I stared into Gabriel’s eyes, my head flashing red signals at me that this scene was something terribly wrong but the rest of my body feeling something entirely different. He proceeded to repeating what he was doing, dabbing the cotton ball on every part of my scrape, blowing on it before I had time to feel the burn, then placing a soft kiss on each part while never once breaking eye contact with me. I stood still while biting my lip, my heart beating so loud I swear I could hear it so clearly in my ears. Gabriel started sticking band-aid after band-aid on my entire scrape until it was a whole row of band-aids on the side of my arm.
“You have to admit, I have a way with my hands,” Gabriel stated, admiring his handiwork then giving me a wink with a mischievous glint evident in his eyes.
I was about to comment on how frank of a person he is because it was definitely unusual to find someone who (especially a guy) who told you his feelings directly, when my phone sang, “And after all, you’re my wonder wall,” and then remained silent signaling to me that I just received a text. More importantly, it was a text from Andrew because it played the song that he had dedicated to me a month after we got together after me forcing him to dedicate one to me. That’s when I finally saw the red lights in my head telling me how wrong all of this was and how wrong I was for letting all of this happen. I stood up quickly and walked towards Gabriel’s front door.
Then I quickly turned back around and found myself lip to lip with Gabriel. I took a step backwards until my back was pressed to the door. Gabriel watched me with amusement glowing in his eyes and his lips forming a slight smile like he was holding back from laughing.
I looked down on the floor and took a deep breath, “Thank you, Gabriel, I really appreciate it.”
“No problem, you’re welcome to come down and ring my doorbell anytime you need some band-aids,” Gabriel chuckled.
“Yeah, so goodbye Gabriel,” I half smiled at him and then turned back around to the door.
I felt Gabriel’s body press against my back as he unlocked the door for me then stepped to the side and held the door open for me.
“See you later, gorgeous,” Gabriel murmured in my ear as I was heading out the door. An involuntary shiver ran up my spine as his warm yet somehow still cooling breath fanned over my neck. I sped to the staircase and sprinted up the stairs, knowing I wouldn’t be able to wait for the elevator while being so near to Gabriel. Once I was inside of my house, I quickly locked the door and lay breathing heavily on the door. My phone sang again, “And after all, you’re my wonder wall.” Before I could check my texts from Andrew, my mom poked her head out of the kitchen.
“Welcome back, daughter,” my mom said, with a warm smile on her face. I thanked God she was always cooking in the kitchen around the time I got home because that way she never noticed if I came home a little late sometimes.
“Hey mom,” I replied as I sped walked towards my room, hoping feverishly that my mom did not notice the band-aids lining up my right arm.
As I made it to my room, my mom called out, “Are you eating dinner right now, Avery?”
I replied, “Yes, mom.” I quickly took off my school uniform and put on a long sleeved sweater and a pair of shorts. I looked like an immense contradiction but I was not going to risk my mom seeing my arm. She wanted to rush me to the hospital if I spent too long a time in the bathroom.
I took out my phone and as it previously had alerted me, I had two unread text messages form Andrew.
The first one:
From: Andy Candy <3
- If anyone has kidnapped my girlfriend, please return her to me promptly. I haven’t spoken to her all day and would at least like to hear her tell me she loves me and show me her beautiful smile through webcam one more time J
I checked the next one:
From: Andy Candy <3
- Whoever you are, I will find you and I will kill you.
I laughed lightly at his stolen line from Taken but quickly sobered up and ran a hand over my face. I felt pure disgust towards myself for what had happened just three floors below me while Andrew was worried about where I was and if anything had happened to me. I felt more disgust though at the fact that I didn’t get the same feeling when Andrew called me beautiful as I did when Gabriel called me beautiful.
Ugh, what the heck is wrong with me? I get myself alone with a cute guy for two seconds and suddenly it’s like I’m not even myself anymore and I have no judgment over my own actions. Mom really did do a lousy job at picking out my name, I thought, my shame increasing by the second.
I hit the reply button and wrote:
To: Andy Candy <3
- I have escaped from the kidnapper. Our love gave me the power and courage to fight him off and run back home to you :D
I knew Andrew would want me to video chat with him so I turned my computer on, opened Skype up, and waited to see the green dot next to Andrew’s name. Soon enough, my screen started ringing alerting me with a message that I was receiving a call from Andrew. I pressed answer and put on the biggest smile my face could muster up. When Andrew came up on my screen, my smile faltered a bit when I saw my boyfriend’s lips assembled into a pout.
“Why the pout, my love?” I asked, a sudden fear enveloping deep within me. I felt as if he knew what I had done. Like he knew what I had let be done to me.
“You took long in coming to me, my heart couldn’t stand the long amount of time you were away from it,” Andrew said, imitating the voice of little boy. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding and I was able to offer Andrew a small genuine smile.
“I think your heart should be used to not seeing me, we haven’t seen each other face to face in months,” I said. Then my smile turned a little forced as I thought of how true that statement was. Andrew and I had gone to the same high school but he was a year older than me so he went off to college while I got to go back to school as a senior and get used to the fact of not seeing him in the hallways all the time but instead on my computer screen. It always seemed that whenever we tried to make plans, our schedules were always conflicting with each other which resulted in us becoming basically a virtual couple. As much as I tried to hide it from Andrew, it did hurt me a little more every day this new change in our relationship but it seemed that the more it hurt, the more I tried to force myself to be happy and pretend everything was okay.
Andrew caressed his hand over his camera as if he was caressing his hand over my actual face. He gave me a sad smile and said, “You know I love you madly and deeply, you’re stuck with me forever, Avery”
“Yeah, forever,” I repeated, stretching my lips as far as they could go to make the biggest smile my face could make.
Later on that night, while lying in my bed and staring out my window, I thought about the deep sense of melancholy that enveloped my body as I told Andrew that we’d be together forever. I stared at the moon outside of my window willing it to show me some kind of sign. It stared back at me, not showing any kind of change. I sighed and let my eyes drift closed, the image of Gabriel’s deep brown eyes staring at me while his lips pressed on my skin fresh behind my eyelids.
BẠN ĐANG ĐỌC
Attracted to Trouble
Lãng mạnAvery had always been "the safe girl". Risks? Taking chances? Making changes? Not her thing. Waiting for life to just sort itself out and blending in with the background? That was her thing. She had a safe boyfriend, a safe group of friends, and a s...
