Rough Patch

Learning

"Put that down, Connie." Steven scolded as she picked up her phone.

"Fuck you. Jesus has anyone ever told you how frustrating you are?"

"Have I ever told you how frustrating you are? You've gotta have some idea of how infuriating you are." He irritated her to no end and she let him know how much he did every day. It was exhausting. Her parents had moved to Florida the year after graduation and that meant the only person who could truly help her was him. She refused a therapist. He tried being nice, but that never really helped. She saw niceness as weakness. He intended to fix that, but later. For now, he would speak in her language.

"I know who you're texting." She looked up at him and turned on the phone anyways. "He's a fucking piece of shit."

"You don't even know him." She murmured as she unlocked it. "And it's MY phone. I can talk to who I want."

"Nope, it's our phone. It's been our phone for a month now since I clearly can't trust you."

"Traitor," She murmured.

"Quit texting that guy before I kill him." His tone was serious enough to make Connie hesitate and set the phone down gently.

"I hate you," She said it with no hint of playfulness and though it hurt, Steven expected nothing less.

"You're gonna hate me for a long time if you keep testing my patience."

This was something he and Connie had done every few days for the two months since he had retaken her virginity. She had continued her unhealthy coping mechanisms just as strongly as she had when she was sleeping around. She denied anything she didn't want to acknowledge, she blew up at the smallest of things, she was so stone cold some days that Steven honestly would sit in the bathroom and cry. She was so fucking difficult. Every time he thought they were making progress, she shattered it.

He could never leave her in a room with her phone for more than 10 minutes. He had to start sleeping IN her room on the floor. She always thought she was so sneaky with her midnight escapades with god-knows-who, but he had been sleeping lightly. The first time it happened, he had a talk with her the next day. Of course, she denied it like her life depended on it. They argued and she shut herself in the bathroom for 8 hours. Steven sat on the other side of the door and just waited. It was all he could do save for breaking the door down every time she did it. She never came clean, at least, not the first few times.

She came clean without him catching her in the act when Steven had done a surprise inspection. She had scoffed at him and held her phone close to her.

"If you think I'm letting you touch my phone, you've got a fist with your name on it." She often made empty threats, and he tried to assume it was because she was growing fond of him. Though, there was a few times where she had left a nasty bruise or welt on his cheek or arms. When she made good on her threat, it only gave him more determination to fix her. More determination to help her.

"I'm not inspecting your phone, Connie." Steven said. "Come here." There were few times when Connie actually listened to a single thing Steven was saying, but in that moment she did. He moved his hands toward her to pull her closer and she flinched. It hurt and annoyed him, but he didn't let that stop him. He brought her into a tight hug and held it, hoping she'd maybe start to cry. She didn't. She didn't even hug back but she did turn into the hug and inhaled deeply. Steven did too and chuckled.

"What?" He could tell by her tone that she was already on the defensive.

"That's not the way you usually smell."

"What do you mean?"

"That's not the way you smell when you've been sweating. I've smelled you countless times after training, Connie."