As soon as Evanne dropped his hand, Noah regretted his reaction, but before he could try to take it back, she was off, pacing the room and not meeting his eyes. His eyes locked on the blood swiped across her forehead that she didn't seem to notice. His blood.
"God, Noah. Do you realise I've loved you since we were kids?"
That grounded him. Through the sedatives starting to swim through his thoughts, he tried to get a word in edgewise. "I didn't-" he started, but Evanne continued.
"Pamela has nothing to do with this!" he countered. His voice was too loud, but he couldn't stop himself once he had started. "You know damn good and well that I don't care what the whole town thinks. At least not when it comes to you!" She was trembling as she spoke back to him, and he lowered his voice to respond. "I never thought of you as a one night stand. I thought it was the beginning; I never once considered that it would be the end."
"I know that we made a mistake..."
A mistake, he thought.
"We were both hurting. I thought Aaron had just broken up with me... but he hadn't." Just like that, she was crying, and Noah felt guiltier than he'd ever felt before.
"Aaron?" Noah vaguely remembered something about them being together, but he'd been so busy pining after her that he hadn't thought of Evanne wanting anyone else, much less being in another relationship.
"That was my mistake. I should have made sure. He came over like everything was fine and... I just had to run... I swear I didn't know I was pregnant," She spilled. Noah's tongue felt heavy, his mouth not ready to form the words he truly needed to say. "I'm sorry... I-I can't do this right now and you need to rest. I... I'll be back okay? I need some air." She was rushing away, and his body was cemented to the bed, weighed down and made immobile by the drugs beginning to kicking in.
"Wait!" he called. "Evanne!" He reached out for her with his good arm, but she was long gone. He was alone in the room, the painkillers numbing his shoulder, waiting uselessly for something to happen or to fall asleep.