Always Have and Always Will.

Chapter 7 - Under her skin

Chapter 7 - Under her skin

Peyton

I leaned against a tree in a deserted parking lot and sighed to myself. Here I was, yet again, back where everything started, the same parking lot where she drove away from me, where I drove her away from me. I shifted my weight from one foot to another as the sound of crunching gravel echoed in the empty space. A familiar throbbing pain in my right hand pulled my attention away from the scene and to my hand, which was holding a bloodied and crumpled piece of paper. As my hands worked to smooth it out and shake off the shards of glass embedded in my palm, an impending sense of dread settled itself on my shoulders as I read over the words again.

'Dear Peyton, Happy Birthday!', 'You've given me so much, so many memories that I'll cherish forever.', '-We can't be anything more than that. You're special to me and you always will be.', 'I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.'

A feeling of heaviness settled over me, making it hard to breathe as the air turned dense. I keeled over, trying to get a hold of my bearings while my hands desperately tried to hold on to my jeans, slipping off due to the perspiration that had formed on my palms, along with the semi-dried blood. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, feeling better by the second. When I opened my eyes, the ground beneath me had shifted and the gravel had been replaced by rubber mats. Standing up straighter I looked around to see how I no longer stood in the parking lot, but in the sparring gymnasium that was so familiar to me. Hands snaked around my waist and a head settled itself in the crook of my neck as someone's body pressed firmly into my back. I smiled to myself as I lifted my hand and placed it over hers as it lay flat against my abdomen.

"You know what you have to do, right?" She asked in that sultry tone that drove me wild.

"Do what?" I asked, gently pulling away to turn around and look at her. She stood in front of me in her skin tight electric blue leggings that I loved so much on her and a grey sports bra, her blond waves neatly pulled back in a ponytail.

"Let go of her, burn those memories away..." She said plainly as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't know how," I said, looking down to the ground, disappointed in my inability to do what she asked of me.

"Burn it." She said softly, as one of her hands pulled my chin up so I could look at her while the fingers of her other hand trailed down from my shoulder to my right hand, which had ceased to throb and had zero traces of blood. She pulled up my hand and gestured to it with her eyes. My gaze moved to where she wanted it to go and a lump formed in my throat as I stared at the crisp white letter which had appeared in my hand. I looked back at Amber and swallowed hard. She let go of my hand and circled around me so she was now standing behind me. Her left hand squeezed my shoulder in encouragement while she brought her right hand forward, trailing it down my forearm until she caught hold of my hand and handed me a lighter.

"It's only a piece of paper, it doesn't mean anything." She said and I took a deep breath, her scent muffling my senses. Moving her mouth closer to my ear, she continued, "Burn it, and you will destroy everything she's ever held claim over. You can finally be free." She finished and I felt a shiver run up my spine. Free? I could finally get rid of the enthralling hold she had over me? The thought felt dangerously appealing but something at the back of my head kept tugging at me as if trying to pull me out of a haze. I couldn't give it much thought before I got distracted by a wet mouth that was nestled against the edge of my jaw, right under my ear. She whispered yet another, "Do it." and I felt my hands move, complying to her demand. I looked at the paper one last time, not bothering to glance over the words, lest I hesitate.