Falling With Style {Chris Evans}

thirty-four

That night when Mila pulled into her driveway after a long evening spent on the field practicing and conditioning by herself just to clear her head, she sat in her car with the music playing entirely too loud rather than gathering her things from the passenger seat and actually going inside. Her eyes were closed as lyrics to some pop song filled her ears until a tap on her window made her eyes nearly pop out her head as she jumped in her seat and her legs hit the bottom of the steering wheel.

"How long are you gonna sit there? I made food," Ashley asked once the window rolled down, ignoring Mila's heavy breathing and hand on her chest as if to calm herself.

She said nothing in response as she rolled the window back up and turned off the car before grabbing her things and following Ashley inside.

Ashley made a cheesy pasta with spinach and shrimp adorning it. As heavenly as it smelled, Mila offered a sad smile and said, "I'm really tired, I think I'll eat later."

"Woah, what's wrong?"

Mila shrugged, "Let's talk later. Movie and face mask night?"

Ashley smirked, satisfied with this answer, "See you at midnight."

Mila found herself in her room, purposefully ignoring a phone call from Chris as she stripped from her clothes and started a bath with a shameless amount of bubbles. She ignored one more phone call before completely turning her phone off and immersing herself in the hot water, inmediately sinking into it all and relaxing.

However much time passed, soon Ashley could be heard in the background getting closer and closer before finally coming into the bathroom and saying, "Here she is."

Mila opened her eyes to see that Ashley was handing her phone over while nervously biting her lip. Before she said anything, she checked the screen to see that Chris was on the line. Mila only shook her head and handed it back to Ashley who shot her a look. Instead of even trying to argue with her about this, Mila took it upon herself to hang up the phone for her.

"I don't want to talk to him right now. He knows I'm safe and he can leave it at that."

"Mila, you're dating this guy, you're dating him long distance at that. You need to communicate as much as possible."

She didn't agree with this. She said, "For years I have literally been focusing on everything but myself. Family, school, lacrosse, and now all of this. I think I can afford a little bath time, uninterrupted."

Ashley only sighed and nodded before leaving the bathroom, probably going to tell Chris that now wasn't a good time. Perhaps Mila was even making things worse, but this little break and time to herself felt as though it was helping. She wasn't overthinking, she wasn't racing her thoughts, she was just here and feeling the water on her skin, the steam against her forehead, and her muscles releasing built up tension from weeks of neglect.

Once she was finally out of the bath and dried off, she changed into a silky set of matching pajamas, a soft pastel pink color with pant legs down to her ankle and a loose button up that felt cool against her skin. As she was braiding her hair to the side with about an hour to spare before movie night with Ashley, her phone began to rang almost as soon as she turned it back on.

The caller ID was private, but they were requesting to FaceTime. She ignored it once, finding it odd that someone would be calling for that reason at nearly midnight. However, when they called again, she took in a breath, closed her eyes, answered and began to say, "Chris, now really isn't a good..."

"Chris?" A voice chuckled.

Her eyes slowly opened, realizing this voice was not her boyfriend's and she was shocked to see his best friend.