[ This chapter is dedicated to @the9thresident for all the wonderful support, right from the beginning. I truly appreciate each vote and comment, and to be quite honest, this dedication was long overdue. Y'all should really go and check out her book<3 ]
| Amelia |
Even with my hands let free by him, I didn't dare and put them to use to get me out of my current position.
No, instead I simply let them fall quietly to my sides, a soft gasp escaping my lips when I felt his chest inch closer to my spine.
Noah had issued - openly and unbridledly - the challenge for me to scream and seize the chance to run out of the abandoned place, but he knew...I knew, I wouldn't ever dare do that.
When I didn't even squeak as a response to his words, he chuckled against the helix of my ear, his head still lowered down to its level.
"What? Lost your voice suddenly, did you?"
A shiver ran down my back as I felt him remove his hand from my mouth and extend it lower, not another word leaving his form till he reached the sensitive skin of my neck.
I whimpered when he encircled his hand around it, wrapping his palm against its surface while he still stood behind me. His movements were calculated, tantalisingly slow, and yet they managed to create the completely opposite effect in the way they caused the pulse in my neck to quicken.
"Noah...let me ex-"
"What the fuck are you doing here, Amelia?"
A pronounced anger now shone in his tone, making my insides burn; the slight growl in his voice as he said my name did nothing to appease my feeble state.
"I didn't mean to follow you, I-"
"Bullshit."
In one smooth motion, he had me caged against the dilapidated wall of the room, my back now resting firmly on the crumbling surface.
His grip on my throat slipped away as he now chose to place his hands on the area beside each side of my head, successfully trapping me right where he wanted.
I swallowed when I, through no choice of my own, found myself a prisoner of his verdant gaze - it was unwavering and ominous, as if he wanted to vanish me out of existence just by staring at me.
Under that tantalising burden, even I couldn't help but admit that he'd called my bluff. I had, after all, willingly followed him. I hadn't needed to, I could've just gone about my night as usual, and yet I had chosen to come here. To this unknown, empty place in a street completely unfamiliar to me.
Why? Was I really that eager to know what Noah seemed to hide within himself? Is that how deep the extent of my curiosity about him ran?
Or was it, a little voice nagged, that I was actually concerned, worried he'll end up getting hurt?
I had, for reasons I couldn't yet explain, made the conscious choice to follow him. And now, here I was: trapped against a wall with no escape in sight except to stare into Noah's deep pools of lushness, his face inches away from my own.
"Explain yourself before I really fucking get angry."
It took the tight gritting of his teeth to make me snap out of my fixation and get some semblance of a grip on myself. "I...saw you walking on the street..." I mumbled unsurely, "you were stumbling a lot, it kind of seemed like you were...like you were-"
"Like I was?"
"Drunk."
The blurt of the word was purely accidental, yet it was the only one that could've conveyed what I wanted to say. As soon as it left me, I bit my lip harshly as if to stop myself from any further stupidity and traversed my eyes all over his face, trying to assess his reaction and gauge just how agitated he was.
He clearly noticed, for I observed his eyes lower their line of gaze down to my lips, rendering me free of the burden of his attention.
"So what if I am?"
My relief was clearly short-lived; he looked up into my eyes once again after a few moments of silence, a glint of confusion evident on his face.
"Well, I just- I just thought you'd end up hurting yourself...like, like getting hit by a car in the night or something..." I stammered pitifully, trying to pull a weak smile to ease the tension but failing miserably. "So I-"
"So you decided to follow me to the middle of nowhere, all alone?"
All I could do was gulp silently in response, a soft, almost inconspicuous breath escaping my lips when I felt him tip his head down interrogatively, nose almost grazing mine.
I could smell the yeasty smell of alcohol in his breath when he looked into my eyes, lusciously dark lashes nearly brushing my own.
"Why do you care?"
The question was spoken with a tone that resembled innocence, as if he genuinely wanted me to provide him a valid, reasonable reason due to which I'd care, or as if he was asking it more to himself than me.
I almost opened my mouth to speak as a reflex but abandoned that thought the next instant, realising I had no answer. Once again the pesky voice in my head made itself apparent, making me push it down as deep as I could.
But what if it's right, I couldn't help but wonder, What if I do care?
I took in a shaky inhale - partly because of the scathing burden of that question, but mostly owing to the sensation of Noah's nose making a fleeting contact with mine, his ragged breath fanning my cupid's bow.
"Are you going to give me an answer, Amelia?" He asked as a mere centimetre separated our lips, dark eyes boring into my own.
It was too much; the feeling of his breaths on my face, the touch of his skin on mine, the sheer burden of his eyes...Too much. Way, way too much.
I needed to get out, be anywhere but there, in my current position. My brain felt like a cesspool of tangled strings with incessant knots, ones that refused to untie till he stopped staring down at me.
I felt overwhelmed - completely overtaken, consumed by our proximity and the intoxication it seemed to infect the air around us with. It was like a high - one I needed to escape right now before it confused me any further.
"No." I answered him abruptly, and without warning, slipped out from under him and into the open.
The beating in my heart slowed, recognising its normal state.
Ah, sweet mother of god.
For a moment before, I felt like I'd completely lost my train of thought...as if I was transfixed, almost...entranced.
What in the world was that?
I shook those intense feelings out all at once and took in a deep breath, shifting my gaze to find Noah chuckling at my action, still facing the wall but now leaning against it in his drunken state.
"Okay then, sweetheart."
He pushed himself off the surface and turned around, in front of me once again.
Sliding his hands in his pockets, he remained in his place, taking a brief moment to asses my - still flustered - form.
"What the fuck are those?"
I looked down to see what he was referring to and a blush immediately adorned my cheeks, noticing his lips curving in disgust at my fuzzy slippers.
"They're my fuzzy slippers," I justified meekly, a bit offended at his disapproval, "They're cute."
He scoffed at me before muttering something that sounded like 'Christ' under his breath.
I huffed, relaxing a bit when I noticed that, contrary to his usual mood, Noah seemed more at ease, more unbothered.
Maybe it was the booze, but he was changing moods by the minute tonight.
"Seriously though, Lilo and Stitch?"
"They're comfortable!" I tried to rationalise my childish choice once again, looking down at my fluffy blue pair of slippers whose design was taken from one of my favourite Disney movies. I loved watching it when I was little...it made for one of my favourite past times. I even remember-
"Wait," my eyes suddenly widened, lips slightly parted as I stared at the boy in front of me, "How do you know which movie they're from?"
My excitement doubled when I saw his own eyes widen by a fraction and a red blush begin to adore his neck. "What..."
I couldn't help but grin like a cheshire cat.
"You watch Lilo and Stitch?" I simpered, inner idiot jumping up and down in glee when I saw him on the verge of pouting like a petulant child.
"I don't," he ground out in slurred words, glaring daggers at me through his eyes. "My cousin likes it."
"Sure." I let out a chuckle, not able to control it; my laughter doubled when he opened his mouth to retaliate but a hiccup slip out instead, once again indicative of how wasted he was.
"Shut up," he warned, groaning in what seemed like annoyance before walking past me and resting his back against the soothing surface of the wall behind.
I turned to face him, fingers fiddling with the string of my purse.
"Any reason why you're hammered?" I asked, head tilted slightly as I looked at his disoriented figure in curiosity.
I had expected his usual menace and the warning right after, but instead, he simply rose his brow and shrugged his shoulders.
"I have many."
His response took me aback but I recovered quickly, finding something oddly comforting in how he wasn't snapping at me every chance he got.
"Well, no judgement," I took a moment and shrugged, walking ahead and leaning against the wall as well, a bit away from him. "We all have bad days, don't we?"
He scoffed before running a hand through his hair tiredly, as if exhausted because of the state he was in. Using the wall as support, he slid down its surface and sat down on the floor, bending his knees so that just his feet were placed flat on the ground in front of him.
"Trust me, sweetheart, you don't have them as bad as I do."
Silence filled the space.
There was something in the way he'd said the sentence; as if he really was pained, in distress over whatever had driven him to come here.
Before I knew it, I was crouching down to sit right beside him, legs flat on the floor while I rested my spine on the cool wall behind me as well.
Why? I couldn't have explained.
I grabbed the vodka bottle he'd previously been drinking, picking it up from the floor and - very, very hesitantly, making sure to smell it in distaste for a few seconds - raising it to my mouth and taking a big gulp.
Despite the bitter taste, I looked sideways at Noah and smiled weakly.
"Let's have the worst bad day possible, then?"
-
My babies have finally managed to get some real alone time. How do you think it's going to go now? What's going to happen further?
What do you think about these overwhelming emotions Amelia's increasingly prone to?
I'd love to know your thoughts on everything.
Please vote on the chapter and comment if you're liking the story so far *makes a cute puppy face*<3
Until next time,
Kiara❤️