And then he stopped. Shane leaned his forehead against mine, breathing heavily, our eyes still closed, and he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"Astra," he mumbled against my lips. "Please don't hurt yourself."
And all at once, his body fell l...
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C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - O N E
S h a n e ༶ ｡
The conversation with the policeman was actually quite interesting; he wasn't British, but his mom had been, growing up in a small town and mainly being exposed to his mom's dialect, thus his accent. I waved farewell to him and used the spare key under the mat to open the door. If Father was home, I didn't want to alert him to my presence - or give him another excuse to pick on me.
"No, I don't know where he is, Annie... yes, yes I've phoned the police, you know how they are, they said he was on his way back... no, yes, yes... no..." my mother's worried chatter halted as she turned to look at me when I walked into the kitchen.
"Oh... he's just come back! Bye, yes buh-bye." She hung up the receiver, and ran towards me, embracing me in a big hug. She clung to me tightly, holding me like if she let go I might disappear forever.
She pulled me back at shoulder-length and glared at me with stern eyes.
"You stupid boy! Where have you been, I was so worried... I even phoned Kyrie and he had no idea where you were. I've phoned the police about twenty times and... Oh God," she pulled me in once again, her vanilla smell engulfing me. It was a nice smell, and I burrowed my face further into the crook of her neck.
"I can't believe... how on earth did an elevator stop working? There was an amber alert for you and some other girl at first - you have no idea the amount of panic you put me into! I thought you'd been kidnapped! Oh gosh, I thought I'd never see you again." She wiped a tear from her eye, stepping back as she covered her quivering lip with her hand, her brown eyes wide and glossy.
"Mom, don't cry, it was just an electrical-"
"Shane, man, don't even bother," Vince interrupted and rolled his eyes as he wheeled his way into the kitchen over to the fridge. "She's been crying all night, for fuck's sake she hasn't even slept. She was gonna race over when she found out where you were but then she was told the police were bringing you over anyway and that there was no need to worry."
He grabbed a yoghurt from the lower shelf and shut the fridge door. He wheeled himself over to a drawer, holding the worktop and used it to propel himself forward. Vince went speeding across the kitchen to the cutlery drawer. He rattled it and after much consideration, took out a silver spoon. He pointed it in my direction.
"If you ask me, I think it did him some good. He'll learn not to go poking his nose into places where it shouldn't... go..." he glared at me, his jaw set in a stern, straight line. He's talking about the time I'd snooped around his room and found out about his secret relationship. He still wasn't over that. "Anyway, did you have a nice little night with your girlfriend? I hope you used protection-"
"Shut up," I muttered, clenching my jaw.
"That's what he probably told her to do when she moaned too loudly-"
