Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 26

"Lauren." The sound of her voice causing me to snap my head up, I see her standing in the doorway. She's here. She actually came. Smiling, I motion for her to come inside.

"Hey." I stand and move towards her. Quickly realising that I cannot be near her, I stop myself on the spot and give her a sad smile. "You okay?"

"I guess." She shrugs.

"Did something happen?" My brow furrowing, my heart sinks into my stomach. "Oh God, they know, don't they?"

"Yeah." She sighs and runs her fingers through her gorgeous curly hair.

"Fuck," I mutter. It's all I have to give right now. I've never been so terrified in my life. She's come to break up with me. She's leaving Miami and I'll never see her again. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not." She simply states and takes my hand in her own. "Come on. Let's go home, Lauren."

"Where even is home?" I scoff and she pulls me into a strong embrace.

"Wherever you want it to be." She smiles as she rests her head in the crook of my neck. "My place or yours, beautiful?"

"What?" I'm totally confused right now.

"Where would you like to go? Your apartment? My house? You choose."

"I don't want to do this." I shake my head and pull out of her embrace. "I can't do this. Go home, Normani."

Moving away from her, I feel the loss of contact immediately. I've never felt so alone in all of my life. She's stood giving me a strange kind of smile and I'm totally thrown by her behaviour. "What?"

"I said... let's go home. What's the problem?" She smirks and I simply grab my backpack and move towards the door.

"The problem is that I'm not doing this. I can't and I won't let you leave. It's too hard. I don't care if it's forbidden and I don't care if it's 'against the rules'. Right now? I couldn't give a shit." My anger rising, I take a deep breath and continue to move towards the door. "I'll talk to you tomorrow or something, I just, I cannot do this right now. I just can't. I'm sorry. I love you, but I can't." Shaking my head, I move past her but she grabs my wrist and grips tight.

"Stop! Just stop, please?"

"Normani, I can't be here right now. They know, and now you are going to lose your job. You have no reason to be in Miami and I get that. I really do. Just please let me have one more day to take it all in. I know I'm going to lose you. I resigned myself to that fact on Saturday. We can pretend all we want but what's the point? It's only going to hurt so much more. I cannot take any more hurt. Not where you are concerned. I love you too much."

"Have you finished?" She gives me a knowing look and I stare at her. Her brown eyes staring straight into my soul.

"Finished what?"

"Your rant?" She laughs.

"My rant? Do you think this is funny?" How can this not bother her? How can she think that everyone knowing is funny?

"No, it's not funny." She moves closer to me and places her hands either side of my face. "Can we just go home?"

"Why are you not bothered? How are you even still on campus?" I question as I pull away from her and grab my rucksack.

"Because everything is okay." She shrugs and takes my hand in her own. "I'm not losing my job."

"Wait, what?" I stop her from pulling me across the room and she turns to face me.

"We have some things to discuss. You know, get our story straight and then everything will be okay. Everything is okay."

"What story?"