BETTER

Chapter 20

Blake

"Are you alright?" I ask as soon as Ana answers the phone, she's been avoiding my calls since the day she and I...... well I get embarrassed even thinking about it.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she counters back and I sigh, a little relieved to see the old Ana back.

"You've been skipping classes and avoiding my calls, ignoring my texts so yes I thought maybe you're not alright" I try to reason with her but it sounds pathetic when I say it like that.

"And why exactly are you concerned if I'm alright or not?" she asks, it's like I can almost sense the exhaustion in her voice.

"Because I...." I take a deep breath before saying what I'm about to say "I care for you" the words finally fly out of my mouth and I wait for her response.

The line goes silent, too silent and I almost thought that she'd hung up but that wasn't the case.

"You shouldn't though" she finally admits, her voice barely audible, one thing's for sure - she's definitely not okay.

"Ana don't be so hard on yourself" I say, my heart actually aches for the poor girl whose whole world seemed to come crashing down a few days ago because of her pathetic boyfriend.

"I'm not being hard on myself" she snaps and the words are out of my mouth even before I can properly process them in my mind "I'm coming over at your place right now" I hang up the phone so she can't give me any excuses as to why I shouldn't go at her place.

I grab my car keys and head out of the posh apartment I like to call 'my temporary home' I hate it here but my parents wanted the best for me when I moved here for my studies.

It took me only about twenty minutes to reach her apartment and to say I was a little nervous would be an understatement, my heart was frantically beating against my chest as I waited for her to open the door.

Will she open the door?
Will she let me in?
Will she just leave me standing here on her doorway like a fool?

Various thoughts run through my head as I wait for the green eyed girl to open her doors for me, the doorknob twists and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

My jaw drops when I take in her view, she isn't the girl I made love to a few days ago, she can't be. She's lost weight, there are dark patches under her eyes, her hair is unruly and it looks like she hasn't showered or eaten for days.

"Ana you're definitely not okay!" I exclaim and she tries to adjust her hair and fix her tee by straightening it but it barely does anything to make her look better.

"I'm fine" she says and gestures for me to come in, as I walk in through the door I realize how troublesome the last few days must've been for her, her apartment which I remember to be beautifully decorated is now all messed up.

"Ana listen to me" I say grabbing her shoulders and turning her to face me, she tries to push me away but she just wasn't strong enough.

"You need to get your head back in the game" I state firmly looking into those beautiful eyes of hers which have lost their sparkle, I remember how fiery they used to be and I hate Sam for dimming her light like this, for breaking her heart in the worst way possible.

She turns her face away from me ashamed to look me in the eye "Look I know I'm no one to you and I don't have any sort of right over you but I consider you my friend whether you accept it or not and yes...... I care for you and your well being"

My words seem to have some sort of effect on her, she finally turns her head and looks me in the eye before saying "I'm done with having anyone in my life, I don't need anyone Blake.

"Like I said, I consider you my friend whether you accept it or not and you can stop caring about others but there are some people who can't stop caring about you" I say without masking the emotions and strong feelings I have for her, I need her to know that I care for this broken yet beautiful girl and I'd do anything to mend her, to fix everything for her because she deserves that, she too deserves to live and enjoy her life the way she wants to.

Her eyes well up slightly "Why are you doing this Blake, I don't deserve you or your friendship, you've suffered enough because of me and my toxic relationship with Sam and I don't want you to be on the receiving end of Sam's brunt anymore, he will not stop until he shatters my life apart and I don't want you getting hurt in that process" her voice cracks towards the end and I wrap my arms around her, hugging her as tight as possible, after a few moments she wraps her arms around me and gives in to the hug.

I don't know for how long we were hugging each other but it felt nice, so nice to finally be able to comfort her.

When we break apart I look her in the eyes and say "Do you think I'm not capable of handling that jerk? I never harmed him because I knew he was your boyfriend and I didn't want to complicate things between the two of you but believe I'm not gonna tolerate him anymore, he can't do shit to me" I explain to her, it's true I'm not gonna let that jerk insult me or her anymore.

She doesn't say anything else and just looks at me with what I suspect is adoration.

"Now you go and take a shower while I clean this place up and then we can go out for dinner" I say and wait for her to reject my offer but she just nods her head in agreement and goes inside, and I start my duty of cleaning up her apartment.