THEO

Chapter 13: Florence-

They wait a couple of days at midnight to sneak through the hallways. This was starting to be a natural thing for their group and she wasn't so nervous about it anymore.
They duct under the 'closed' sign of the lakes skating arena.
"The lake is a lot prettier at night" she says as they put their skates on.
"Exactly" Blaise smiles.
They talk for a little bit until hitting the ice.
Turns out she is actually really bad at skating unlike the rest of the boys. The only other boy who seems to be struggling a little is Adrian, but even he's doing way better than her.
Draco was helping her get the basics, but it wasn't much help. Theo would steady her every now and then, obviously trying not to overstep.
Enzo finally grabbed her hand and led her to the group.
"When were you going to tell us you didn't know how to ice skate?" Draco laughs.
"When were you going to tell me y'all were pros at it" she laughs with them.
"Well I just figured everyone around here at least knew how to do it" Adrian says.
"You forget I was homeschooled and they never let us do anything other than like shop" she says.
Everyone nods with realization. They start to go again and she was left behind quickly enough.
"Love y'all too" she yelled as they snickered away.
"I'll help you" says a voice that she recognized instantly.
"Jesus Theo, when did you get behind me" she asks.
"I was tying me laces" he explains.
She tries to catch up and doesn't really make up any ground. Theo skates next to her, watching her struggle for a second before helping.
"It's like watching a dog try to ride a bike" he smiles before helping her off the ground after a kind of funny fall.
"Shut up" she laughs, trying to hide the pink on her face.
He takes her hand in his and helps her up, never releasing her hand. She almost looses balance again, but he grabs her hips and catches her.
"Focus on balance first" he says, trying to look anywhere but in her eyes.
They both are so aware and familiar with how close they are right now.
She nods after a moment, breathing for the first time in several seconds. She keeps a hold on his hand and tries to move slightly forward. He helps her in the process.
"One foot at a time. Try to go slower" he states.
She does as she's told and goes steady at first. He pushes her a little and it helps start her momentum.
This startles her at first, but when Theo notices this he looks at her and says "I'm right here, I won't let you fall" and her worries were lifted.
She starts to get the hang of it.
She looks back at Theo and smiles, still firmly grasping his hand.
They aren't quite caught up with the boys yet when Theo slips his fingers through hers. She holds on as tight as he does, knowing that neither want to ever let go.
They make it to the boys and Theo holds off to the back of the group for a little as they all skate together for a while, talking and joking in bits.
"Wanna see how fast you can go" Enzo says to her.
"I don't know if that's a good idea" she says.
"C'mon Ren" Draco and Blaise say.
They hold her hand as they take off with her.
"I'm not so sure about this" she says as they pick up to speeds she can't control.
"We're going to let go" Blaise yells.
"Absolutely do not do that" she yells back.
"Ready" Draco says. "NOW"
Before she could do anything, they let go of their grip on her. She goes flying down the lake, not having any control of her body.
Theo immediately steps up.
She doesn't slow down at all as she smokes the end of the arena.
Her body folds and pain shoots down her back and ribs. She stays in the position she fell in, gasping for air.
Theo instantly skates to her faster than he knew he could go. He crouches next to her.
"Florence" he says with a shaky breath.
His heart was pounding at the sight of her body on the ground.
He notices her short breaths and immediately takes her hand to help her through her panic attack.
"Florence, Florence. Breath with me" he says breathing in loudly.
She looks him in his eyes and breaths with him for a few seconds.
When she has enough energy to, she grabs his arm and moves his attention to her stomach. She lifts up her shirt for only a second to show him the bruises. He immediately understands what happened.
The guys finally make it over and he waves them off saying that he has her. He doesn't want them to see her stomach and he knows that she doesn't want them too either. They all give him a sincere look.
When they're a ways away, he picks her up as gently as he can. He walks back up to the tower and to his dorm.
"Ow, Theo" she says when he makes a sharp turn.
"I'm sorry. Hold on a little longer" he says as he tries to readjust her in his arms without making any sudden movements.
When he gets to the hallway where his dorm was, she asks for him to set her down.
He slowly brings her to her feet, keeping a hand on the small of her back. He stays so close to her until she lays down on his bed.
He goes to his bathroom and gets a rag with cold water.
They don't say anything as he slowly pulls up her shirt. He can't help but stare at her in the process.
He gently lays down the rag on a huge bruise across her ribs and goes to his night stand to get medicine for her. He comes back and gives her two pills.
"Should help the swelling and pain" he says.
She tells him thanks you, but the way she was looking at him, he knew she meant for the past hour. He nods and makes her a glass of water, carefully trying not to be too much for her right now.
He finally sits down on the bed next to her. There's silence for a few seconds, and he's scared she won't say anything about what just happened until she takes a deep shaky breath.
"I hit it on the ground and it stretched out. It's so sore that when that happened, it made it hard to breath" she explains.
He stays quiet and listens as he runs his fingers over her bruise, examining her.
"I told them how I wanted to go back for New Years and the ball. He was drunk and I didn't know, so he got mad and my mom had to pull him away. I told her to let him go, to let him do what he wants. I think I proved my point" she says.
She goes off, explaining every detail of how she was so scared, but hated him for it, how she yelled at him asking if he was going to hit her, how she hated him for not protecting her even though he didn't know what she was talking about, how her mom just stood by and watched, how she saw her dad hit a breaking point and take it out on her, how she had actually had hope he wouldn't do it, how it crushed her so much. He can see it in her eyes how much she needed to talk about this stuff.
Her face was hard for a second until the entirety of everything physically fell on her shoulders. He shifted her up so she was laying on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. He knew that she needed this and he was more than happy to finally be there for her this time.
She cried into him and clutched onto him.
"I didn't- I couldn't-" she sobbed, not being able to get out a sentence between sobs.
"Shhh. It's okay, you're safe with me. I'm here" he says, meaning it so much it hurts.
She does as he says, and it's several minutes before her breathing finally slows down.
He was stroking her hair, kissing her temple every now and then. That was his bodies natural reaction to her and this situation.
She looks up at him and they make deep eye contact. He almost thinks that she is going to kiss him. He wants to desperately.
"That's the night Cassius and his sister came over. I would like to think that my mom invited them to distract me from everything that happened, but I have no idea why they were over. He walked in on me crying in my bed and he just hugged me. He didn't ask or anything, he just hugged me, and at the time that meant so much to me. The next day we were talking about the ball and when he realized I didn't have a date, he was surprised and said that we could go as friends if I wanted to" she explains. "I wanted it to be you so bad. All of it, I wanted it to be you"
This sentence broke his heart.
"I wish it would've been me" he says. "I want it to be me from now on"
She doesn't know how to react to that.
"That night in the hallway-" he starts.
"I was just being skid-dish. It had nothing to do with you" she says.
"I don't care. I need you to know that I would never, ever, intentionally hurt you. Ever" he gets really serious. "You flinched and it was because of my doing. I never want that to ever happen again. You have to understand"
"Theo, I do. You're one of the only people in this world I feel safe around" she says.
Relief floods through his whole body like never before.
Before he can do or say anything, there's a knock on the door.
He stays for another second before walking to the door.
He's not surprised when Draco is the one standing outside of it. Blaise had come with him.
"Is she okay" Blaise asks.
"She's fine, just needs to rest. Please don't bother her right now. She will be up for it later" Theo says.
"We understand, we just wanted to apologize to her for not stopping like she asked. Tell her for us please" Draco says.
"I will. She's not mad, I promise" he says.
Blaise looks a lot more relieved than he did a minute ago.
"Are you sure she doesn't want visitors" Draco asks, wanting to be with her.
"Not right now. She'll want to see y'all as soon as possible, I swear" Theo says.
"I trust you with her, but it's us. She doesn't even want to see us" Blaise says more sternly.
"It's not that she doesn't want to, of course she wants to. She just needs to rest. Please trust me here, guys" Theo says.
The look on their faces seemed to be convinced.
"Is there anything else I need to know" Draco asks.
The look Draco has on his face suggests that he means more than the accident. He couldn't possibly be catching on, hopefully. Florence would be a mess if Draco found out about everything.
"Nothing" Theo lies.
Draco isn't convinced, but walks away with Blaise. They trust Theo with her, but things are starting to get suspicious.
"I hate lying to them" Florence says from her bed.
"Me too" he says sitting back down on the bed. "When do you plan to tell them"
"I don't know, whenever it feels right I guess" she says.
"Whenever you're comfortable" he reassures.
"They're my best friends, and I want them to know, but..." she trails off, not knowing how to finish her sentence.
"You care more about them than you do yourself" he finishes it for her, saying the words she never could.
"I'm not like that with many people, only the ones I truly care about" she says.
"I've noticed. It's something I love to observe and admire about you" he says.
"I love how you know me better than I know myself" she says sitting up a little straighter, a little closer to him. "You and Draco"
"Because we care about you more than we care about ourselves" he says.
She looks at him and the eye contact is louder than words. His hand resting on her leg is electric right now. She wants his touch everywhere on her. They're so close, yet never close enough.
She waits a beat before instantly closing the gap between them. There's no stopping it this time and she knew that.
They never pause for a moment as she pulls him over her. Her hands are tangled in his hair and around his face while his work around her back and still on her leg, steadying her.
She pulls him closer to deepen the kiss, wanting more and more of him. With each kiss, she feels herself let go more and more. Even with everything he did, she couldn't deny how much she wants it to be him.
He pulls her shirt up slowly, still kissing.
She feels her breath catch in her throat. He sees and pulls away. She grabs him, but he doesn't budge. They look at each other for a long time.
"Florence" he says.
She keeps staring at him. She could almost feel what he was thinking.
He kisses her cheek, and then her jaw. She leans her head back, giving him as much access as he wants. He kisses her neck all over, then pulls her shirt down to kiss her collarbone.
He looks at her one more time before going lower. She simply nods, nervous as ever.
He looks at her bruises first, tracing over them. He slowly lower his head and kisses them. He gently kisses each mark several time. He does this multiple times and when she realizes he has started to cry, she moves his head up.
She cups his face and makes him look at her.
"Listen to me. You couldn't have done anything" she knows exactly what he's thinking.
He sobs for a second before shaking his head.
"I'm disgusted with myself almost as much as I am with him" he sobs.
She can see and feel how much pain this puts him in. She knows now how true his feelings are.
She pulls him in and kisses him. This kiss was different than the other kisses. This one was realer.
He backs away, probably thinking the same thing she was; that they can't do as much as they want right now with her conditions.
He lays down next to her and they fall asleep next to each other, wanting to take the others pain away.