Angel's Secret ✔️

[FORTY-ONE]

[NOT EDITED]
•ANGEL•

Arriving home wasn't how I thought it would be.  Dragging my suitcase into the soil of Nevada's dirt filled ground wasn't how I thought it'd be.  I thought, well I am going home.

It wasn't my home anymore.

Everything was foreign from the street signs, to Gabriel's doorstep.  His maroon wooden door barely jogged a memory, but going inside did do a little something.

The girls had departed to Lil's house.  Aislin and I weren't going home as quick as we thought.  We felt like outlaws for doing the fucking right thing.  When we eventually go back into that horrid house, I'm going to threaten my family that I'd blab to the police that they're the ones who withheld the kidnapping.

So I was rooming with Gabe, and it was easier since he and I attended the same college. I took the room across from his upstairs, already rushing into the room so I could call my girl. It was currently 6:00 at Nevada and 9:00 at New York. Aviana would usually go to bed around 10-11:00 so I prayed she was awake.

I dialed her number, the numbers rushing through my brain to my fingertips onto the phone. It rang once before her she responded.

"We made it. Lil and Aislin are sharing a house, and I'm sharing a house with Gabe. I'm so tired, baby."

"Glad to know you're safe. And keep being safe. If I was there with you I'd give you a message... to cure your exhaustion," she laughed softly through the phone. I sighed relishing her voice.

"I wish you were. I literally want to just grab you through the phone."

She went silent sighing.

"How are you?" I asked laying flat on the bed, staring at the dark ceilings. The window allowed the dying sunlight to pour through.

"I'm adjusting to the quiet rooms, the seemingly bigger bed and couch, and the missing of my favorite person," I could hear the tears in her voice but I could tell she was trying really hard to not cry.

"I'm adjusting to the lack of a petite body against me, dark curls and these amazingly gorgeous hazel eyes that haunted my dreams. But then I went to sleep after seeing those eyes every night, until now."

More tears and sighs. "You can't make this hard for me, Angel."

I nodded even though she couldn't see it. "Time will fly before we know it."

"Do well in school, baby. Tell Ais, Lil, and Gabe I said hi. I... I have to get ready for bed," she was so done.

"I... I don't want to say goodbye just yet."

"I don't want to say goodbye either, but I don't think we should talk right now. It's making me feel miserable."

Depression, anxiety, I could hear all those things controlling her mind. All I wanted to do was curl her around me just to kiss her head and cheek. Just to provide comfort. Protection.

"Lock the doors, Avi. Close the blinds. Please be safe," I inquired instead.

"I will. Bye," she replied and I thought she was just going to end it with that. But then she added, "I love you."

"I love you—" I heard the beep of her hanging up. It was probably killing her to hear me speak without seeing my lips move, since it was killing me not to see her.

How the hell did people do long distance relationships? It felt like putting your heart on the line for anything bigger to crush it into a puddle of blood.