.
Valerie
.
I felt the tug on my hand and it quickly snapped me out of my trance. Perrie was gazing up at me, her eyes shining with realisation and complete sadness.
"Oh Valerie, I didn't know." She whispered, dropping her petite head on my arm. I smiled at her head and just shrugged.
Just as I was about to whisper "it's nothing," back at her, I heard Andy's voice exclaim Perrie's name and a dreadful feeling planted itself within my stomach.
Darn it, I thought I could possibly sneak away and pretend I didn't see their little exchange. But nope, nope. Not today.
I looked over at Andy but stupidly landed my eyes on a withdrawn Shar. He was glaring at me with hard eyes. What the hell? He looked beyond mad.. For what? Interrupting his moment with his lover?
Screw him.
Andy stepped out of Shar's arms and jumped on Perri, embracing her tightly. I took a step back and questioned myself as to what I was doing here. Obviously these people all knew each other and they seemingly all had someone they held close in a critical condition. The boy with the dark hair, Ghost and the blonde haired one, Karl looked immensely effected.
I turned my head and saw that Ghost was trashing around in Ellie's hold and I don't know what came over me but I turned on my heel and walked over to him.
Nate had tackled Ghost into a seat and Ellie was holding down his hands. When I was near enough, Ellie raised her head and spotted me instantly.
"Valerie?" She questioned and I nearly reared back. I knew of Ellie but I never had the chance to introduce myself and for her to greet me so openly with familiarity kind of surprised me.
I nodded at her and glanced at Ghost. He had his head down and his chest was moving up and down in a rapid pace. "I can try to help." I told Ellie.
She looked at me, slightly uncertain but she still pushed Nate away from Ghost. It's his girlfriend, Ellie mouthed at me and I nodded at her in acknowledgment. I stepped in front of him and dropped down to my knees.
"Ghost?" I asked, craning my head lower so I could look at his face. His eyes were tightly shut and he was breathing heavily.
"Ghost, you have to listen to me." I said, locking my fingers into his hair. I tugged on it lightly, hoping he would want to see this stranger with confidence to tug on his hair.
Which he did.
He lifted up his head and met my eyes with his own bloodshot pair. I quickly dived into a conversation. "This is going to do you no good when she wakes up. She wants to see your handsome face and be happy that she's back."
Ghost frowned at me, his forehead creasing into tight wrinkles. I saw the edge of his eye twitch before he opened his mouth to speak. "She's gone."
"Even if she is gone, she'll never leave you and if she's with us right now, she really doesn't want you to be like this. This is where you prove to her that you are proud to cherish her memories and you are meant to spread the happiness she left. She would want that."
"I—I can't spread nothing when I have no happiness in me anymore," he replied back in a broke voice and something heavy landed at the back of my throat. I swallowed it down audibly and carried on.
"Find it in yourself. Find the happiness and be strong."
"She was—"
I cut him short sharply. "You don't know for definite if she's gone or else you wouldn't be waiting. Come on now, chin up and wait for your girl to come back to you."
Ghost slowly lifted his head up fully. He had a mask over his face but the wildness from before was gone. He inhaled deeply and shot his eye at me sharply.
He jerked his chin at me. I nodded back at him, hoping that I managed to get some sort of assurance back into him.
Now I just needed the doctors to bring back his girl.
_
_
_
A couple of minutes later, I moved off the floor and sat next to Ghost. His hands found mine and they wrapped around my fingers in a tight grasp. Ellie shot me a small, sad yet grateful smile across the waiting room, where she had her boyfriend's hand draped over her shoulder. Nate also looked at me with some sort of gratitude and with his heavy tattoos and dark vibes, I was kind of glad I earned some sort of respect from him.
Andy was sitting with Perrie and I did a good job to ignore the male imbecile sitting next to Andy. I could feel his eyes shooting daggers in the side of my head, but I didn't fall prey to him.
I did nothing wrong in my eyes.
Two things happened around the same time after that. The side doors were pushed open and a young boy walked through. He looked around before his eyes landed on Karl.
"Is she awake yet?" He asked no one in particular. And just then, the opposite doors opened and out came a middle aged man, dressed in normal clothes.
Ghost shot up to his feet, pulling me up with him. The doctor glanced around and we all looked at his face, fishing for any signs. Anything to tell us that he was here, bearing good news.
The doctor looked at who I assumed were the girl's parents and he nodded at them, with a good smile etching on his face. "Where's the young man that pulled Reed out the water?"
The boy that just seconds ago came through the doors put up his hand whilst simultaneously taking a step forward. "Me, sir."
The doctor looked at the boy and smiled at him. "If it wasn't for you boy, Reed would have had a different ending. Thanks to him," he turned his head back to the parents, "your daughter is okay."
The collective gasps and sounds of cries that followed afterwards would forever be implanted in my head. I could almost feel the thick clouds that were looming over everyone's head lift up and in turn, let the sun shine.
I turned to Ghost, a wide smile already plastered on my face but before I knew what happened I was crushed to his chest. I laughed into his rock hard chest and patted his back. "She's okay!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down in his arms.
Ghost lifted me up and started laughing with me. "Thank you." He whispered once he put me down. I grinned up at his cute, handsome face and patted his cheek. I pulled my sleeves down and wiped the wetness off his face. I fixed his shirt, ran my hands through his hair and patted it down straight afterwards. When I thought he looked good enough to see his girl, I let him go.
"Now you look presentable. Go see your girl." I pushed him softly towards the door. He quickly bended over and planted a chaste kiss on my cheek.
"Thank you." He whispered again before quickly walking to the doctor who was talking to Karl and Reed's parents.
Ghost stopped when he came to the boy who pulled Reed out the water and I watched with tears filling my eyes as the boy gave Ghost a hug. "It's nothing man, I would have done it regardless." I heard the boy tell Ghost.
Ellie and Nate came to stand next to me, both of them smiling and Ellie had tears rolling down her face. "You managed to keep the magician sane." She told me, wrapping her hands around my arm.
"A magician?"
Ellie chuckled at me. "He's the Ghost of the school that plays with magic. If I were you, have your sixth sense on when you're around him. Boy likes to disappear and appear from thin air."
I laughed along with her, admiring Ghost from where I stood. I was so happy that he had his Reed back and I was so happy everyone had Reed back. She had a lot of people that cared for her around her.
Nate nudged me with his shoulder. "Thanks for keeping my cousin's hopes up."
I grinned up at Nate, inwardly enjoying that Nate was talking to me and thanking me. He really looked like a cool dude to be around. "No worries."
"How did you know that she was going to wake up?" Nate asked me casually.
"I didn't. But I had to do something to keep Ghost from going insane."
"That was a dangerous move." Nate voiced out but he didn't seem so unhappy about it.
A tap came on my shoulder and I turned my head and was semi surprised to see Shar. He was still glaring at me when he jerked his head and motioned for me to follow him.
With a roll of my eye, I paced after him. He walked out the door, walked straight ahead, took several turns. Until the hallway was quiet enough to his taste.
"It was nice seeing you jumping from one man to another." Shar commented without turning around to look at me.
I gasped at his incredulous assumption and fought the urge to smack the back of his head.
"I was not!" I proclaimed, sputtering out incoherent words.
Shar turned around and addressed me with his cold stare. "First you were holding hands with Ghost, hugging him, kissing him and then you moved on to Nate—"
"Oh for goodness sake!" I interjected Shar's pointless rambling and threw my hands up in the air. "You can't be serious right now!"
Shar narrowed his hazel eyes at me. "Damn right I'm being fucking serious right now."
I threw my hands up in the air again. "Listen to yourself!" I shouted at him, "you sound like an overprotective alpha male."
Shar crossed his hands across his chest. "Maybe I am?" He shot back.
"You're not an alpha male!" I yelled back at him, reaching over a hand and jabbing a finger in his chest.
"And if it comes down to who was flirting who, I think it's safe to say you're the one still pinning over a girl you can't have!"
Shar's eyes clouded over and he looked at me with a dark expression. I shivered inwardly at the targeted look and nearly crumbled down. Crap... He looked shit scary.
"Excuse me?" He said slowly, his voice dropping down a few octaves.
"You heard me." Someone explain to me why I was talking to a pissed off Shar.
Shar quickly leaned forwards and grabbed both my arms. I let out a wild yelp as he roughly pushed me against the wall. Before I could yell or even breathe, Shar smacked his lips on mine.
It took me all by surprise and everything was awkward yet hot about it. Shar further pressed himself into me, nearly crushing me between himself and the wall but my mind was too preoccupied with the kiss than to register any sort of pain.
When Shar pulled back, he dropped his head on my shoulder and we both equally were breathing hard. "Your sharp tongue is going to get you in trouble."
Well if that trouble included getting kissed by Shar then heck I would freely open my mouth for my sharp tongue to do its work.
"You shouldn't have kissed me. I didn't like that." What utter bullshit rolling out of me.
"Yeah right," Shar muttered before planting a small kiss at the side of my mouth. I arched my back into him, annoyed at the reaction my body was giving to Shar's touches.
He grabbed my lower lip with his teeth and pulled on it. "You going to let me say something?"
I wanted to say no, heck it was playing on the edge of my tongue but my body had other ideas. I stupidly nodded at him and darted my tongue out and traced what bit of his lips I could.
Shar let out a small growl and dropped the hold he had on my lip. "You're moving in with me." He suddenly demanded.
I nodded at him and lifted up my head to capture his lip with my teeth. I always fantasised about doing it and now my dreams were becoming a reality.
"Did you hear me Val?"
I nodded at him again. "Yeah I did. Move in with you. I said okay." I breathed at him. Lifting up my hand, I draped it over his neck and pulled his head closer to mine. "The idea of going back to my house makes me sick so what other place have I got?"
"When I say move in I also mean for you to be all mine and—"
I reared my head back quickly, causing me crash my head into the wall. "All yours?"
Shar smiled down at me and I couldn't ignore the warm fuzzy feeling that came over me. "And before you start asking about Andy, she's just a friend like Ellie is. So please don't assume I can't have the girl I love because she's in my arms right now."
Oh boy.
Damn Shar to hell and right back to my arms.
I closed my eyes and stood back onto my tiptoes. "Moving in with the guy I love really seems like a great idea. And I can have him all to myself..." I said before his lips came softly on mine.
His hands roamed around my body, finally wrapping around my waist and under my shirt.
"We have it good." Shar whispered against my lips.
"I'm sorry for letting my parents speak like that about you." I said softly.
"Don't be sorry for racist people like your parents. They obviously haven't been culturally diversified."
I laughed against his lips. "They are missing out."
"What will our kids be like? Half white half Puerto-Rican?"
"Our kids will be cool. That's all that matters."
"Indeed."
And then we carried on exploring the beauty bestowed on us both, with our thoughts wandering off to the future and our supposedly planned kids.
I couldn't be anymore happier.
/////
LACY LEATHERS IS DONE.
Finally.
Hopefully you enjoyed Lacy Leathers. Thank you for staying till the end and mostly thank you to those people who waited for those painful, long updates! You guys are the real peeps ;))
To read the story of the boy who saved Reed, check out His Words, Her Story.
THANK YOU ALL FOR STICKING WITH ME
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