2 | two
Stacey and Axel lay on top of the bed, a light sheen of sweat covering their bodies as the sun began to set in the distance through the open curtains. She had her back to him and she almost wanted to laugh when she saw him earlier reach over and turn on a retro, baby blue radio. The music hummed lowly in the background and Stacey was momentarily thankful for a moment that she didn't have to question what to do now.
She just had to listen. And maybe then the growing regret in her stomach would fade away.
The two didn't speak. She licked her dry lips and looked up at the textured ceiling, her eyes trailing over the different patterns and the faces they made in her mind. The Beatles sung Hey Jude quietly in her ear from the radio and she felt like a child again, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for lines to meet until some kind of image would form.
"Thanks," Axel said quietly.
Once the euphoria of the moment had vanished, both of them didn't really know what to do. Axel seemed almost hesitant to talk and that only made Stacey more awkward, the regret bubbling even more. She didn't want to feel this way but it was like some visceral, immediate reaction that she couldn't keep down.
"It's okay," she cleared her throat and glanced over at him from the corner of her eye.
"I think you should go," he said and Stacey swallowed before nodding slowly.
She pulled herself up from the bed, reaching toward the floor to grab her clothes that had been strewn across the carpet. Sliding them on, she tried to bite back the feeling of how dirty she felt.
Axel was lying across the bed, eyes on the ceiling and a blank look on his face. He suddenly stared at Stacey and their eyes met for just a brief moment.
Stacey saw the regret on his face, mirroring her own and that was all she needed to know.
She quickly finished getting dressed and stopped at the door to his bedroom on her way out when a throat cleared. Axel was still looking at her.
"We...we can do this again sometime, yeah?" he asked.
And because Stacey wasn't perfect, and she reacted before she could actually think, she nodded her head and slipped out of the house as if she were committing a crime.
Because to her, in that moment, it felt like one.
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