hands on her chin and her elbow on her thigh as a support as she watches my wound carefully.

Observing it well does not look like it was someone bad with intentions to hurt me, maybe I was just judging it by the fear that my parents instilled in me since I was a child, that all the people who come near me that I do not know are bad, maybe they were just saying it to protect me and not trust people so lightly, because you do not know who may have good intentions and who does not; in this case I doubt that he is a bad person, if he was I would have done something or given clear indications, so far it has only been he's good with me, he's funny, charismatic and he has a strange sense of humor but he's kind of cute, he's just helped me and I shouldn't be rude to him, he doesn't deserve it for the way he's Maybe, just maybe, I should behave the same way with him so I don't get rude.

"My name is Marylise. " I present myself, in a voice so low and weak that I doubt he heard me quite well.

The boy in front of me watches me, I swear even a little astonished by my sudden words. I notice how he sketches a smile from the side, revealing only one of his dimples.

"It's a pleasure"

I smiled shyly.

"All right, Marylise. I think that's it" He takes a new cotton and looks at me, arching his eyebrows, asking permission to continue, I sit in consent and he prepares to continue cleaning the wound "This time it doesn't hurt so much, does it?" he asked smiling from the side. I said no with my head.

After several more swabs and a cleaning session for my bloody knee, he put on a gauze to cover the wound.

"Ready," he said at the end.

"Thank you" I said with a shy smile on my lips.

"Don't thank me" he smiled at me "I'm the one who left all those things watered over there. It's the least I could do" He shrugged.

Well, he's partly right. I fell because I stepped on one of his watered things on the sidewalk, and also because I was looking at him like a fool without noticing where I was walking. I smiled back at him.

He got up, took all the things he used to clean me up and set out on his way, I guess to throw away what's useless and put away the first aid kit, but I managed to stop him.

"Hey. . ." I'll call him

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. " I apologize, receiving a gesture of confusion from him.

"Why are you sorry?"

"I don't usually trust people much, especially if I don't know them and I'm sorry if I judged you without knowing you, although I don't know you yet, but. . . " I let out a sigh to calm myself, as I was speaking very quickly. I turn my gaze to the floor before continuing "that’s all"

"No, don't worry, I understand perfectly, it's not easy to trust these days, don't worry," he gives me a sincere smile. "In fact, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything"

"Okay, it's all right" I'll answer the gesture.

"Okay, I'll come, I need to save this" He announces and I respond with a nod, that's when he leaves.

While he was away, I got up from the chair and noticed that I could support my leg a little, it still hurt, but not as much as before.

As he entered the living room and saw me standing, he frowned. I didn't need to know him my whole life or be a genius to know he was upset.

"What are you think your doing?" he asked as I saw him. Seeing her expression and hearing the tone of her voice I felt the blood leaving my body and I felt fading.