Biblichor

Biblichor: Chapter 9

The warm sunlight caused Javier to blink awake. He glanced down at his chest to see his perfect girlfriend laying on him, hair sprawled out like an art piece. He lightly runs his fingers over your hair, careful not to wake you.

Eventually, he turns his head to glance at the time to see that it reads 8:21am. He was happily surprised he got an extra three hours of sleep than usual. Javier laid back down with you when his stomach made a low rumble. He then became aware of how long it's been since he had last eaten.
Carefully he crawled out of bed, replacing his body with one of the extra pillows for you to hold onto. He went over to your kitchenette to surprise you with breakfast when he didn't find anything in your fridge. The last time he looked in your fridge, there was barely anything. Now there were a few boxes of take-out along with a few other items of food. None of this was enough to make an acceptable breakfast.
Javier started to worry and decided to discreetly snoop through your apartment. He checked each cabinet and drawer, almost all empty. The few plates and utensils you had were the ones from the diner. He had to talk to you about this, right? He didn't want to have this conversation, but he was concerned.

You started to slowly open your eyes, the padding of feet pulling you from your slumber. You noticed Javier's body was now a pillow and sat up to look towards the kitchenette.
"Javi?" Javier's head whips up to look at you, shoving his thought aside. "What are you doing, baby?"

"Well..." Javier walked over to you and pressed a big kiss on your forehead before sitting next to you. "I was hoping to surprise you with breakfast..."

You grimaced and looked down. You should have gone to the market or something just in case. Even if it wasn't in your budget for this month.

Javier tilted your head to look at him, "Cariña? A- are you okay? Financially, that is."

You took a deep breath, wanting to compose yourself before having the dreaded conversation. "I just have a lot of debts... College was a pain in the ass, and my parents were never smart with their money, so when they... when they passed..." You tried your best to keep your breath steady, not ready to cry in front of Javi.

Javier shifted himself more onto the bed and pulled you to sit in his lap. He wrapped his arms around you like a blanket and pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

"...all their debts got transferred to me, so I started to drown. I became depressed and scared. I couldn't stand the sight of my own town anymore, and that's when I left. I had to get away, and somehow I chose Columbia. I was lucky I knew Spanish cause it all felt so right. After a while..."
You didn't realize it until you felt it hit your hand, but you had started to cry. Javier ran his thumbs over your cheeks to soothe you and wipe the tears away.

"... I became so overwhelmed, and Mary had found out so she and the chefs would give me whatever extra batches of food they had leftover. She always made sure I was fed every day. That's why I don't have any food in my apartment."
You had started to sob uncontrollably. All the horrible memories and experiences became prominent in your mind. Javier pressed tender kisses all over your face and held you tightly.

"Honey, I'm so sorry. I didn't know." You gripped his chest tighter as you cried.

"Let me help you." You pulled away to look at him.

"Wha- No."

"Why not, Cariña? Please, I can't see you like this, you don't deserve this."

"This isn't your problem, Javi, it's mine. I've gotten along just fine before you came around. I don't need you to help me."

"But-"

"No buts. Look, I appreciate you wanting to help. You're an incredible boyfriend to do so, but... no."