Beyond The Stars

Punches and Drowsy Smiles

Raif scowled at the both of us before taking off his jacket roughly and turning away to fix his shirt. Mikhail gave me a look and it made me blush profusely. He was leaning against the wall with his frazzled hair and one cheek imprinted in red, he didn't look to be in pain yet when does Mikhail ever show anything.

Raif had turned back and continued his raging session, "someone tell me right now what the hell that was!"

"What was what?" Mikhail asked cheekily. I giggled as Raif burst red with anger, "that! The closeness! Th-the whatever you did when you turned her away from me!"

"It's called kissi-"

I cut Mikhail off and burst out, "pretend! It's called pretending!"

"That wasn't pretending Rafa." Raif bit out accusingly and I gulped as Mikhail smirked at me, "well it was! And it was to get you back here, so see, good job Mikhail it worked."

"Mhm," was all he replied with as he continued lightly chuckling to himself. Raif glared at us both before sitting down in the middle of the hall, "you still touched."

"Yeah and you punched him, apologize!" I said grimly as Raif continued scowling at the lightly smiling Mikhail. "No," Raif said. I rolled my eyes as Mikhail looked back drowsily at him, "I can't feel my face."

"Good." Raif said.

"Great." Mikhail replied and started laughing again. I stared at him before my own laughter climbed out to join his.

"Are you two frikin drunk?!" Raif said standing up and throwing daggers at us. "Maybe," I choke out over my giggles as Raif fumed even more.

"Don't go anywhere I'm going to go get us a room." He then said and walked off towards the elevator, "and don't touch each other!!" He yelled out from the closing doors.

Once he had disappeared through I stopped laughing and looked at Mikhail, he was smiling lightly back at me, Raif had left his jacket here so we knew he wasn't making another escape. "Now what?" I asked.

He looked at his watch and at the elevator doors, "it takes approximately a minute to get down all these floors, two to three minutes to book a room and then another to get back up here. We have five minutes princess."

I stuttered over my words as he held my eyes, "t-to do what?" Mikhail bit his bottom lip before sitting upright and moving closer to me. I felt my insides melt as my heart burst through my ribcage.

"To figure out how to get him home?" He said casually, raising and eyebrow at me.

"Oh uh yeah, yeah of course. Uhm so." I said awkwardly as Mikhail lightly chuckled. "What wrong princess?"

"Nothing, nothing." I whispered as I felt his eyes scan over my face, a few seconds passed by before he sighed.

"I apologize about before, I should've thought before I did that, I'm sorry." He said with a worried face and I raised my eyes to meet his.

He's sorry! "Uh no it's o-okay."

Say you liked it!

I mentally scowled at my thoughts, I did not enjoy it. No I did not, it's just the hormones. It's just the hormones. It's just the hormones. That became my mantra as I felt Mikhail gently take my hand in his, "so we're okay?"

I flushed and looked away before nodding, he sighed out a relieved smile before saying, "it was my mistake, I won't do it again, I promise."

My heart clenched as I felt a roaring pain in my gut.

But before I could reply we heard the elevator ding, Mikhail, quicker than a cheetah, flew himself back into his spot as Raif walked out. He gave us suspicious looks before saying, "room 240, let's go."

I got up and followed the both of them, Raif and Mikhail started talking but I couldn't pay attention to what they were saying for that one word Mikhail uttered kept rushing through me. Mistake. And it was true, it shouldn't have happened.

Yet it felt perfect.

"Hurry up Rafael." Raif said as they waited steps ahead of me with a door opened in front of them. I forced a smile and hurried towards them. We went inside, it was a spacious two room hotel room with three beds in one room and a lounging space in the other.

Mikhail looked at me but before he could say anything I started on Raif, "do you know how worried mama and baba are?"

Raif sat on one of the three beds as I glowered at him, Mikhail took the one closest to the door which left me to take the middle one. "Why are they worried?"

"Are you kidding me Raif?! Look how far away from home you are, you disappeared for three weeks!" I said as he looked away. "You have to stop being such a child, think about others before you jump into things," I calmly said.

Raif rubbed his beard cladded jaw, "I need to do this though."

"No you don't, just come home with us." Mikhail piped in.

Raid looked at him and then turned to me, "since we were seven years old Rafa I have dreamt of this, you know how passionate I was and still am so why just why are you trying to stop me?"

I sighed and sat down, "because it's dangerous Raify. We don't know much but we do know that you're trying to climb a mountain." I said remembering back to the little drawings we saw in his journal.

He gave us a stare, "you found my old journal?" Mikhail nodded as he brought it out and tossed it to him, "please just try to listen, it'll be best if we all just go home."

Raif stood up and frustratingly walked around, "you guys don't understand."

"Raif we do, we know how you love going up and beyond, we know how you love taking risks, we know you're passionate but sometim--"

Raif cut Mikhail off, "no, you still don't get it. I need to go, it's a need guys."

"Why?" I said lightly, Raif slumped down onto his bed and drowsily smiled, the next three words he said sent a bullet through my heart.

"Because I'm dying."

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