Dirty Little Bastard

74

I woke up with a hammering headache.

Emma was still asleep, so I took my phone and checked if I had received any kind of message from Theo.

He hadn't even sent a heart back to my heart emoji, which was a thing of ours. Along with my hangover, feelings of worry and fear settled back in, concerning that Spanish model, our lessening contact, and how our relationship might be slowly unravelling.

I got up and made my way downstairs. The state of my home wasn't too bad, but the cleaning up I needed to do got on my nerves.

In the kitchen, I made myself a cup of coffee. With it in my hands, I padded over into the living room and stood in front of a window from which I could see the street.

Today seemed to be a cloudy day; grey and cold, which correlated very much with my current emotional state.

After Emma and Elliot helped me clean up and then left, I'd planned to stay in and watch a movie with Frosty, postponing studying toward the evening.

I sipped my coffee, completely absorbed in my thoughts.

I had no idea at this point what to do with Theo, or what the future held for us. In Spain, he had been so open with me, and I received the feeling of us being stronger than ever. I had believed then, that him living so far away wouldn't be too bad.

Now, as it began nearing four months of him being away, I couldn't help but feel like despite everything, our different lifestyles and priorities were clashing in the worst way possible.

On some level, I wished I wouldn't have such high aspirations for myself in the world of nursing, and could be like Carmen or the other jersey chasers. Then, I could be with Theo wherever he went, and apply all my time and effort to him. That wasn't who I was, though, and the thought of our careers being the ones keeping us emotionally and physically apart was horrible to me.

There had to be an explanation for the photos of him and that Spanish model. I knew there was no possibility of him cheating on me, he was too loyal to ever do that.

"Hey."

I jumped a little at the sudden voice from behind me, startling me away from my deep thoughts.

"Hey," I gave Elliot a small smile, "did you sleep well?"

"I did, thank you," he nodded, taking slow steps towards me, wearing only boxers for some strange and slightly uncomfortable reason, "you?"

"Yes. I have a horrid headache," I told him and looked back outside once he was standing next to me.

He chuckled quietly, "me too."

"There's coffee in the kitchen, if you'd like some," I offered, before bringing my cup to my lips and taking a small sip again.

"Thanks..." he turned towards me, now facing my side, "Scarlett?"

"Hm?" Confused and hesitant, I turned to face him.

I watched as he scratched the back of his neck and glanced down momentarily at our feet, before meeting my gaze again.

"It's probably really obvious, but I like you. A lot," he began, and my heart sank.

My throbbing headache muffled out his voice, and everything else around us. Even my neighbour driving his car to a stop at their driveway. Or was it even my neighbour? I was too tired to care, at this point, about anything.

"Scarlett?"

"What?" My voice came out ruder than I had expected, almost snapping at him. His expression made me feel incredibly bad.