The Only Exception

CHAPTER 3

"No, I'll wait here for in case I see Jordan." I tell her, not even sure if she can hear me over the music.

"Okay but don't move I mean it; I'll be 2 minutes".

As I lose her in the crowd, I look towards the kitchen again. I can easily recognise the muscled back and dark hair of the man facing away from me. His dark brown hair styled perfectly. My feet move towards the kitchen before I can think twice about what I'm doing. It would be rude not to be polite and say hello to the man who practically saved my life right?

"Hi" I announce loudly, louder than I mean to. I step inside the small space, locking eyes with the burning pair which send a rush of shivers down my suddenly cold spine.

"Avelyn?" Joshua seems very surprised to see me and his blonde friend which I know notice standing beside him seems just as puzzled. He is the only one not holding some kind of drink and he looks incredibly handsome in his all-black outfit. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to say hi" I pause when he lifts an eyebrow, my goodness he looks so attractive when he does that.

"How much have you had to drink?" he asks placing his hands on my shoulders, warming my skin and stabilizing me as I stumble when I try to step towards him.

"Only like 3" I say as I attempt to hold up three fingers which ending up being a lot harder than it looks when you can barely think straight. I feel his rough hand wrap around my wrist as he drags us away from the observing people.

"hmm yeah sure" he says chuckling as he stares down at me. "What are you evening doing here?"

"Me and Jordie go wayyy back" I say swaying "oh no I need to find him and Stella, I told Stella I would wait for her" I try to pull away from him which makes him grip my arms even tighter as the room spins around me. Everywhere he touches me goosebumps appear and makes me feel even more lightheaded than before.

"Come on, let's get you sobered up" He says as he guides me back into the kitchen.

I watch him as he grabs a glass from one of the presses and fills it with water from the tap. His face looked broke out in a smile as he passed the cup to me, the way he looked at me made me feel as if it was just the two of us in the world like we were the only ones that existed.

"Come, follow me" he says as he places his hand in mine and pulls me towards him through the busy crowds of people dancing.

We carry on walking till we reach the top of the staircase as he pulls me into one of the rooms which leads to a balcony overlooking the ocean.

"Imagine getting to wake up and have this view every morning," I say as I walk towards the opening and take in the view. "Let's play a game".

I hear footsteps approaching from behind and he leans against the railing next to me, out of the corner of my eye I see him looking down at me.

"What kind of game?" he questions as he leans slightly over the railing letting his arms dangle while looking down at the crashing waves. I stare at him the entire time; he probably knows I'm staring but he doesn't seem to care.

"We each take turns at saying a truth out loud, something that no one really knows about you," I say.

"Honesty, I like that".

"I feel like everybody fakes who they truly are when deep down we're all the same amount of fucked up, but by saying the absolute truth I know you for you and not who you pretend to be you know?" I reply.

He stares at me for a moment "Okay, I'll bite. Tell me a truth, something you're not proud of".

My eyes follow the line of his jaw, the curve of his cheek to the outline of his lips. His eyebrows are drawn together in contemplation. I think about my truth and give an honest answer, when I come up with one, I look away from him and back out to the beach.

"The man who was attacking me – Chris, he was my ex-boyfriend, abusive ex-boyfriend. He used to beat the shit out of me every day and if I tried to leave him, he would threaten to kill himself, I obviously didn't want someone else's blood on my hands, even if it wasn't my fault, so I stayed. 'I'm sorry' he would say after every time it happened, but every time I wiped my tears and looked into his eyes, I never saw regret, I saw guilt. Just a boy who was sorry for all the wrong reasons. It was never a good relationship to begin with I was sixteen when I met him, it was never healthy or strong. But it was the only bond I seemed to know."

Joshua looks at me with a thoughtful expression. There's something about him, something so enchanting, mesmerizing. Perhaps it's his dark hair or brown eyes, or the way he smiles at me. But my heart almost explodes when he is around. "Sometimes bad things happen to people who do not deserve it, but how we cope after they've happened it says a lot about a person's character and I'm immensely impressed by yours.

"Your turn" I tell him.

He sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair. He opens his mouth to speak but clamps it shut again then he finally speaks "When I was seventeen, things had gotten really bad and my mental health deteriorated, I thought there was only one way out, so I tried to jump off a bridge and end it all. I was about to until my friend Jamie stopped me and talked me out of it. It was pretty hard, but I've gotten much better since then."

Jesus. I was not prepared for something so heavy.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger eh" I say elbowing his arm, attempting to make light of what he just told me.

"Did you just quote Kelly Clarkson after I tell you about my near-suicide" he replies turning to me with a shocked look on his face as he attempts not to laugh.

"I guess I just did".

"I knew I saved your ass for a reason," he says, now laughing as he copies my mannerisms in elbowing me back. I look up at him smiling and he faces forward to look at the view.

We both stand on the balcony in silence; I feel slightly sobered up as I look at the view of the nearby beach lit up by streetlights. I think about how sometimes I would walk to the beach and watch the waves crash along the shore and thank the universe because even though sometimes life hurts and even though sometimes it feels like nothing is going right, I am still breathing. I am still here. The universe makes no mistakes.

"What's your colour?" a stupid question I ask nearly everyone.

He looked at me with a confused expression. Chuckling he answered me. "What do you mean what's my colour" a soft gleam in his big brown eyes as he stared into my hazel ones.

"I mean what is your colour! Mine would definitely be green. But not just any green, like sage green, that's far too eye-catching and I'm nothing of the sort. Maybe emerald green or forest green. Hmmm, actually you know emerald, green, just like my dress.

But as he listened to my ranting about nothing and everything, his face shifted, a look of confusion placed upon it. "You're wrong" was all he muttered.

"I'm wrong?" I question.

"That is what I said".

"How could I be wrong about my colour; I know it by heart," I say confusion now placed upon my face also.

"I mean you're wrong about not being eye-catching, you caught my eyes at the first glance I helped you that night and they still haven't let go" he whispered softly.