If This Is Love || Raura

25 | Shower With Me

Ignoring his questioning about what I'm doing, I wrap my arms around his neck and wrap my legs around his torso, forcing him to hold me like I'm a child who fell asleep and needs to be carried to bed. In his embrace, my eyes immediately water up. He doesn't say anything as he wraps his arms around, squeezing me too him.

"I had a feeling something was up." He quietly says. I sniffle, squeezing my eyes shut tight in hopes that my tears wouldn't fall. He takes a deep breath, my body moving with his as he does so. As I open my eyes, the first tear trickles down my cheek and I know for a fact it landed on his shoulder blade by his sudden squeeze of my body. "Don't cry, bean." He whispers, gently rubbing my back. "Why don't you get under the covers and get comfy." He tells me. Nodding, Ross sets me back on the bed. "I just need to pee." He rushes to the bathroom. I sniffle again, taking off my sweats and leaving me in my underwear. I then quickly take off my sports bra and put on Ross' t-shirt he was wearing before climbing under the covers and placing my glasses on the nightstand. After I heard the toilet flush and the sink water run for a minute, Ross' blurry figure was getting closer and closer.

"Can you turn on the lamp?" I ask him quietly. The lamp clicks on and Ross' figure become sleds blurry as he lays down in bed, tugging on my body to move closer to him. Within two seconds, Ross had me wrapped around him with his hand in my hair and his other hand rubbing up and down my arm that was laid across his abdomen.

"What's up? What's wrong?" He asks me.

"I'm stressed out about my class." I whisper.

"No shit." He mutters. "That can't be all of your stress, bean. There's clearly something else up."

"Well I'm not sleeping either, but there's not much we can do about that considering the bunks only fit one person." I tell him. "And I guess I'm just a little bit stressed about not sleeping for the movie and whatever when I'll be alone." I whisper.

"You're going to be fine, bean. With everything. You're going to get help in school. Your professor and counselor do not want to see you fail, they're there to help you succeed. And you're going to sleep without me, just probably not as much considering you only have so much time to film because of tour and everything so you'll have crazy schedules, but it'll be fine. Everything will work out. You don't need to be so stressed about it." He tells me, his voice calm and steady.

"But what if help is impossible?" I ask. "My school is in California, we're across the effing country and will be all over for the next month, Ross. And two days after getting off tour are my finals, and then I fly straight to Atlanta for three weeks. I barely have time to do shit. I'm not going to sleep until after the European tour that ends late October. It's July, Ross."

"Calm down, bean." He whispers. "You're breathing heavily and quickly and if you don't stop you'll have a panic attack." He calmly tells me. "Hey, why don't you go relax and take a shower or something."

"A shower won't do anything, Ross." I mutter, sitting myself up. Ross sighs, sitting up as well and facing me. "Babe, I don't know why I thought I could finish out a full credit load this semester while touring. I've never done a full credit load during tour, not to mention weeks before finals." Ross' hand came out from under the covers and gently rests on my knee, shaking my leg the slightest.

"Stop." He instructs. "You're doing just fine, bean. Struggling in school happens a lot to kids. I promise you'll get the help, but you need to realize that in this moment, at three in the morning, you won't get help. What you need is to relax, bean. You need to go take a hot shower and relax in there, come back out here and sleep."