Shake it out - Florence and The Machine
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Chapter 45
(Sophia's pov)
I pull away from Noah and then immediately touch my lips, not knowing what the hell I just did. Noah opens his eyes and looks at me surprised as well. I pace back and forth again thinking about why I just kissed him.
"What was that for?" Noah asked me. I look back up at him with my eyes open wide.
"I don't know." I say truthfully.
He looks at me and then gives me a smoldering look, making butterflies and birds and the whole damn zoo in my stomach flutter like crazy. "Did you regret it?" He askes with a soft voice, waiting for me to answer. He had a look in eyes that made me want to kiss him again.
"No." I say and immediately ran away from him not wanting to see his reaction, afraid the second I do see it I may end up kissing him again and allowing my walls to fall down again.
I almost slip on my dress and pull it up so I don't trip and embarrass myself. I hear footsteps behind me and speed up, running out the party and towards my car where my driver was already seated. "Please take me to my hotel."
The car starts moving and I see from the mirror Noah running towards my direction yelling out my name. He tries to catch up but slows down, knowing he cannot outrun the car and was out of breathe. I look at his heartbroken expression and I felt my heart shatter to pieces. I touch my lips wanting to stop the car and run back to him. I look away from the mirror as he gets smaller and smaller. My lips quiver and my chest hurts, placing a hand to my heart for the pain I was causing us. I tried to stay strong for a long time but now I let myself to cry one last time.
********
Three days later
I pull my red coat closer to because of the cold winds in New york, even if it was turning summer in a few weeks it still felt cold during the night. I enter the café and take a seat next to the window, looking at the passing cars heading to their destinations, where as for me I no longer had a destination. I cried my heart out in my hotel room the past three days and here I was in a vacant 24 hour café, empty and hurt at the same time. Soft jazz music plays in the background and I think of what has happened the past few days.
I hear someone walking inside the café, a little confused to who would be here this late. I look up to see a familiar some one. It was Alexander. He wearing jeans and a black sweater. I catch his eye and he smiles but it wasn't reaching his eyes. He had red eyes and messed up hair in contrast to his combed up hair he had a few days ago.
"Hey. Congrats on finally getting together with Noah. I saw you two in the garden...uh...you know..."He says a little awkwardly.
I give him a bitter smile and look out the window, "We didn't get back together, I ran away after breaking his heart." I remove my gaze from the window and at Alexander to see he was about to order a drink but he stopped when he heard what I said to him. He turned around and met my eyes with shock.
"I don't really know him but we did talk during the party, he seemed like a nice guy. I saw you two dancing, he looked at you like you were the only girl in the room." Alex says to me.
"At the beginning of the year I vowed to myself to not fall for his tricks and lies to get even with him. It was working out till he got a girlfriend the prettiest and sweetest girl I know. We all hung out for some time and before I know it, I was falling all over again." I say to him, not really commenting on what he said.
"And I ran away just after saying I loved him too. A week ago I had everything that I've ever wanted friendship that I know will last, my family closer than ever, and getting accepted to my dream school."
"And you know what's funny when everything I've ever wanted was happening right before my eyes, I want something more. But I don't even know what I want." I scoff at myself.
I look back at Alexander who was still standing up, listening to everything that's happened in my life the past year. I notice the dark circles in his eyes and bloodshot eyes once again. He was a train wreck. "Enough about me, what are you doing in a café in one in the morning?"
"Let me guess..." I cut him off as he thinks on what to say. I look closely at how he looked and then thought of the mystery girl at the ball.
"You also don't know what you want. It's one in the morning and here you are in a beautiful café, with messy hair and a smile that doesn't meet your eyes." I look at the café admiring it and then back at him.
"You have all the symptoms of being confused." I tell Alex.
"I guess we both have the symptoms of being confused." He says. It was refreshing to talk to Alex without him flirting most of the time. He was actually a great listener. He gestures to the chair across me asking me if he can take a seat. And I gesture at it too nodding.
He takes a seat and hangs his coat on the back of his chair. "I hate being confused." Alex says trying to lighten up the mood, like he usually does. I smile at him and agree.
"So how long have you known the girl?" I asked him curiously.
"Since we were kids, I teased her so much." Alex smiles at an old memory and he really did love the girl, but he didn't know it.
"Let me guess...you teased her because you didn't know how to speak to her...family friends?..." I say easily, since most of our lives were cliques and we didn't know it.
"She is really beautiful." I say to him and nods at me.
"More than beautiful, words can't define her beauty but I can say she is breathtaking." Alex says to me, I smile at him happy for the mystery girl to have such a man. He is falling deep.
"But she's with someone else...and you hate it..." I thought about how predictable our lives were and I think Alex was too. We were the same but different at the same time.
"She has a wonderful guy by her side...but your worried she'll pick him over you...so you're choosing to let her go along with your feelings." Alex looks out the window because of the harsh truth and smiles bitterly.
"I understand girls like her because...I'm that kind of girl too. Looking for something that's not there and later realizing it's been there the whole time." Alex turns his head to listen to what I had to say.
"We want to lose the things we have. For what?" I stop to look at him and I state. His eyes soften at my words, a few tears well up in his eyes.
We sit like this pondering on this and Alex looks up to control his emotions then looks back at the window. He looks back at me and I sit there empty of any emotions not knowing what I was going to do next. What will I do? I don't know what I want now, when I have everything I've ever wished for.
"You want to lose what you could've had. For what?"
After what he just said it was like a click in my brain to realize what I have just done three days ago. I open my mouth to let out air feeling all my emotions coming at me all at once. I felt the familiar pain of leaving the love of my life. I stare at Alex not allowing myself to shed one more tear. We both get up to leave at the same time realizing our mistakes.
Walking out the café with Alex beside me, we both walk towards different directions. I stop and look back to see Alex turning too.
"Thanks." Alex yells out to me for what I helped him realize.
"Thanks." I say back, no longer confused to what I want.
We smile at each other and head towards our different lives. I speed walk towards the cab that just pulled over to let a passenger out, and get in. I knew the perfect place.
*******
"Central Park." I hear a low voice say and smile immediately knowing who it was. I turn around to meet the annoying douchebag I still am in love with.
"I think this was the best place to start all over again." I say to him and he gives me a confused look. He had dark circles, messy hair I wanted to run my hands through, unshaved beard, and he still managed to look so handsome.
"Sophia I don't want to start over, I want to start from where we left off." Noah says to me with a sad tone and I smile at him knowing I wanted the same thing too. He was always so thoughtful I don't know why I haven't done this before.
"You're right we should start from where we left off, here are the words I've wanted to say but never did Noah. I want you and I'm sorry for being so confused all this time. I think our little fight and kiss -" I cut myself off blushing at how I stole a kiss from the bad boy himself.
"- was a wake up call for me. I want you to know my feelings for you too and I'm sorry for leaving you like that. Noah King you are the worst and best thing that's every happened to me. Because of you I became even more confident in myself, got to accomplish things that the old Sophia wouldn't think to, and fell in love with someone like you. I have flaws and hope you can accept them, I already accepted yours long back." Noah smiles at me and comes closer, I watch him and my voices hitches a little at how handsome he looked under the light.
"Sophia, I love you for all your flaws but I think your flaws make you look even beautiful in my eyes." Noah says coming even more closer, he is so perfect. Why did I have to be confused for so long?
"Without you I don't know where I would be and who I would be. You are smart, caring, patient, and handsome. Loving you was a rollercoaster ride you made me feel things that I didn't think I could feel. Noah King you are the most wonderful man I've ever met and it sucks that not many people see what I see in you. You broke down the walls that nobody else could. Noah King you broke my heart and I broke yours, I think we're pretty even." I say with a smirk and he come closer to me.
"Not just yet." Noah says and swiftly steals a kiss, pulling me closer. I smile at him and he does the same. It was passionate and I wouldn't want it any other way. I lean my head on his and look into the same eyes I fell in love with.
"I love you, Noah King."
"And I love you Sophia Brava." He says without hesitation and holds me closer afraid I will slip away.
*********
(Noah's pov)
I wake up to see Sophia in my arms, sleeping. She starts to sweat and I pull down the blanket to allow her to cool up but she continues sweating up. I put a hand to her forehead to see she was burning up. She started breathing hard and I try to wake her up thinking she was just having a nightmare.
She continues sleeping and I start to get worried, I shake her even harder but it was no use. She unconsciously holds a hand to her chest and opens her mouth to let in air.
"Sophia?!" I shake her and try again but the same thing happened again. Tears fall from her eyes and she starts to move her legs slightly, because of the awful pain she was feeling.
I take my phone from the nightstand and immediately call an ambulance, saying they will be here very soon. I call Skye to tell the rest of our friends and her mother to inform them of what happened. They all had different reactions some yelled at me in anger and some broke down to tears over the phone.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
I run as faster as I can downstairs towards the hotel suite door and they immediately come in. "Where is she?" The medic says.
I quickly lead them up to my room where she was laying down in pain and the medic tries to help her as she gets it on the stretcher. "Did she take her meds?"
"I don't know, I wasn't with her the past three days." I say to the medic, and he doesn't anything but assess Sophia for any signs of not eating or the smell of smoking.
I get my shirt that was on the chair beside the door and put it on to head over to the hospital. We quickly head down the stairs and I make sure to grab my things out the door. As I lock the door they get in the elevator I quickly get in and then another medic closes the door, the elevator ride was fast since I took a suite on the third floor. The doors open and we roll the stretcher down the lobby and towards the ambulance up front.
The manager watches us leave and people in the lobby do too, to see all the commotion.
We all get in and close the door quickly. The ambulance immediately drives as soon the doors close. The medics try put an injection in her arm to try to lower the symptoms and lower her breathing rate but only made it worse. I run a hand through my hair worried for Sophia and afraid. I feel tears coming down my face and hold her hand. I move the hair off her beautiful face, remembering the first day we met in the dance room. She looked like a butterfly gliding over the floors so swiftly. Sophia did not like to be contained but free.
I then look at the medics angrily. "Can you do anything else to help her!?" I yell not understanding why they weren't working fast enough to help Sophia.
"Sir, we are doing our best to help her." The medic says calmly with some sympathy in his eyes.
I look up to the top of the ambulance, blaming myself for causing her pain in the past without knowing it is all leading up to now. We stop and the driver knocks for the window to let the medics know we were at the hospital.
The medic immediately opens the doors and quickly runs out to let us out, not wasting any time. We get out quickly into the hospital and roll the stretcher towards the emergency room. A doctor immediately meets us halfway.
"She started sweating and breathing hard when I woke up the morning next to her. I don't know how long she was in pain." I say to the doctor and he nods at me.
We reach the emergency room and I clutch on to Sophia's hand not wanting to let her go. "Sir, we need you to let her go to operate on her." The doctors says to me and I look at Sophia's beautiful face, quickly giving her a kiss then immediately closed my eyes savoring this moment. I still felt the tingling feeling on my lips when I kissed her, her kisses were the best thing in the world. I wanted to stop time and stay in this moment. Sophia unconsciously kisses me back just as slowly despite being in pain.
"Sir." I pull away from her and a tear falls from her eyes. I open my eyes back up and sigh hard looking back at her frail form. I hated not being able to help. I let go of her hand holding on to every one of her fingers as they roll the stretcher past me, into the emergency room. It was like everything was happening in slow motion, her fingers were around my fingers until she entered the room.
Like every good thing must come to an end, Sophia slips away.
********
I was originally going to do a happy ending but...no. I needed to do something unpredictable. They are finally even.
Epilogue coming up, I swear I didn't plan this chapter.
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-T