Picture Perfect

15.

~Kyler~

"Come on boo, lets be quick with this. I gotta get back to the gym for our first day of boot camp to enhance our performance so we have a good chance at playoffs, what do you want?"

"I told you not to go to the store for me..." she whines over FaceTime as she lays in my bed on the side she's claimed as hers for the past couple of weeks.

She groans in pain.

"What's up baby? You what do you want?" I ask again.

"Chocolate. The bake at home croissants from Trader Joe's? The frozen one. And some oatmeal, the maple and brown sugar packets.

"You said Target." I remind her.

She remains silent.

"Alright fine. It's gonna take me a little longer to get back then. I want to hold you baby. I'm sorry you're hurting. Use my heating pad for now."

My big sister used to have bad periods just like this. I would always feel so bad. When she was living at home still, I would cook all her food for her during that week the same way my dad would do for my mom. And if I knew I had practice, I'd meal prep for her a day or two before.

I guess we could consider acts of service my love language.

I get back home to find her balled up in the corner of the bed groaning.

I crawl in bed behind her and wrap my body around hers.

I take advantage of the length of my arms and reach down to rub her thigh gently.

"I'm sorry you feel this way boo." I do my best to comfort her.

"It's not your fault."

But it is. All of this is my fault, the fact that for more than a month now we've been playing hide and seek with our relationship while she publicly has to play happy in front of millions of people on tv just about every other day so she doesn't get her ass beat by that motherfucker.

I kiss her shoulder and just rub on her.

She rests her hands on top of mine and then she turns over to face me.

"You're so sweet. Thank you for my snacks." She smiles interlocking our hands.

"You know you got it with me ma." I kiss her forehead. "Why you didn't grab the heating pad?"

"I couldn't find it." I kiss her lips.

I get up and grab the box from under the bed. I move around to where she is laying. I pull the dresser out a bit to plug in the pad.

"Rollover baby." I push her body over a bit to put the pad under her and then I move her back on top of it and cover her with the blanket. "You cozy?"

"Very." She giggles staring me in the eyes. She pulls me down on top of her. I get cozy with my legs on either side of hers. "Where'd you learn all this anyway, your ex put you through a course on a woman's time of the month?"

"Nah." I shake my head. "My sister used to go through it bad, like you."

"Your sister? You never said anything about having siblings? It's just the two of you?" She looks intrigued.

"It was just us two yes. She died many years ago."

Her expression saddens.

"What happened to her?"

I can't tell her that. Or can I? Should I? Maybe she'd learn a thing or two from the situation? Nah, that's cruel. It would be cruel.

"Kyler?" She wears an expression of concern.

I interrupt her thought by kissing her.

She lifts her hands in reaction to rest them on the sides of my face.

She feeds into the kiss and things get too hot to stop.

"Wait, I'm bleeding though."

I look down at her now exposed being and the little specks of red already on the sheets.

I just stare into her eyes and try my hardest to let her know with my look that I really don't give a fuck.

She makes tiny scratches on the backs of my shoulders as she bites her lip and I hold her gaze as I move into her.

~Sam~

He unhooks his teeth from my neck as he grunts harder while catching his breath.

"Fuck, I don't want to go anywhere." He mumbles.

"Me either..." he pulls away and climbs off the bed. The lower front half of his body is painted a pretty shade of red, almost reminiscent of pomegranate.

I sit up staring at the mess I made.

"Sorry. I'll change the sheets if you tell me where they are."

"Thanks baby. I'm gonna hop in the shower, they in the bathroom linen closet." He tells me.

I get up being mindful of the trail I could possibly leave on the floor.

"Wait, you never answered my question."

He turns the shower on.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about that shit right now." His attitude is strong.

I frown up my face a bit.

"Sorry if I offended you, I just didn't think we were shy about anything being that you've made my business your own already."

He turns and walks toward me in a way that causes me to flinch a bit.

He stops.

"Woah? You see that shit right? You think I'm about to beat your ass. That's what happened to my sister since you think you have to know every thing. Her nigga killed her and then himself cause he didn't want to pay the piper for fucking up our lives."

I stop talking, stop breathing, stop thinking.

"Yeah, I'm going to get in the shower so I can go, you're more than welcome to join me."

I don't though. Not initially. My feet just drag their way into the bathroom, and into the shower, where he stands watching me.

I do my best to keep my hair from getting wet but I honestly don't care.

I reach up to kiss him and wrap my arms around him.

He gives in and presses me up against the wall with his arms at the sides of my head.

"I love you... you know that."

He kisses me again but says nothing.

"I can't love someone that I'm not sure will live long enough to enjoy it." He speaks harshly and then he steps out of the shower leaving me to clean myself off.

When I get out of the shower he's gone and I quickly get dressed before I stop and think for a while about what I should do.

An hour and a half has gone past and I understand that it's now or never at this point. If I'm going to leave him, I have to run.

I get home and practically yeet the car into the driveway.

I get in the house and head upstairs, I go into the closet to grab my suitcase. I clear out about half of each drawer. I go into the safe under the bed to grab as much cash as I can to sustain myself for a few weeks at least.

"Samantha."

Oh shit.