I let Aubrey drop me at the very front of the gate, and I walked the rest of the way to meet Chris, who was sleeping in my dorm.
"What were you doing today?" He asked after I woke him.
"Uh, I just had to, return some books to the library and what not." I turned away.
"Oh okay. You look pretty... you're looking actually really bright." He complimented. He smiled brightly as he stared at me.
I grinned, but all I was thinking about was Aubrey's smile, how I made him laugh, and how we had made love so many times, but each time still felt so unique.
"Thank you." I grinned harder. "I appreciate that."
"What's up with you, you're in such a good mood." He asked.
"I'm just happy.." I tried to stop smiling but I honestly couldn't. "To see you."
"Good, because I don't know how to deal with things after Aubrey came back." He confessed. His smile dropped, and he shook his head.
"Why not?" I asked him, as he approached me.
"Because I saw the effect he had on you as soon as you saw him. He has hurt you, so badly." He sighed. "I promise he'll never hurt you again."
"Thank you." I shrugged. "I know he won't anymore."
Chris pulled me into a hug, and cradled my head. "Forget about him okay?"
"I'll try." I said, his lithe hand stroked my hair.
"Is it raining out? your hair is wet."
I didn't get to dry my hair after I showered with Aubrey. "I'm using this new product in it."
"Oh." He hummed, while scooping my hair up into a ponytail. "I see.."
His eyes lingered on my face and neck as he continued to play with my hair. I could feel his breathing pattern become unsteady against my cheek, and I felt a chill run through me. Something wasn't right.
"I think your hair is beautiful, no need for new products." He said, and I was nervous. His tone had changed drastically. I decided then to change the subject.
"Chris, We need to talk about a few things." I quickly followed, I needed to let him know I had seen Aubrey. But somehow I could tell that he already had an idea.
The grip on my hair tightened, and I felt a significant tug upward. "Yes Amber." He drew out.
"Well, I've been umm..." I paused, I wasn't comfortable with the way that he was talking to me, while keeping contact with my hair and tugging.
" What do you want to talk about first? The fact that your lips are swollen pink? The fact that you're flushed and freshly showered, or the Fucking purple hickey forming on your neck." He tugged again, and this time I felt my head move backward with the pressure.
"Chris stop, you're hurting me." I shrieked. I looked up into his eyes, and saw a rage there that I'd never seen before.
"No. You fucked him didn't you?" He accused.
"Chris what are you talking about?" I tried to ask confidently, but I gulped nervously.
"Don't play dumb with me bitch... you let him fuck you." He growled. One of his hands snaked around my neck, and he began to squeeze slightly.
My mouth felt dry. The sentence I was trying to form refused to escape my lips, and I stared into Chris' burning eyes. "I..."
"I've been with you for the whole time that that mother fucker was in Canada. I watched you change into this shell of a human being, and there was little I could do to reverse it. I moved halfway across the world to be with you and build with you." He said, pausing for a breath. "And the minute that little Bitch comes back you decide to fuck him. You disrespect me, and give him what belongs to me?"
I managed to push him away, and I moved to the other side of the room. "I don't belong to you Chris. I'm not your possession."
"And here I was, thinking you were just shy, or not ready to take that step again. Turns out you're just a slut! You're trash. You are a grimy little cunt!" He scoffed.
I grabbed the nearest object and threw it at him. My aim was not too accurate, but I managed to hit his shoulder with a small ornament.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" I regained my voice.
"I didn't lie! That's what you are. A cheating, lying bitch!" He continued.
I pounced. I couldn't allow him to speak to me in that way. He had no idea who he was messing with. I had way too much respect for myself.
I shoved him as hard as I could, and he grabbed my arm. Gripping as hard as he could he easily flung my body away, but not before leaving a red hand print on the skin there.
My vision was clouded with red, and I lunged at him, throwing all my formal training out the window. I bit his shoulder, and he punched me in the head. I fell to the floor with a thud and a gasp.
With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I couldn't feel the aftermath of the blow.
"Look at what you made me do!!." He angrily spat. There were veins popping out of neck, frothy spit flew out of his mouth, and he resembled more of a monster than a human. However, he didn't intimidate me.
"Get out!" I screamed, my voice unrecognizable. "Get the Fuck out!"
"Gladly, you dumb Bitch!" He shot back, delivering the final blow.
I watched as the only person who kept me going for the past couple of months, walked out of the front door, and quite possibly my life.
Aubrey's POV
She wasn't answering my texts or my calls. It has been hours. Where the hell was she?
I decided to go to her because, quite frankly I was worried. I knew that I left evidence of our time together on her skin. I made sure to leave a hickey on her neck, and chest while we were showering together.
Fuck.
Now she wasn't answering my calls.
Several scenarios played out in my mind as I turned into the parking lot.
Chris could have seriously hurt her, and it would've been all my fault, I thought as I found a parking very close to the entrance of her dorm.
I stormed into her dormitory with purpose. "I need to see Amber," I let the woman at the desk know before dismissing myself and walking up the flight of stairs to the room.
I knocked on the door quite a few times before Kelly pulled the door wide open and I pushed past her to get to Amber.
"I think that you're the last person she wants to see right now." Kelly admitted.
"What's wrong? Where is she?" I asked, letting the words roll off my tongue quickly.
To answer my question, I heard a muffled noise coming from the bedroom. I followed that sound to find a broken-hearted Amber, curled up in a puddle of her own tears.
"Please leave me alone." She said, without as much as a glance toward me.
"No.. what happened?" I continued to ask. I sat near her feet on the bed, and began to rub them, to soothe her.
"You gave me the hickey. Isn't this what you wanted?" She accused and asked all at once.
"Wait no!" Yes. "What happened?" I had an idea, but I couldn't believe it.
"Chris saw the hickey, and threw a fit... yada yada yada, its over between us. That's the short story." She explained loosely.
"I didn't mean to cause this. No matter what you think." I clarified. "I would never sabotage your relationship. The hickey was for my own ego."
"Aubrey, I don't care. You've been nothing but selfish since you've been back. I built a life without you in it, and I was just getting used to it. I'd like to go back to that time."
"Amber, but.. I didn't force you to love me. Did I? Did I?" I asked her, walking closer to her balled up frame.
"You might as well have. You do things to me that no one else can." She sat up to face me, her eyes red and puffy and all I wanted to do was reach out to hug her.
"And what's wrong with that?" I pleaded, kneeling next to the bed, on my knees.
"I can't be around you without melting. I hate it!" She hated that she loved me, and it pained me to hear.
"What's so fucking wrong with that. I know what I do. I make you happy.... and you deserve it. Why are you scared to feel happy?"
"I'm not" she insisted, but the look on her face showed that she didn't even know herself.
"Yes. Yes you are, anything that makes you feel anything... you recoil from it. You hate that you love me."
"Aubrey." She warned.
"Amber." I mimicked her condescending tone.
She turned away from me, my words were truthful.
"Tell me that you love me." I begged.
"No. Aubrey, I can't.." she responded immediately.
"Say it." I had gone far too long without hearing those before words from her.
"No. Leave me alone." She kept her stance.
"Amber... I love you." When she turned her face away from me, I noticed a red bump forming on the side of her head.
"Stop Aubrey." She rolled her eyes.
"What the fuck? Who did that to you?" I couldn't care less at this point whether she wanted me to touch her or not. I observed the bump. I leaned in and cupped her face in my hands softly.
"No one." She stuttered, "its nothing." She held my wrists and pulled them off her.
"I'm gonna fucking kill his ass!" I said. I was intent on doing it. I knew in that moment, that I would've acquired a criminal record for beating that niggah's ass and I didn't give a damn. "How could he do that to you!?"
"Aubrey! We were fighting... he's got his battle scars too. I bit a chunk out of his shoulder." She tried to laugh nervously, but I saw her wince in pain.
"That doesn't mean anything. He fucking touched you. Fam needs to know his place, and I have no problem showing him how we do it in Toronto." I warned her.
"Oh so you're gonna be nice to him?" She teased.
"What?" I asked her, confused.
"I've been to Toronto, the people they are some of the nicest, most genuine people that I've ever met." She clarified.
I rolled met eyes at how light she was making the situation.
"Why is this such a joke to you? You should be pissed." I tried to convince her, but she simply shrugged.
"Chris is a joke. It's completely over between us. I'm just coping with what happened in my own way, and trying to see the bright side to all of this. I'm no longer in a one sided relationship, with a man I do not love." She sighed and touched her head, which was still swollen, and quickly turning purple.
I went into the kitchen and grabbed a clean cloth, and wrapped it around a bag of frozen beans.
"How is she?" Kelly asked as she leaned against the counter.
"She's hanging in there." I stated vaguely.
"It seems like you got her to talk." Kelly folded her arms.
"Nope." I wasn't lying. I could barely get her to explain anything to me. "I don't even know how to talk to her anymore. She's changed quite a bit." I admitted.
"I've only known her for a short time, but this is the most open she's been in a while."
"I'm just going to take this to her."
Ambers POV
I pressed the makeshift ice pack on the bump which was forming on the side of my head. It hurt a little as I pressed it, but that didn't last long, for the relief I felt afterwards was overwhelming.
"Thank you." I told him, as he stood near the bed.
I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears, and I watched as he unraveled in front of me. I knew what he was planning to do.
"Aubrey, please... come lay with me." I tried using my charm to lure him into the bed with me. If I let him leave now, he would definitely try to find and harm Chris.
"I have to go soon, Amber." He grimaced.
I knew he didn't have to go anywhere, he was pissed off. His fist balled up and he couldn't look at me directly. I reached out to grab his balled fist. "Please." I begged.
"Do you love me?" He asked, his eyes were a bit softer.
"I do, Aubrey." I said, only to appease him.
"Say it and I'll stay." He insisted.
"Stay and I'll say it." I reiterated.
In no time, he kicked off his shoes, and climbed onto the bed.
We lay in silence up until he decided to break the peaceful silence.
"We've spent like half of our relationship curled up in bed, or sleeping." He kissed the back of my neck and I shivered.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Me either. That's when you're the least stubborn." He whispered, and smiled at his truthful remark.
"I love you Aubrey." I finally gave in, and he wrapped his arms around me securely, until I drifted off to sleep.
Aubrey's POV
It was amazing how easily this girl could fall asleep. She was like a little sloth. However, I didn't possess the same quality. I lay awake, comforting the beautiful girl.
I watched her phone light up in my hand. Messages from Chris filled the screen, and I ground my teeth together watching the messages come in one after the other.
I'm so sorry
I'll never do that again baby
Please forgive me. I can't believe I hurt you 😔
I love you so much baby.
Missed calls, texts and even emails were flooding her notifications, and I couldn't handle it, knowing what he did.
I decided that I should respond. I typed out a message, We need to talk, I'll meet you at the supermarket in 10.