L a c y L e a t h e r s

00:06

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Shar

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It didn't sit well with me how easily Valerie managed to spot the box. And read everything about it with just one look. I studied her expression carefully, whilst keeping a bland one of my face. She had her eyes pointed on the box and my heart nearly jumped out my chest when I caught the small movement.

She pushed herself off the armchair and silently, she dragged her feet to the box.

She studied it carefully, her index finger raised in the air. It hovered over the box, shy from actually touching the toxic box. Numbness prickled down my arms and a heavy lump appeared in the back of my throat.

"Don't touch that." I said through a strangled voice.

Valerie snapped her head back to me and her eyes searched my face. I feared she was going to say the one word I really did not want to hear and have to answer to but she didn't. Instead, we stayed silent for a long time.

Me, watching her every move and Valerie doing the exact same thing. But she had other matters swirling in her mind and I could tell it was slowly eating her up. I pushed myself up to my feet and slowly made it to her, making sure I didn't look at the box.

I grabbed her arm when she was in reach and pulled her away from the shelves; away from the box. She let me pull her until we came back to the armchair. Planting both hands on her shoulder, I carefully pushed her down on the armchair. She kept her mouth shut for a long while and it wasn't until I scooted her over and sat besides her when she spoke.

She was sitting with her arms clasped in a fist, and had it resting on her glued hips. The jeans she wore fit her snugly and it did her already enchanced figure a favor. "You don't have to do this for me." She blurted out, dropping her head and avoiding my eyes.

I frowned at the side of her head, thinking what all of this brought on. I leaned forward and lifted her head with a hand on her chin. She had no choice to lift her head but everyone could tell she was picking on every effort to avoid eye contact.

"Val, look at me."

Valerie shook her head at me, still not meeting my eyes. "Shar, I'm not a-"

I was suddenly not feeling for all of this bullshit and playing around. "Babe, you gonna talk to me you better look at me."

It must of been the hard edge tone in my voice that made Valerie's shining eyes direct on mine. I wasn't acutely aware that she knew her eyes were probably what made all the guys swoon around her. And spending two weeks with her, more male species approached her than I had female friends. And that was saying much. But right that moment, none of those females mattered to me but only this one sitting besides me; with unshed tears in her magnificent eyes.

"Why are you crying?" I asked softly, not letting go of her chin. She shook her head at me again, a silent plea to let it slide. But I wasn't planning to listen to her.

"Why?" I repeated.

She didn't open her mouth to speak for a while but I made sure she knew I wasn't going to let it slide. So I waited. Patiently. Until she spoke.

"Shar, you can't look after me when your mother is-"

"Dying?" I finished off for her, the shivering word tasting vile in the air, and especially coming from my lips. It was that one word that haunted me day and night. That killed me slowly inside and nabbed at my skin ever so often. I had no way to sustain the excruciating pain that clawed at me, every waking second.

"Shar-"

I cut her off quickly. "It's not like it's a lie. Rather embrace the truth than be unprepared."