Songs for this chapter:
• Never Not - Lauv
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six:
Bryce's POV
I open the door of our car for Blossom. She looks much more comfortable and relaxed now that she's wearing a sweater of mine over her jeans rather than her ripped shirt, and even though her experience with Liam just now certainly did not go ideally, I see relief on her face.
Relief to know that he will never hurt her ever again.
"Are you okay to sit in the back again, honey?" I ask her softly as she slips under my arm and climbs up into the SUV. I always travel in these boring-ass black SUVs even when there's only four people in the car, but the third row is finally coming in handy now that Blossom is travelling with us.
She gives me a small nod before climbing into the third row and tucking herself into one of the corner seats.
I step into the car as well and claim the seat in the middle row beside Jordan. I slam the door shut after me and reach to buckle my seatbelt, but I spot Blossom in my peripheral vision and frown.
She somehow looks so sad back there, huddled against the side of the car with the hood of my sweatshirt pulled low over her face.
And so I slip off my seat and claim the middle seat of the back row instead.
I buckle my seat belt and wrap my arm around Blossom's shoulders. I tuck her in against my side, and even though Liam was just touching her in various disgusting ways, she still doesn't flinch when I hold her close.
"Better?" I whisper.
She nods and leans in to rest her head against my chest.
As Sawyer begins to back out of the parking spot, I glance down at Blossom's face again to find that her eyes have fluttered shut and her lips have lifted into the smallest of smiles.
I kiss the top of her head and close my eyes too, content knowing that even though I've fucked up so many times in my life, I finally did something right this time.
I protected Blossom when she needed it the most, and now I just need to pray that I can be by her side always so that no one can hurt her again.
🌸🌸🌸
Blossom narrows her eyes at the pair of dark sunglasses in my outstretched hands.
I sigh. "Come on, sweet girl. I know it's a little bit strange to wear sunglasses inside, but we want to avoid having people recognize us if we can. I care about you too much to let the media sink their claws into you right now."
Blossom sticks her nose up in the air defiantly, but I see her expression soften at my words.
This time, when I unfold the sunglasses and slide them onto Blossom's face, she leaves them resting on the bridge of her nose and tugs her hood down low, casting her face in a shadow.
I secure my own sunglasses over my eyes and make sure that my hood is pulled over my face as well before taking Blossom's hand in mine.
Together, we begin to follow Jordan, Sawyer, and Aidan into the airport, hand in hand.
"Although the four of us are quite conspicuous considering, you know, that we're four tall men dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, we would get recognized a lot more frequently if my face and tattoos could be seen," I murmur into my girl's ear as we slip into the building and begin to walk towards the luggage check.
She giggles a little to herself, but as soon as the first sets of curious eyes fall on us, her mouth shuts immediately.
I tug her closer, urging her to ignore the other travellers around us as we approach the luggage check. As always, Sawyer does most of the talking, but when I notice that the woman he's speaking to looks to be in her mid-twenties, all hope of going unrecognized today completely dwindles.
I dig around in the front pocket of my backpack to retrieve me and Blossom's passports. When I hand them over, the woman opens my passport first and gasps when she reads my name.
I lift a finger to my lips and gently remove the sunglasses from my face. "How about we keep that reaction minimal? My girlfriend and I have a plane to catch."
🌸🌸🌸
"Holy shit. I forgot how much flying fucking sucks," I mumble as the plane begins to roll down the runway.
Blossom, who is sitting in the window seat to my left, reaches for my hand sympathetically at the exact same time that Jordan, who is sitting behind me, kicks the back of my seat.
"I hate travelling with unmedicated Bryce. Do you think they're ever going to give you your meds back?" he asks bluntly.
Aidan splutters from his seat in the row across from Jordan. Sawyer grimaces and pats his back sympathetically.
"Don't you think it may be a little too soon to be having this conversation, Jord?" he asks softly.
Jordan throws his head back and yawns. I glare at him over my shoulder, but if he notices, he doesn't care.
He lifts his shoulders in a shrug. "It's also too early for Bradshaw to be travelling after a coma and concussion, but here we are."
I raise my middle finger and hold my hand out in his direction. "Listen hear, you little—"
Before I can finish that thought, Blossom grabs my face and pulls me towards her.
I freeze. Our faces are now only an inch or so apart, and when she blinks, I feel her eyelashes brush against my cheekbones.
Her thumbs rub against the stubble on my jaw, and she tilts her head to the side and smiles.
I smile back, and before I can even reach up to touch her face too, she tugs me down and presses her lips to mine.
When we kissed in my bedroom last night, Blossom was shy, timid. Every brush of her lips was slow and soft, and I could feel every small exhalation she made against my cheeks in between brushes of lips.
This kiss is none of that.
She holds my face firmly in place and kisses me just as hard. I know that it's a distraction, that she just wants to calm my anxiety and anger towards the idiotic man-child seated behind me, but I couldn't care less about her intentions because every kiss from Blossom feels like a blessing.
I open my mouth for her, and she kisses me harder, deeper, until I hear the sound of teeth against metal.
Blossom must hear it too, because she pulls away from me and blinks rapidly.
Oh, fuck.
I clear my throat. "Um . . . So. Maybe I should've told you this before. I guess you couldn't have noticed last time you kissed me, but . . . uh . . ."
Blossom's hands immediately reach for my face again, and she attempts to pry my jaw open for me.
I snort and open my mouth. She leans closer, so close, trying to inspect the inside of my mouth.
I smile and stick my tongue out for her.
She gasps and slaps a hand over her own mouth.
I shut my mouth and stare down at my feet. "I don't know why I did it. I just . . . wanted a change."
Jordan kicks my seat again. "She finally discovered the tongue piercing?"
I squeeze my eyes shut and try impossibly fucking hard to keep my tone even and cool. "Yes, she did. I can't tell if she's mad at me or not." I turn to Blossom again and raise an eyebrow. "Are you?"
She shakes her head rapidly, eyes wide and teeth piercing into her bottom lip.
I open my mouth to speak again, but she claims my lips in another kiss as the plane lifts off the runway.
🌸🌸🌸
"So, I have some bad news," Jordan says as him, Sawyer, and Aidan approach Blossom and I.
We're currently waiting in an airport in Toronto to board our next flight, which will bring us home to Blossom's family. Blossom is bubbling with anxiety as she sits in the chair beside me, tucked under my arm and scrolling mindlessly through her phone as she tries her best to avoid all the sets of eyes darting over us and all the cameras pointed in our direction.
I readjust her hood to make sure it hides her face before turning to face Jordan. "What is it?"
My voice is gruffer than I had intended for it to be, but my own anxiety is spiraling out of control. Miraculously, I didn't sob like a baby when our first plane landed, but Blossom seems to be growing more and more nervous by the second, and her emotions are rubbing off on me.
I snuggle her closer and continue to stare up at Jordan.
He gives Blossom a nervous glance before averting his eyes back to me. "The weather back home is really bad today. We won't be able to fly out until tomorrow morning."
My eyes immediately shoot to Blossom only to find that she's already looking at me.
Her tears come before I can stop them, and so I take her into my arms and hold her as she shakes and shivers, even as her tears soak my sweater and her hands squeeze my shoulders hard enough to bruise.
A/N: Hello. I cannot recall if I made this clear or not, so: Sawyer is Bryce's primary security guard. Aidan is Bryce's other assistant, along with Jordan.
Anyway:
Y'all I am just soooo not in the headspace to write right now. I just want to lay in a pile of Squishmallows all day and sleep.
I'll try to push through for you guys, but if it takes me a little longer to update now, at least you guys know why.