The Perfect Storm 2

Chapter 191

Miles's POV

The damn rain hits me as soon as Is step out of the Porsche. 

Seeing my black Lambo being parked right next to me hurts for some reason. I haven't heard from Madison at all and the absence pains me so damn much. 

My black old skool vans hit the pebbled ground and the closer I get, the worse everything seems. For some reason, I feel like I'm in a nightmare, the air around me is thick despite the rain refreshing and washing away the air. Something feels off. Very fucking off. 

I take one more step and then come to a complete fucking stop. 

It takes me a moment to figure out what the hell I'm hearing but after a good few seconds of absolutely nothing but listening and watching the grey and blackened sky around me, I realize just what I'm listening to. Madison. 

Her sobbing tears apart my heart the closer I get and by the time I'm inside the damn house, I'm fucking broken. 

Her bedroom door is open and everything inside the home is dark. Lights are off, shut off, everything is fucking off. What the fuck is happening? I take a deep breath and step closer, so slowly and so carefully that with the step I hear a creek in the damn floor.

"Madison?" I say into the darkness of the house and suddenly, the sobbing stops, and then I notice that something else stops another sob? Someone else's? I walk toward her bedroom slowly and then hear something behind me. 

I quickly turn around as a reflex. Angela is standing on the stairs, her eyes wide as she watches me, both of us stay quiet, and then she finally nods and so do I. 

I turn around and walk into Madison's bedroom to see her sitting there, leaning against the wall, her eyes are still closed and covered in tears. I quickly lean down to her, on my knees for her.

"Baby." My eyes look at her and she opens them as if seeing me was the last thing she expected. I quickly wrap my arms around her and hold her tight as she slowly begins to sob again. 

I glance once back to see Angela standing there. Without communication, we agree that I should be with Madison right now. Angella turns away and walks up the stairs barely noticeable and I turn to hold Madison tighter as tightly as I fucking can. 

My fingers dig into her full head of thick dark-brown hair. I'm holding the girl I love and she's crying, I want to rip my fucking heart out. 

The pain I feel from seeing her like this is fucking killing me alive.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay, everything okay," I whisper as I hold her tightly to me but her sobs don't stop and her tears aren't close to being finished.

Madison's POV

I don't remember anything except the news and then Miles showing up. Everything in between is a blur but something inside me doesn't want to remember the in-between. My eyelids feel heavy and puffy as I try to lift them up enough to see my surroundings.

"Miles?" My lips mumble into the air in front of me. I don't hear anything back and I finally open my eyes fully, they feel so puffy; bloated and I can barely keep them open. 

I end up blinking a few times before I can fully open them. 

I see Miles next to me asleep. His lips are parted as he's breathing in and out. His chest is lifting up and down and his bare arm is covering his forehead. 

Even though the puffiness of my eyes that slowly reminds me of last night, I still somehow manage to smile at the sight of him. 

He came all the way here just to be with me; to comfort me. Memories flow back as I watch Miles laying there on the ground, his head resting on a small part of my sheets that he managed to keep close enough to lay on. 

My smile grows but so do my memories and I know that I need to get out of this room. I let my feet slip onto the cold ground beside Miles and with one last smile at him, I make my way toward the door that he left respectfully very, very slightly open. 

I feel something warm grab my ankle and I look back to see Miles in the exact same position except for his other hand being on my ankle. 

I take a few seconds to stare and try to understand what's going on and then I see a small smirk appearing on his perfect full lips. 

His eyebrows are dark and his eyes are even darker when he just opens them. They're tired like mine but they're not puffy like mine are, not at all. 

For a few seconds, we stare at each other, watching each other.

"I want to come with you," Miles says, his voice raspy and tired and enlaced with sleep; the perfect blend. 

A part of me wants to be as close as I can to him, be completely alone and let him make me feel the way I love to feel, let him touch me and make me feel so good, but the other part of me knows that that would only be a distraction from what I really need to do which is to face the problems that have now occurred in my life. 

I give miles a small smile and a half nod which I don't completely understand before I turn around and feel him stand up behind me. 

He's still wearing the same clothes that I remember comforting me last night and the smell of him is now lingering in my room, providing me all of the comforts I could possibly need. 

I never thought something as simple as cologne could enhance so many feelings in me and awaken so many things I've never felt or needed before, but something that simple; that little about Miles is all it takes to make a girl need him. 

I crack the door open further and let my feet take me into the barely-lit kitchen. The brightness outside shines through and like my mother has always taught me, then there's no need for wasting electricity. 

I step into the smell of pancakes and I feel Miles behind me, providing me safety into the unknown that is my mother's battle with leg cancer. 

I gulp down the thought of yesterday, the news, the crying, Miles and how much everything has gone haywire and then hearing my mother say my father's name, the name she hasn't said in so long, longer than I can describe or remember and crying his name, calling it like that was the last thing I expected.

"Mom?" I ask into the smell of freshly cooked pancakes, the ones that my mother always made whenever I needed comfort but I can tell that this time it's her that needs it.

"Oh, you're awake, both of you." My mother turns around as if she didn't expect to see either of us.

"I just . . . uh—" She stops with a smile and cleans her batter-covered hands into her apron. I haven't seen her bake this many pancakes since my dad left. 

The day we tried to make everything better, by being just the two of us, cooking and distracting, and that's what we've always been doing, cooking and distracting, and it's worked for a while, but not this time, it won't work. 

I feel Miles's hand reach out to me, holding my back softly and giving me the touch that I crave; the comfort that I need.

"You hungry?" My mom asks and then cocks her head slightly to look at Miles.

"Mom," I say in a low and soothing voice as I step closer and closer to her, I feel Miles's hand drop from touching my back and I can tell he's giving us space. 

I don't hear his footsteps behind me anymore and I know that he's way behind me. My other turns around and places the spatula in his hands on the table beside her.

"Everything will be okay." She says with a small smile and I know she's hurt but I can' read her features as well now.

"I know, mom . . ." I step closer before continuing. My bare feet touch the wooden ground and by the time I approach her close enough to give her a hug I finish, "But it's okay to not feel okay right now." I tell her and with those words, my mother's ears burst out of her eyes like bubbles.