28.9.08

awakening

Bex was still in limbo. So to speak.

Oliver had managed to make a meal out of potatoes and chicken broth with a left over onion that Bex didn't even know she had that night.

She felt so, not herself. He was really coming through. It surprised her. He hadn't gone off to smoke pot with Nelson. He'd made sure her hand was bandage up. That the bed was made and..and why had she expected less?

It was a lot to absorb.

It really hadn't sank in that he wasn't just a friend. Not anymore. Not since that weekend. She'd expected it to be over. She guessed. Bex didn't know what to expect now. Somehow, he'd seen the future and he came back for her, anyway. There he was on a Saturday morning sitting in the bedroom floor sketching the whole bed frame out while she was gathering her mess of clothes and putting them in the other room for the time being.

"No, no I don't want you to look," Oliver was all smiles. "You'll just have to wait."

He'd found the black paint that Dayton never got around to using on the old table he promised to to make new. Oliver stood by the pile of wood out back just in his loose khakis and barefooted for the longest time just smoking cigarettes. But this was from the pack he kept with his things that he only smoked if he was an absolute nervous wreck. Now he smoked to think, and she was sure this was as far as it would go.

But then he started pulling pieces from the pile and bringing them in. He was going to build it right there in the bedroom.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Absolutely." He grinned as if she had no faith in him at all.

"You're sure you're not on anything?" She had to ask. She couldn't help it.

"What?" He slightly scowled. "Absolutely not."

Bex could see she'd hurt his feelings. She left him alone after that. But he was like someone different. Not the Oliver from the library. But someone with determination who didn't eat nor sleep. There was something that just kept him going. Bex was afraid he'd wake up sometime, and realise she really wasn't worth that kind of love.

She wanted to watch, but suspected it was best not too.

4 comments:

Cate said...

I developed a liking for the left over onion.

I wonder when Oliver will wake up. If he wakes up. What will make him wake up.

UmassSlytherin said...

aww...such a melancholy chapter! but very good. as I said before, you have a great talent for food imagery. It's very philip roth.

excellent, cait! can't wait for more!

Anonymous said...

tag your it:)
1.Link the person who tagged you.
2.Mention the rules on your blog.
3.Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4.Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Yesha said...

aw @ Ollie. hope he could make it perfect for Bex, for them.