Falling Slowly

Chapter Eighteen: Every Night Is Another Night

“Anya?”

I looked up and met his gaze in the mirror. His eyes were unwavering, two misty blue pools of awaiting expectancy.

I turned around, leaning my body against the sink. A lock of hair escaped from my low ponytail as I turned and I tucked it behind my ears, unable to meet his eyes as I answered, “A bottle of wine…maybe two…I don’t remember.”

He shook his head, a sly smile on his lips. “You’re a light weight of the worst kind.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, hating the smirk on his face. “Of course, with my first time drinking and all, who wouldn’t be?” I snapped.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “You could kill a guy with that stare. I was just stating the obvious.”

I shook my head, rubbing at my temple in a circular motion. This was all too much. What had I gotten myself into?

Liam cleared his throat and I looked up to see him coming into the bathroom and setting his clothes on top of the laundry basket. I took the hint and quietly exited, stumbling a little as my vision blurred. Liam’s hand curled around my arm, while his other hand gently pressed itself on the small of my back, leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

“Easy there,” he walked me across the hall to his bedroom and helped me sit down on his bed. The headache was returning, but instead of it being a bulldozer it was more like an annoying ringing that I couldn’t turn off. Liam left my side for a few seconds and return with a bottle of water in hand.

“Thanks.” I hadn’t known how parched I was until I took a drink and guzzled the cool, fresh water like it was the last drop on earth.

“There’s more in the fridge if you want more. So, I-” A sheepish smile curved his lips as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Stay here, okay? Just…I’ll take you home before work, alright?”

I felt the furrow in my eyebrows deepen as I stared at him. Slowly and evenly I said, “I don’t need taking care of.”

He scoffed, obviously finding my response amusing. “Right.” Liam crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head, his slate-blue eyes piercing as if his mind was calculating something – something that concerned me. I folded my arms in front of me, not liking the way he was looking at me. I felt vulnerable – like a work of art he was carefully examining.

Ha. A work of art. I really should consider a job as a comedian. I’d earn big bucks.

The sound of a door closing startled me out of my thoughts. When I looked up I saw that Liam was gone and heard the sudden start of water reverberating through the vents. I sighed and flopped backwards, looking up at the ceiling. In the light of the day the plastic glow in the dark stars were a ghostly white. There were so many of them that I felt compelled to count each and every one of them until I grew weary.

I tried to remember everything that happened last night, but couldn’t. I don’t know what logic brought me to Liam’s house or what my brain was thinking to stay over. Did something happen? Surely, if something happened I would remember. Right? But even if something did happen – he wouldn’t have done…

No. It wasn’t possible. It was absurd to even think it.

I sat up abruptly and crossed my legs before me, bowing my head and interlocking my hands together. I closed my eyes, breathing in and out evenly until I felt relaxed and at peace; a feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Softly, I came forward and uttered my plea for forgiveness. It wasn’t just last night that I prayed to be forgiven for, but also for the way I had been acting towards my parents. I asked God to take away all the resentfulness I’d felt the passed few days and to help me find the strength to forgive them as He would forgive me. I poured out my heart, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes.