CRIMINAL

7 • Cruor

Tears prick in my eyes as I'm overwhelmed with the old safe, comfortable feeling mixed with this new negative, foreign feeling. I sniffle softly which Nekane seems to hear. "Why are you crying?" He asks softly, drawing soothing circles on my skin with his thumb. 

"Because of this Kane," I say, swallowing a sob. "I'm tied to my own headboard while laying in the arms of my husband who's a murderer. And somehow I enjoy and despise it at the same time," I say softly, trying to hold the tears back. 

He says nothing to that and I don't blame him. What can you say to that? So instead he just kisses my neck, trying to make me more comfortable. He then brings himself up on his elbows so he kinda hovers over me and wipes away the fallen tears. 

I look into his bright green eyes and for a moment I'm lost. That's what those eyes do to me. They bring me back to an easier time where I'd look at them whenever I'd wanted to feel safe. 

"So what do we talk about now?"  I ask, giggling slightly. I can't help myself. We're wandering down an empty road at 3 AM on a Thursday night, it doesn't get more suspicious than this. "How about we start with giving each other's names," He suggests with a smile, making me chuckle. I forgot we hadn't even given that to each other yet. 

"I don't know. I don't know if I trust you enough to give you my name," I grin at him, trying to somehow sound a little flirty. "You don't don't trust me enough to give me your name but you trust me enough to go on a random adventure in an empty street with no witnesses?" He chuckles as he asks me, I join in. 

"It's Juliane but my friends call me Jules," I answer him and he smiles. "That a beautiful name for a beautiful girl," he compliments, making me blush. "Right. You just say that to every girl you meet." I scoff jokingly and he shakes his head. 

"Nope, I've never met a girl with both. It's either a beautiful name or a beautiful girl. You're the first," He says smiling down at me. "SOowhat's yours?" I ask him. "Nekane, but you can call me Kane." He answers and I smile. "Is that what your friends call you?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"No, everybody calls me Nekane but I want you to call me Kane." He says and I frown. "Why?"

"Because my name means sorrow, and the last thing I want is a beautiful girl like you to call me that." He explains, almost making my heart sink. What mother would name her own child sorrow? That's horrible. 

We stay silent for a while as we keep walking down the street. Every now and then my eyes go to him but he keeps looking straightforward. "Kane. I like it," I finally say, trying to lift the mood. 

A smile creeps up his lips as he looks at me and I almost drown in his gorgeous green eyes. "You want to do something fun for our first date?" He asks, both excitement and mischievousness sparkling in his eyes. 

Wait.

"Our first date?" I ask, humor-laced in my voice. "Yeah, I consider this to be our first date." He says almost proudly, making me giggle. "Alright, what did you have in mind?" I ask and he grins at me. 

I have a friend who works the night shift in the Georgia Aquarium." He grins, making my eyes grow wide. "Kane, no. We're not sneaking into a damn aquarium at 3 AM on a fucking school night, are you crazy? What if we get caught?!" I basically shriek. 

This guy is something else alright. 

"Oh come on, it'll be fun! The aquarium is always filled with people, no matter when you're there. Don't you ever just want to be able to walk around there without a care in the world, without a person to disturb you?" He asks me and I shake my head. 

"Sure but I also don't want to go to jail," I reason and he laughs. "We'll be fine," He promises as he grabs my hand. Somehow that gesture makes me feel a lot safer, which is stupid. "Do the character from that movie of yours also break into an aquarium or something?" I ask and he laughs, shaking his head. 

"No, but a girl does randomly decide to get off a train with a stranger and discover Vienna for an entire day while she was on her way home." He answers and my eyes widen. "Jesus, I could never do that," I gush and he laughs again.

"What?" I ask smiling. "You're on an adventure with your own stranger right now," He reminds me and I nod. "Yeah but I'm not in a foreign country discovering a foreign city. I'm in my hometown, in a country where everybody speaks my language," I remark and he nods. 

"Right. But you're still on an adventure with a guy you just met and decided to leave a party with. Our party is their train. Our Atlanta is their Vienna. The only thing missing right now is having sex in a park under the stars and waking up to the sunset only to never see each other again," He tells me and I grin at him. 

"Sounds like a plan," I say and he smiles at me. "Then what are we waiting for? Let the adventure begin!" He says happily as he starts to swing our hands back and forth while starting to skip. 

I smile at the memory entering my mind. The first night we met. 

He was a crazy romantic not as in super-duper romantic but crazy and romantic at the same time. In all four years of our relationship, he'd think of the absolute craziest things to do to sometimes would make me question his sanity but it would always end up being super romantic. 

It's one of the many things I loved about him. Love about him. But I don't know if I killed that side of him when I left or if it just died off. I don't know if he found another woman in the meantime to pleasure him, I don't know what happened to him while I was gone. Neither does he know what happened to me. He didn't even know why I left in the first place. 

Right now Nekane is sound asleep against me. My body relaxed against him while my mind is racing. I know I need to leave quickly before I want to stay. Then I need to go to Miami, get all my shit out of there, and once again start somewhere new in yet another state. Maybe another country even. 

I pull at the rope again but the knot doesn't even budge a little. It's a tight as it can get. I inwardly groan as lay my head back on the pillow and try not to fall asleep. I need to be awake when it's 8 AM, otherwise, I'm fucked. 

I close my eyes for just a second as I feel them becoming heavier and the next thing I know, I open them because a bright light shines on me. 

When I open them I realize it's the sun. For a minute I don't understand what happened but then it hits me. I fell asleep. 

I immediately sit up straight as my eyes dart to the clock and low and behold, it's one PM. Fucking shit! 

"Kane!" I yell, practically scream. I need my pants now! I need that pill! I can't get pregnant! 

Nekane runs into the bedroom and freezes when he looks at my chest. Just then do I realize that I'm still naked and I can't even pull my sheets up to cover myself. I already hate this day. "Why didn't you wake me up at 8?! Get my pants now Nekane!" I yell, deciding to ignore every other bad thing about this situation. I only have one thing that is important right now. 

He takes a second before snapping out of his daze and walking over to my closet to unlock it. He walks out with my sweatpants and hands them to me. I awkwardly get the pill out of my pocket and immediately swallow it. 

"Now get me out of these ropes," I say angrily as I look at him.