𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬┊✓

s i x t y f o u r » d r i t a e h ë n ë s

There were many times he had caught me glancing at a boy or returning a kind smile—while I was sitting in his bloody lap—and would possessively attack my lips no matter where we were, marking his territory. And his controlling and dominant demeanor was surfacing heavily as well - telling me what I could and couldn't wear, and even stopping us from leaving our suite until I changed.

Our relationship was slowly slipping through my fingers and I wasn't sure I had it in me to salvage what was left of us. We were slowly, but surely, drifting apart, falling apart, and I was at a loss. We could barely meet each other's eyes, let alone have a proper conversation lately and though I masked the pain I felt from his detachment, his hold on me wherever we went was bruising, making it unforgettable that I was his.

Though I repressed the hurt I felt in front the crew, feigning happiness and putting on a wide smile, I couldn't hide it behind closed doors—evident with the copious amount of times I've cried myself to sleep or cried in the shower these past few days. In the past six days, I've learned everything between us was ever-changing, shifting, and I wasn't sure I could handle the heartache that would come with finding out why.

Questions swirled around my mind, on an endless loops, haunting me in my every breathing second and I was struggling to hold on to myself - what changed? in six days, what happened? will we be able to fix ourselves? can we fix our broken pieces and let go?

Phoenix was a concept of his own, driving me to the edge of my own sanity. Meanwhile, the company was another complication. Though this adventure was meant to be worry free and give us all a refreshed sense of vitality, I seemed to be the living embodiment of tortured and agonised. I was, once again, on a spiral downward. The company merely seemed to be my source of stress and anger—mainly the former—and the brute I currently shared a room with was only fueling the said exasperation. Outside our suite, I let go a bit, my carefree and wild spirit flared ardently, but inside our suite, I worked tirelessly, unrelentingly.

But I wasn't so sure what I was working for anymore - the company or to save Phoenix and I.

Sighing in distress, I rested my elbow on the mahogany desk and my head in my palm, massaging my temples. I heard him shifting around behind me - most likely through our suitcase for clothes - and decided against turning back to look at him, already knowing he'd meet my gaze with a glare. My MacBook went off with a dull ding letting me know I've just received a fresh email and switching over to the tab of my inbox, I internally groaned seeing Cambridge University and Florida State University as the sender. The stress and anxiety of the start of university being nearer and nearer hit me like a tonne—like the waves crashing against the shore—each morning I woke up.

Tomorrow would be our last day here, in what was supposed to be a paradise getaway, but every fibre in my body was just screaming to be home again. My mind screamed out desperately for a calmness amongst the raging chaos brewing inside my being, for an end to my inner turmoil - but salvaging a soul that was damned from the start had never been wise.

§

"Adrianna, let's go," Phoenix's dark and rather malicious voice came behind me and I jumped slightly, startled. His arm came around my waist before I could think in a tight grip and a soft whimper escaped my lips as his fingers prodded into my flesh through my - his - crew neck. He glared at me, his eyes flaring in anger as his nostrils flared and I stared him, crinkling my forehead and absolutely confused as to what I did.

We were all at the baggage claim, waiting on our suitcases but it seemed he already picked out ours. The crew stood a mere foot or two away from us and before I could speak, he had already began to whisk me away. Looking back over my shoulder, I caught Blake's narrowed gaze in our direction and I mouthed a sorry before turning back and looking ahead of me.