●☆Chapter 25☆●

378 19 17
                                    

The officer explained that he would be sentenced on a later date but for now he was going back to the county jail. His bail was set at something ridiculous, several hundred thousand that he was never going to get ahold of so I was safe in knowing that he wasn't going to get out.

Lachlan made no mention of going back to school in the days after the trial, we were both to full of emotion to even cope with the simple things, like cooking dinner or even living properly, to do something that big. He swung from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other on a dime, on second he was angry and the next numb, or he might go from laughing and joking to balling his eyes out.

Although to be fair I was the same way, so I really didn't blame him for how he was. Neither of us could help it after all.

Lachlan stumbled, almost falling onto his knees when he entered the living room. He was half asleep, having clearly woken up just a few minutes before and he fell onto the couch beside me, crawling up and nosing his way onto my lap. A small smile flickered onto my face for a second before it disappeared.

"Hey Lachy." I mumbled, my eyes moving between him and my phone.

"Hey." He mumbled back, shifting himself several times until he was comfortable enough to settle down. He was unsettled and a little nervous, I could tell, probably because of the trial the day before that had meant that I hadn't been able to sleep.

I had tried to sleep, I really had, but after a couple of hours I realised it wasn't going to happen so I slipped out of bed, where Lachlan was still sleeping, and went downstairs. I spent most of the night on my phone, my mind racing with thoughts that I tried to distract myself from.

I knew that I would wake up screaming if I did fall asleep, so I didn't try after that.

"You didn't sleep." Lachlan stated. I couldn't even try to deny it, he knew, so I nodded. He sighed and I felt one of his arms creep around my waist, squeezing comfortingly, until I finally rolled over and crawled into his arms. I was on the verge of bursting into tears.

It was comforting to be so close to him, he moved me so I was lying on his chest, his hand running up and down my side and my lip trembled because for the first time in a while I felt safe enough to cry, safe enough to let everything out.

Lachlan held me as I cried, trying not to cry himself, and I just completely broke down because I couldn't physically keep my emotions inside anymore. It was terrifying because I didn't know if I would ever feel normal again, happy even. I didn't want to think about it.

Eventually I found my voice, speaking in a soft but broken voice.

"Lachlan?" He looked down at me, his eyes filled with pain. "I'm scared."

He opened his mouth and then closed it again, his eyes filling with tears. He was physically shaking.

"I know." He mumbled. "I am too."

"Do you think I'll ever be able to go back to a normal life?" I mumbled, staring off into the distance like I couldn't even see the carpeted floor below me. "Do you think I'll ever be normal again?"

I heard his sudden intake of breath and the sadness in his eyes and I knew he thought it would never happen, for both him and me. He knew and I knew that our lives would never be normal again.

"No." He sighed painfully. "I really don't think that it'll ever be normal anymore."

-----------------------------------------------

Over the next few days I knew something was wrong because of Lachlan's behaviour. He hardly spoke, he didn't seem to want to look me in the eyes, he always seemed to be on the verge of tears and when we tried to sleep at night he always seemed to be awake when I woke up from nightmares.

I got pretty worried about him because before that Lachlan had been able sleep through the night with no problem but it was only now, after the trial, that he was struggling. I felt sick just thinking about it because I saw the look on his face when he thought I wasn't looking, the pale cheeks, the blank stare and the shaking fingers.

"Lachlan?" I asked, crawling up onto the couch beside him. He hardly looked up, he was in one of those moods again where he was staring blankly against the wall with no interest in anything else, including me or even simply living. "Please?"

I was pleading with him now, I was really scared for him because over the past few days this had been happening often, so often that I physically felt sick when I worried about him.

But still he didn't move, in fact he didn't even raise his head, instead two tears slipped down his nose and splashed onto the bedsheets. I tried to take hold of his hand but he pulled away, moving himself away from me and hunching his shoulders, which were already shaking.

"Please Lachlan? Talk to me, please?" I pleaded, crawling up closer to him and trying to look him right in the eyes and to be in a position where he couldn't look away and he knew it too.

"I don't want to talk right now." He whispered, closing his eyes. His voice broke and my heart panged because I didn't want him to be upset, I hated it when he was upset so slowly I nudged my way into his arms, curling up in his lap. If he didn't want to talk then he didn't have to.

There was silence for quite a while, a comfortable but tense silence, until Lachlan spoke.

"Vikk?" He whispered, barely breathing. "I'm scared."

I looked up and I saw the fear in his eyes, the sadness and the terror.

"I know you're scared." I mumbled. "I am too."

He paused and then opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds, trying to find the words to say.

"I think I need help." He whispered, looking away from me. "I think we both do. I can't sleep, I can't think of anything other than what happened and I don't want to eat. I can't deal with it anymore."

At this point he was bawling, tears streaming down his cheeks and I was crying too because I hated that he was right. Both of us needed help.

Our conversation ended with a slow kiss, a slow and passionate kiss that just let out all of our pent up emotion that we had been holding onto for far too long.

"I love you so much." Lachlan whispered, still crying.

"I love you too." I whispered back, my hands clutching at his shirt. "Stay."

Popstar- Vikklan [The Pack Ships]Where stories live. Discover now