My Love // Theo Nott

thirty five

I grabbed Theo to bring him inside the apartment. "What's wrong?" I asked. He didn't answer. He only hugged me and put his face in the crook of my neck.

His body was racking with sobs as he was trying to hold them in but failing miserably to do so. When I closed the door he automatically fell to the floor and I went along with him.

"Theo." I said as I smoothed his hair down. "What happened?" he only cried harder. It was different from the other times that he's cried in front of me. Then, he was crying because of me. Now, I have no idea what happened and I don't know how to comfort him.

"Do you want me to go get Blaise?" He shook his head and held onto me tighter. I was rubbing his back and head while trying to keep myself together. Whenever Theo cried it automatically made me feel like crying too. My eyes were beginning to sting with unshed tears, but I blinked them away.

"Theo."

I felt my neck and shirt wet and I was trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling. He calmed down after about ten minutes and was now hiccuping. We hadn't moved from our position and I didn't know what to do now.

"What happened, Theo?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want him to start crying again. Without looking at me he got up and walked to the living room. I followed right behind him. He sat down on a couch with his elbows on his knees and his hands in his face.

I sat down next to him and waited for him to say something. After a while he looked up at me and an audible gasp left my lips. His face was bruised and he had a cut on his cheek. "Theo..." I didn't know what to do. The cut looked new but it wasn't bleeding. There were only a few droplets of dry blood.

My hand was halfway in the air, debating whether to touch his face or not. I cupped his cheek, trying not to put too much pressure on his cut, and asked Theo the most obvious question I had, "Who did this to you?"

He leaned into my hand and closed his eyes. "Theo?" Suddenly he opened his eyes and jerked away from me. I jumped slightly due to the sudden movements. I looked at him, but he seemed to be trying to space off.

After a minute he asked, "Why do you touch me like that?"

"How?" I asked.

"I don't know... How a girlfriend would."

I felt my cheeks heating up. We were both looking at the wall in front of us, neither one of us making the first move to look at each other.

"I'm just trying to help you." I said.

"Well that doesn't help me."

"It seemed like it did."

"Well I don't like it." he whisper-yelled. I could tell from the corner of my eye he looked at me. I didn't respond. Instead I kept my gaze on the wall. After a good minute Theo said, "Aurora?"

"Hm?" I hummed.

"Can you look at me." He moved closer to me.

"I'm sorry, Theo."

"Just look at me. Please." I turned to him and my eyes widened slightly. I hadn't realized how close Theo had gotten to me. His face was mere inches away from mine.

"Theo-" He kissed me. Again.

He grabbed onto my face as he led the kiss. After a couple seconds of debating whether I should just push him away and not make things worse like I did last time, I gave in and started matching his movements.

It was a bit awkward. I didn't know where to put my hands and unlike last time, we were sober. I settled on putting my hands behind his neck and raking my fingers through his hair. After a good minute he pulled away to catch his breath.