"Yeah...I know...", he replied quietly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. Not that Victoria found it pleasant...not at all but it wasn't something they could just avoid or push back. Everything was different now...even if both of them didn't want it to be. "Okay...I'll make some tea and then we talk, alright?", she got up and grabbed the small water heater that was in the room to make some apple tea for the both of them. During her life she had found that tea always helped during stressful situations. She was still quite overwhelmed but she would figure everything out along the way. All she knew for now was that it would be irresponsible to leave him alone that night...not after what had happened.
"There we go...", she smiled a little as she handed him a cup of tea and sat down again. "Okay...uhm...how do I start this? You know that now that I have seen what I have seen, there is no going back, right? There is no more pretending to be fine..." He was staring down at his cup of tea, dark strands of hair falling into his face as he nodded a bit: "I know..." "Good...you are an adult, so I can't force you to accept my help but it would make things easier for both you and me because I can't just close my eyes or walk away...", she explained calmly...it was so different than their usual talks. This time there was no bickering, no laughing and no joking...it was serious and tense. "I don't think you can actually help..." "We will just have to find out, then...", she really tried to lighten the mood a bit but she couldn't, so she just decided to keep on assuring him that he could trust her: "I meant what I said yesterday, okay? About going through this together..." He took a shaky sip of his tea before putting down the cup, still not looking up: "Even now that you know about...it?" That really broke her heart...did he really think he meant any less to her now? "Of course...you are and will forever be my best friend. I don't care if I have to walk through hell with you...I will not let you fight alone.", she assured him. "Damiano...please look at me...", she then added...she needed to see his eyes in order to be able to read him at least a little bit. He did what she told him to, very reluctantly locking eyes with her...all the confidence seemed to be gone...all she could see was pain and sadness...and shame. She took his hand into her own and unlike the last time, he actually locked fingers with her.
"I'll stay with you tonight...we should try to get some rest but if you need anything...no matter what feel free to wake me up, okay? There is no need to be ashamed of anything...", she spoke as she switched the lights off and crawled into bed next to him, keeping some space though. She just decided to give him as much reassuring words as possible...if there was no trust, there was no way of helping him.
About an hour later, she was still awake. She couldn't sleep because her thoughts were constantly running. She couldn't even put into words how worried she was about him. How could she help him? A psychologist definitely wouldn't be the solution...that would cause unnecessary bad press, so she needed to figure out a way herself. The first step was definitely trying to find out what the reason behind all this was. They should probably talk again in the morning...because she would definitely feel better if they could share a room from now on because that way she could make sure he didn't hurt himself...and if he did, she would be close enough to help. She wondered what his reason was for doing that...did it have anything to do with the phone call he had made earlier that day? He was acting so weird after finishing it. But if it had been a phone call with his girlfriend that didn't make sense because by now she was quite sure that it wasn't just because of a break up. Maybe it hadn't been his girlfriend and he had only said that to not make them suspicious...everything was so uncertain. The only thing she knew for sure was that the following weeks and probably even months would be the hardest of her life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey ;)
Here's a new chapter...I will do my best to post another one later. I hope you like it because the following chapters will have quite a few similar scenes in them :)
As always, let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading.
- Thalia