Fresh Start [C.L]

5.9- Necklaces & Home Visits

After everything went black, I regained consciousness again. There was two track paramedics by my side along with my friends. They checked me and asked me a few questions and then allowed me to go back to the hotel. Charles helped me in and out of the car and once we were all in the lobby he offered to take me up to my room. I nodded and he guided me to the room.

I sat on the bed and he offered me a bottle of water. My head was banging but I felt a lot better and everything was back to normal again.

"You scared me" Charles said.

"Yeah, it doesn't happen that bad very often" I laughed.

"Since when do you have these?" He asked.

"A couple of months after we broke up, it's nothing too serious. Something I can get under control easily but I've just been so busy these past days that I forget to eat properly" I explained.

"Busy avoiding me?" He looked down at his shoes.

"I'm not avoiding you Charles, it's just everything is so confusing" I sighed.

"It doesn't need to be" He protested. I took a deep breath and I felt a sharper headache than the one I was already experiencing since the track. Charles noticed me wincing a little.

"Do you need anything?" He asked.

"My head hurts, there's a bottle of pills in my suitcase. Can you hand me one?" I said. He nodded and he rummaged through my suitcase in search of the pills but instead pulled out a Cartier jewelry box.

"Oh, no that's not it. I'll take tha-" I interjected but he had already opened the small box. His fingers ran through the necklace and his eyebrows scrunched together. He looked up from the box and stared at me confused.

"Is this- is this the necklace I gave you in here 5 years ago?" He asked.

I looked around the room thinking about what to say. "It is" I finally admitted.

"You kept it? You keep it on you?" He asked, his eyes showing what I could only guess was hope.

"I thought about returning it to you or never using it but every time I tried to I just couldn't. It was a piece of you, of us and it was too much to let go of" I explained.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he closed the box and set it on the table. He walked over to the bed and took a seat next to me.

"Are you just going to pretend forever that we shouldn't be together?" He asked.

"Charles" I groaned.

"No, Liv. I get it, you want this perfect life that Theo can give you. He is safe, there is no risk in choosing to love him because everything is so well planned out and I get it, with me you don't have that. You fear we will just burn out but I think five years apart have shown us that we love each other just the same" He said.

I place my face on my hands as I feel an overwhelming wave of emotions.

"I- I don't know what to say" My voice was shaking.

"We can make it work Liv" He took my hand. "Let's just run away together and never look back"

I began crying, it seemed like something I was doing quite often since I was reunited with Charles. "It's too late. We are too late Charles"

His face hardened. "Bullshit" He spat. "What happened between us Liv? You sat there and you told me that you loved me, that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me and that we would find our way back to each other. Was that all a lie?"

"I made the best choice for us both" I almost whispered.

"That's not true, you made the best choice for yourself. You made the easy choice"