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Nine
     
    I spent most of the day with Bud and
Face, working on a surprise for Abby. Then I waited to see her. She
didn’t come back to her room until evening, and by then Bud and
Face were gone. But they didn’t intend to stay, anyway. This was
about me and Abby.
    She didn’t seem to be confused like
she’d been earlier. Somewhere between then and now, she’d gotten a
little stronger.
    “ What are you doing here?”
she asked.
    “ I’m making an
apology.”
    She clutched her middle. “I don’t
forgive you.”
    I deserved a swift kick to the heart,
so I stood there and took it. “I don’t expect you to come running
into my arms. I know I need to earn your forgiveness.”
    Tears pricked her eyes, the dampness
emerging like pinpoints of light. “Go away, Seven.”
    “ I can’t.” I wasn’t going
to give up that easily. This was our first fight, the only falling
out we’d ever had.
    “ I don’t want you here.”
She tightened the hold on herself.
    “ If I leave now, neither
of us will ever get over it.” I could tell that she still loved me.
It was evident in every fragile move that she made, in every blink
of her eyes, in every catch of her breath.
    I still loved her, too. Nothing could
ever make me stop. “Please, let me make it up to you.”
    “ You were mean to me. You
aren’t supposed to be that way.”
    “ I’m only human.” Or as
human as a hallucination from Room 105 could be. “People make
mistakes.”
    “ What if you get mean
again?”
    Clearly, she didn’t trust me. “I
won’t, I promise.” I couldn’t bear for her to become paranoid of
me. “I would die for you, Abby.”
    She shivered, the chill going straight
to her bones. “Don’t say that.”
    “ But it’s true. I’m alive
because of you. You created me. I owe you everything.” My heart, my
soul, my life. “You’re my world.”
    “ You’re mine, too, but
that doesn’t make it any better.” The lights in her eyes, her
tears, threatened to fall.
    I tried for a smile, my secret charm.
Or so I hoped. “I have a surprise for you.”
    “ What kind of surprise?”
She sounded curious, but cautious, too.
    “ Come outside with me and
I’ll show you.”
    “ Outside
where?”
    “ In the
garden.”
    “ It’s not open at
night.”
    “ I know. That’s part of
the surprise. Us sneaking out there together.”
    She appeared to be considering her
options. Was she wavering, deciding if she should grant me the
forgiveness I sought?
    I held out my hand, waiting to see if
she would accept it.
    She stepped forward, and my pulse
jumped to my throat. Finally, I was making headway, inching toward
my goal.
    Our fingertips touched. Heat.
Electricity. We gazed desperately at each other.
    “ Seven.” She said my name
in the softest of ways.
    I opened my arms, and she walked into
my embrace. I wrapped myself around her, holding her as close as I
possibly could.
    Nothing had ever overwhelmed me more.
She’d created me, and I was healing her, taking away the pain I’d
caused.
    “ I’m so sorry,” I
whispered.
    “ It’s okay.” She put her
head on my shoulder and suddenly her tears began to
fall.
    I held her while she cried, running my
fingers through her choppy hair. I loved her messiness. I loved
everything about her.
    “ Abby?”
    “ Hmm?”
    “ Can I kiss
you?”
    She raised her head. Her face was
streaked with salty rivulets. But she smiled anyway.
    “ You can kiss me from now
till eternity,” she said.
    “ Then that’s what I’m
going to do.”
    Were we actually saying this kind of
stuff to each other? It sounded like the script from a cornball
movie. We probably looked as if we were filming one, too. Bud
would’ve been proud.
    Our mouths came together, our tongues
meeting in passion-drenched need. An image flashed into my mind:
the honeysuckle flowers that grew wild on her aunt’s property. When
we were kids, we used to pluck them off their vines and suck on
their sweetness. Abby tasted like that, only sexier.
    She