Rebecca definitely seems a bit different than when I had first met the woman. A week ago, she was wanting to steer clear of me. From the beginning, she was afraid of me, thinking I was some horrible person that wanted to hurt her. She ran from me, yelled at me to stay away, and all around, wanted me around her as little as possible. I still remember her trying to 'escape' from the house, only to run into that nasty dog, once again. That first day had definitely been a handful on me and her both. She was very resistant to my help, for the most part.

Even with that first night, after I had helped her with her injury and she'd expressed that she wanted me to stay with her, she was very resistant. I offered to stay with her that night, to make sure she'd be okay in a bed by herself, but she expressed, ever-so-strongly, that she wanted to be alone, and didn't want me anywhere near her as she slept. Although I was a little worried about her, I stuck to her wishes and didn't stick around. I went back to my own room and slept, the door open, in case she got into trouble and needed some help, whether she wanted it or not. She did, after all, still have one bad arm.

Now, however, she was a little more forward with me. She came to me, all the time. She woke me up in the mornings, dragged me to the kitchen when she wanted food, asked for help when she needed to climb on something really high for her or needed up to the sink to get something down or wash her hands after going to the bathroom. She even 'puts me to bed' at nights, pulling me into my own bedroom and then leaves to go get in bed, herself. Her attitude is still there, so every one of those things is more like a bossy demand than a simple request, but it's a lot different than it was.

I suppose that's why I'm surprised that she wants to talk to me so much, about me. She has never expressed any willingness to talk much about herself, and she's never asked about me before. There's no attitude in her voice, just innocent curiosity. I have no problem talking about myself, but I am just surprised. I'm also curious and excited, to be honest. I've been interested in her past since she got here and I noticed how much shorter she is than most people. I'm aware that she doesn't remember much, but anything is good. Talking about myself for a little while is more than worth learning more about her.

It doesn't take us long to finish lunch. By the time she's done, she jumps off her chair and grabs onto my arm, pulling me out of mine. “Come on, let's go talk now!” In the middle of a bite, I nearly choke on it as I stumble out of the chair and walk behind her, being drug into the hallway. “H-Hey! Rebecca! Slow down!” She looks back at me and laughs a little. “What? You can't keep up with someone 1/3 of your own size! How sad is that?! Now, come on. I want to talk, and we're doing it now!” My jaw drops as soon as she throws that joke out to me. I want to laugh, but I also want to not believe she'd just said that. She is definitely more comfortable around me now. I start to wonder whether that's good or bad.

I stay behind her, letting her guide me through the hall and into the living room. If she's so adamant about talking and learning about me, I'm curious as to how much she'll divulge to me about her own life, her own past. I start to grin as we make it over to the couch and she climbs up onto it. Taking a seat on one cushion, she lets go of my hand and pats the other. “Sit here, right next to me, big guy!” I bite my lip, trying not to laugh at her overly-energetic attitude. Sighing, I sit down, next to her and look down to her. My eyebrows raise a little as I ask. “So, what did you want to know?”

I hear a loud slapping noise as her right hand pats down on the pants-covered section of my left leg. She looks up at me, raising her own eyebrows, trying to imitate the expression on my face and begins by saying the one word that I was hoping she wouldn't say. “Everything!” I blink and am not sure I quite understand it. “E-Everything?” “Yes! Everything!” she replied. “If I'm gonna have to live with and put up with you, I wanna know as much as I can about you. All I really know right now is that you live here, out in the middle of nowhere, and are a nice person who helped me! So, start telling me about yourself! Where'd you grow up? How did you get here? What do you normally do out here?”

She is throwing a lot of questions at me, and I'm not sure which ones to answer in which order. “Whoa...slow down, Rebecca. I'm, well...you know my name already. I guess I can tell you a little about me. Um...” As I think about my answers, I feel her other hand on my leg. She's looking at me, with an oddly enthusiastic look on her face. I almost think that I should ask her is she's feeling alright. She's never been this interested in me, or given me so little attitude, outside of when she was hurt and was clinging to me after I'd fixed her injury. Nonetheless, I continue. “Well, I guess I can start with where I grew up.”

My arms cross across my stomach as I begin talking about myself. “I was born up in Anderson, a good hour's trip from where we are, and I grew up in a small town called Paulstown. It's not anywhere near her. It was a small town that housed about a thousand people, give or take a dozen or so. That's where I grew up, with my mother. The father had been around, too, but I spent most of my time with Mom. I never really got along with Dad for a long time. He always seemed so...” I take a moment to pause, thinking about the relationship between my father and myself. It's not a very pretty one, and I would prefer not to bother Rebecca with all of this.

“..anyways, I came here after I started going to college. I didn't want to live with the family anymore. I wanted to live out here, away from them, and making something for myself. I wanted to make a life that I could call my own, and not just follow in everything the family put in front of me. So...that's how I got here.” Rebecca's elbows were now on my legs, her palms against her chin as she looked up at me, as if she were some intrigued child, listening to their parent tell them a story about their past. The girl's dress was leaning dowards, a tiny bit of her cleavage in view, as she called up to me. “What about your Dad?” she asked. “He always seemed so what?”

Looking down at the curious-happy beauty, I reach down and pat her head, feeling the softness of her hair with the palm of my hand as I lean back and start talking further. “My father and I...we didn't get along very often. Let's just say...it's something that I'd rather not experience again. Anyways, my daily life here usually went from exercising, eating, playing games, submitting those reports to work that I showed you the other day, and before you came here, that's about it. My life wasn't really all that exciting.” This made her look up, pushing my hand away from her. “Was? You mean...it's more exciting now? Because I'm here?”

My face gets a little red at her pointing out the fact that I indirectly told her that she is the reason my life is more exciting now. Not really able to get out of it, I nod my head in agreement. “Well...yeah. Having you around has made every day a lot more fun. I don't know what will happen, when you're here. I don't know if we'll help you get settled in, or if you want to do something new, or if we'll end up learning more about one another, like we are right now. You being here has made my life a lot less, well...lonely and consistent.”

Her face makes a smile as she sits up. Looking up at me, our eyes meeting, she lets out a big grin, taking one hand to push some of her dark-brown hair out of her face. “My life is more exciting and fun, too! You're not like Melissa was, Trent. You're nice. You let me do stuff I want, and you don't make me do things that I don't like to do or don't want to do. You help me and stuff! I like being here, with you. You're a lot more fun than she was.”

The fact that both of us are enjoying this little thing of 'living together' makes everything so much better. It's good to know that the enjoyment of this scenario isn't just one-sided. Slowly sliding off the couch, I kneel in front of it , bringing my face down to her level. “I'm glad you're enjoying my company, too, Rebecca. Speaking of what you mentioned...why don't you tell me a little more about you? You learned a little about me, and now I'd like to know more about Rebecca.”

Rebecca's face went blank for a moment, before she brought her hands together, as if she were getting ready to pray. “Umm...sure! I don't remember very much, but I'll tell you what I know!” Her attitude about her past seems to have changed today, or maybe she's just more willing to talk, since I told her a good bit about my own past. No matter the reason, a grin comes to my face, happy that I'm about to learn more about her...