Take Me To Paris

Chapter 13

"That's horrible. Did your mom get in trouble?" I ask.

"No, she ran. Bolted. I haven't seen her since." He whispers. I feel my eyelids get heavy, and I pull myself from Ansel's warm hug. "They're looking for her though."

I nod. "Where are the others?" I ask.

"Loba says that she saw you drop your phone, but didn't pick it up, so they went back there to see if it was on the stairs." He answers. My phone wasn't on me, or on the bedstand, so it had to be there somewhere.

"I'm going to go back to sleep. Will you stay here? In case I have another bad dream?" I ask quietly.

"Of course, Princess." He lay down next to me, and spoons me. My eyes droop, and I fall into a deep sleep.

✨

*Ansel's POV*

I pull myself away from the beautiful, broken woman next to me. I only have to pee. I hope she doesn't wake up.

Her mom was dead, and she was having a really hard time with that. I understand. It took me years to come to terms with Mandy's death. I know Vix is emotionally stronger than me. She goes through these feelings everyday. Just not this bad. She also didn't see her own family member get murdered right in front of her, so I think she'll recover rather quickly.

"GUH!" I hear Vix scream. I rush out of the bathroom, and rock her back to sleep. She's so vulnerable right now. I feel horrible for everything she's going through. "He came back! Ansel, he came back!" She mumbles, her eyes wide.

"Who came back, my Princess?" I whisper, holding her bridal style in my lap, petting her dark brown hair.

"The man on the bus." She cries, grabbing my arm with both of her hands.

"He's in jail now, and he will be for a long time. Don't worry about him." I assure her.

"My dad has his voice. Ansel, my dad had his voice!" She sits up, and hugs around my neck, and cries softly.

"Why would your dad have his voice" I ask, more to myself than her.

"I don't know!" She cries harder.

"Okay, okay, just calm down. It'll be alright. It was only a dream." I say, laying her next to me once again, trying to make her go back to sleep. She wasn't having it, however, and she sat up, walking to the bathroom. I follow her, hoping to get her to at least sit back down.

"I think I'll take a shower." She says, starting to strip out of my shirt.

"Woah, whoa, woah! Princess, calm down! You could at least wait until I leave the room!" I say, covering my eyes.

"Why? We've literally had sex. Naked sex. I don't care if you see me naked anyways, we're not hormonal teenagers with pent up sexual tension anymore. We know how to control our sexual tendencies." Vix says, pulling off her underwear.

"Who said I ever lost those tendencies?" I say, trying to stop myself from grabbing her perfectly large breasts.

"Well, then I guess you didn't, but right now, I'm not gonna have sex with a hot model lookin dude just to get over..." She took a deep breath. "Just to get over my mom's death." She finishes, turning on the water to avoid looking at me with tears streaming down her face. I need to get some water into her before she dehydrates.

"I wasn't going to have sex with you. I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt." I say, throwing a towel around her body before hugging her.

"Thank you." She says suddenly.

"For what, Princess?" I ask, stepping back. She holds the towel around her a little tighter.

"For staying by my side while I cried like a kid." She looks at the ground.

"You weren't acting like a kid. You were already going through a tough time with depression and anxiety, and your mom just added to it." I say.

"I'll try to believe that." She says, before stepping behind the shower curtain. I walk out of the bathroom, and make her something to eat.

*Vix's POV*

I hear Ansel walk out of the bathroom, and I let the tears flow more freely. I need to get over this. Mom didn't even show me love. Anytime I would ask her why she wouldn't leave dad, she'd say 'love' but love isn't shutting your child out all day. Love isn't getting knocked out by your husband. Love isn't flinching everytime someone passed a little too close to you. Love isn't wearing long sleeves in the middle of summer so no one would see the bruises.

My mom didn't know love. So how could I? I need to distance myself from Ansel while I think things through. I'll sleep on the couch tonight. I need to know if I'm as much like my parents as my dad said I would be. I don't want to hit someone just because their bread wasn't toasted just right. I want to love someone, and be with them for the rest of my life.

Will I be like dad? Could I live the life I want to live, without following in his footsteps?

What about Ansel? Will he want to stay with me when I become my dad, if I become my dad?

"Hey? Are you okay in there?" I hear Ansel knock on the door. My panic attack was in full swing by this point, and all he could probably hear was the shower and my labored breathing. "Um, you're breathing pretty loudly. Are you.... Masturbating?" He asks.

I try to force out a laugh, but it only sounds like a moan, making my situation worse.

"You said that you didn't want sex, so instead you come and fuck yourself? Wow." He says, stomping away from the door. This makes me cry even harder than I already was. He hears my crying, and slams the door open. "So I caught you, and now you wanna cry about it?" He grabs the shower curtain, and pulls it away, revealing me sitting down with my knees curled up to my chest, having a panic attack.

"You were never touching yourself, were you?" He asks quietly. I shake my head. "Hey, you need to calm down. Just breathe, Princess." He rubs my back, and turns the water off. "Let's get you out of here. I'm sorry for snapping, sometimes my temper gets the next of me."

He grabs the towel he wrapped around me earlier, and wraps it around me again. He keeps his eyes off of me as he helps me dress. I let him put whatever on me. It turned out to be a Harry Potter t-shirt of his, and red panties. No shorts for me. I sleep in comfort.

"Do you want to eat?" Ansel asks once he sets me on the couch. I shake my head. "Princess, you need to eat." I roll my eyes, and take small spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup. I eat half the bowl, and lay down on the couch. As soon as I'm just about asleep, he moves me to the bed. I let him lay down, and fall asleep, before I move to the couch again.

I still have so much to think through.