Mr Kingston's Roommate | ꪜ

Mr Kingston's Roommate|38

"We said our vows. And Leila. . .till this day that's what hurts me the most. We said our vows. She knew that she wouldn't take me in sickness or in health. She wasn't going to have and hold me or cherish me, she knew that she was going to run down that ailse and leave me there in tears but she still said the vows. That's what really broke me."

I felt her hand on my cheek, her warm fingertips caressing it softly as she tilted my head down towards her and pressed her forehead against mine. "Blake. . . I am so so sorry," she mumbled softly and I shook my head, my fingers curling in hers, "all our friends were there from school. Her family was there, my family was there and they all saw me break down."

Silence enveloped us for a moment and all I could hear was our soft breaths mingling around the dimly lit room. I needed a moment to free the anger boiling up inside me before I continued because this part was where I really lost it.

"When I got home I thought that she'd probably be sitting on the bed, crying and apologizing to me profusely, telling me that she loved me but she wasn't ready to get married and maybe one day we could try again. But when I got home, her stuff was packed. We actually moved into an apartment together, her parents and my parents pitched in and got it for us.

Everything of hers was gone. So I panicked and I decided to call her but her phone rang inside the house and I obviously took it. We both know each other's passwords so I went onto her phone and I saw messages from this guy named Carl. And you wanna know what his name was saved onto her phone?" I chuckled humourlessly and she softly mumbled what.

"His name was Carl, my hubby. They were already proposed and she was going to marry him. I scrolled through their messages and not once had she mentioned me so obviously he didn't know who I was.

The last message she left was only thirty minutes before I came and I assume she forgot her phone but she said, I almost made a big mistake and I need you, she said that she almost made a mistake marrying me and she needed him. Now he's laying in a hospital bed suffering from two stab wounds that she inflicted onto him because she wanted me and she no longer needed him."

"What?" She mumbled in disbelief, her head rising up from my shoulder and I chuckled coldly, shaking my head in disbelief. "Yeah, she stabbed him in his sleep then fled to my house thinking I'd save her. Then she stabbed him in front of me, she's gonna be spending over 15 years behind bars."

"Wow."

I sighed, shaking my head as I tried to rid the memories once again. I didn't need to remember that.

"After that, I thought that if someone so close to me could hurt me like that. . . if someone who claimed they loved me could hurt me like that then what's gonna stop other women who hardly know me from doing the same? That's why I was appalled when I found out you were my roommate, I didn't want you as my roommate."

"Could have fooled me," she mumbled sarcastically. I rolled my eyes, chuckling softly as I continued to caress her cheek. "I didn't want you as my roommate because you were a girl. A girl I thought would drive me insane. You're nineteen, attractive, clearly smart, what was there to not fall for?"

"Awee. . ."

"But you also drove me nuts."

"Hey!" She exclaimed loudly as she slapped my hand away, scowling up at me. I pinched her cheek between my fingers and smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry but you were. But then I started seeing the real you whenever you were on the phone with Reese and you couldn't see me studying you.

Then when I actually spoke up your demeanour would change almost like a protective mechanism. I knew you were hurt, shattered on the inside Leila. And I wanted to help, I wanted to be to you what no one was to me."

She froze, her hands clutching my shirt tightly as she sucked in a harsh breath. "You were broken like I was. Maybe on an entirely different level but it was there. I got dumped by the love of my life but you, I could just see you had encountered worse and suddenly the old Blake came back, without my permission too."

"What?" She mumbled, her chin pressing against my chest as she looked up at me. I reached down, tucking a tendril of her cherry blonde hair behind her ear and letting my fingers linger on her skin for a moment before I sighed.

"You pissed me off when I found you hurting yourself. Like anger, I've never felt before and the Blake you first met wouldn't give two shits what you did with your body but the old Blake would dig to the core of the earth to know who caused it."

I bit my tongue harshly, the three words threatening to tumble off my tongue but I knew I couldn't say it. I know she won't hurt me but I'm afraid that if I say it she won't say it back and it will be the same cycle of heartbreak all over again.

"I care for you a lot Leila and honestly I never thought that I could feel that way about someone after Erika. I had some time to think about it before I came and I didn't love her. I just think I was infatuated with the idea of loving her because she was the only girl I knew my entire life, we had that bond and I thought it was the safer way. But now I know what it means to truly l–"

"I know." She said and I froze, realizing I almost confessed to loving her.

My eyes flickered to her brown orbs and she smiled that sweet smile, her head coming off of my chest and she sat up straighter, her lips were pulled in between her teeth as if she was nervous and she grasped my hand in hers and squeezed it tightly.

"I care about you too, Blake. We've both been through shit, hell a lot of shit that broke us both. But I don't know if you sense it or feel it as well but when I'm around you or with you I'm and as cliche as this may sound-" she mumbled, her hand coming to rest against my cheek.

"-I feel at peace."