The Naturalistic

CHAPTER 27

I bite my lips to stop crying more but it doesn't help me much, "Rick get up, please get back up," I mumble quietly.

"Why did it all happened to me?" He looks at me with those tired red eyes, "Why me Evy?"  

"I don't have the answer to this question Rick," I confess.

"But, you have the answer to everything, don't you?" He whispers and I shake my head in response. "But you are Evy and she has the answer to everything."

"Rick," I say and he wraps his hands around my waist and lets out a sob. I run my fingers through the back of his head and close my eyes.

"I'm tired, I'm so tired Evy," He mumbles against my abdomen.

"I know. . . But don't let the fear conquer you,"

He chuckles through his muffled sobs, "What if the fears have already won and it's too late now,"

"There's no such thing as of late," I try and explain, "It's totally on you when you choose to give up and as far as I know you, you aren't a quitter."

This time he looks up at me and I find a bit of hope building inside him. He gets back up and touches his forehead to mine. "You are so amazing, you always have been, the first time you jumped off that cliff with me,"

"I didn't jump, you literally pushed me," I grin and he chuckles.

"Yeah right," He continues, "And the time when you made a deal with me?"

"To teach you how to smile?"

He nods his head in agreement, "You kept your deal, I'm impressed,"

"Well, how couldn't I?"

He closes his eyes, "That's the best thing about you, you never gave up on me. . ." He halts, "But there's one good thing that happened to me because of my tragic past."

I narrow my brows in confusion, "A good thing? What?"

He opens his eyes back and smiles, "It brought me to you," He says softly and I feel a burst of warmth spread across my chest with my vision getting blur. "You were the best thing that happened to me during these dark times, you were always the soft warm blanket for me in the cold times and always the cold beautiful night in the opposite. There is always a spark of determination in you. . . And I can't explain it to you how grateful I am for the moment our paths crossed. I-"

Before he tries and says anything more I gently press my lips against his, one of my hand cups his cheeks while the other travels at the back of his head. His grip on my waist tightens like he is afraid about something and we mend into each other as if we don't have two different souls, it's one, it's not me and him, it's us. . . And that's all I ask for.

I don't open my eyes as we pull apart, "Rick," I whisper, "It's not just me, we balance each other out, without you the scales of my life tips more toward the darker side." 

"And that's the reason I can't afford to lose you," He replies, "You are too good for me, so please I beg of you, let me go."

I snap my eyes open in disbelief and untangle myself from his hands, "What? You say I'm so important to you and then you want to leave me alone?"

"I want to leave you alone because you are so important to  me, If you stay with me, I'll lose you too Evy and I can't, I just can't."

"Past doesn't always repeat itself, Rick."

"What if it's not my past? What if it's my fate to lose everyone close to me? Is it not better we split our paths before it becomes impossible for us to do that."