seraphic [h.s]

chapter fifty six.

A strangled groan came from behind Mae and her and I both focused on who it had come from. Dee, her sleeping form had rolled to the side and her arm was half hanging off the couch. It were a prime position for her to soon be woken up with a throbbing pins and needles sensation.

"Might move her to her room, she'll be more comfortable there." I said lowly, approaching the armchair to where Dee was crouched upon. "Yeah that's a good idea." Mae agreed from behind me.

I bent down, carefully sliding my hands beneath Dee's body, making sure to do it all gently. Scooping her up, I held her close to my chest and smiled at the way she looked so peaceful. I missed the girl now sleeping in my arms. I missed my best friend, and I couldn't understand why my younger self never appreciated her the way she should be.

"The one on the left, at the very end." Mae told me, pointing down the hallway to Dee's room. "Thanks." I whispered, beginning to make my way through the apartment.

Dee's dark hair cascaded down my arm and I felt proud to be able to see the years of growth that she was made up of. I'd known her for the important parts of my life. I'd seen her grow up, with me no less.

I'd seen her as a teenager, with neon elastic bands in her hair that she now wouldn't be caught dead wearing. I'd seen her get walked over by boys, I'd seen her feel her true self when talking to girls. I'd seen her have almost the same home life as I did.

Yet now, she was sleeping peacefully in my arms, and all of our wonders from years ago, of sitting in her brightly coloured room and wondering how life would pan out for us, seemed to all come together.

I'd veered from Dee so many times, but through it all she was still there for me. She let me do my thing, and if ever I returned, she'd be there. And she always was. I wondered how she did it. How she didn't completely give up on me and the disappointing burden I carried that would seem to spread and latch onto anybody I loved so they'd feel it too.

The woman in my arms had been through shit, as had we all, but she was strong and fierce and independent, and it was as I nudged open her bedroom door with my foot that I realised something.

That in all of my years of having a failure of a home, of being overlooked and happily left behind by the people who had raised me, it was only now, after I'd hit rock bottom and tried to push my way back up, that I was surrounded by the two strongest women I'd ever known.

Mae and Dee, the both of them, each had a power so strong, strong enough to tackle everything they thought they couldn't. They were the epitome of what would raise good children, their morals and qualities. They were everything I had been lacking, everything I thought couldn't exist in a life like mine.

I took soft steps over to the double bed in her room, which was decked out in dark colours and a far cry from the room she'd had as a teenager. It made me smile, the fact that I'd once had the privilege of knowing that version of her too.

Pulling the sheets back from one corner, I placed her down gently, her body immediately snuggling into the comfortable mattress. She rolled to one side, hands tucked underneath her chin. And as I lay the sheets back over her, I knew I would do everything in my power to make it up to her, to make her feel the same friendship and love she'd always had for me.

Leaving her to it, I backed out of the room as quietly as I could, shutting the door softly. My heart beat a little faster now, my blood feeling more alive as I realised the only two people awake in this apartment now was Mae and I. Even though it had been that way before, something felt different as I made my way back down the hallway.