Heaven Is You

|17|

Oscar Atkins

"We need to clean those"

"I'm fine" I mutter lowly to a worried Talia, with her calloused fingers drawing soothing circles on my injured knuckles.

We start making our way outside, further away from the party. The music subsided into the background, at one point becoming white static noise to our conversation.

She takes a seat right there on the sidewalk, and I slam down next to her.
"You know, you didn't have to punch him" She says in the dead of the night.

"I'm not going over that again" I sigh, rubbing my hands -which hurt greatly, by the way- onto my face "He fucking kept on harassing you, even after you said no" I assert.

She sighs. "True, but did you look at that punch I threw in? I didn't know I had it in me" She laughs and I chuckle. It's ironic and sad all at once. She should Know how to protect herself, but she shouldn't Have to protect herself because an asshole couldn't take 'No' for an answer.

"Anyways, he had it coming. Deserved it completely" I shrug and she nods, twirling a piece of black hair in her fingers. Silence consumes us for a while, we just watch the cars pass by; each to their own destination.

I was about to open my mouth, integrating into further conversation, when the sound of ringing cuts me through. I furrow my eyebrows as she takes out her phone, staring at the caller ID with an evident grimace on her face.

She sighs and starts rubbing the already forming headache off. "Who's that?" I ask tentatively, not wanting to overstep my boundaries, but then again she did seem upset by the ordeal. Her lips tugged downward in a frown and her eyes narrowed into slits. Life just slipped out of her.

She raises the phone, turning it to face me and my blood boils in anger at the name flashing through the screen. "He's still bothering you?" I manage to restrain my tone to come out as calm and disciplined as most as I can, though you can't miss the bitterness of malice twinging on the tip of my tongue.

"No- I, this is the first time he's called since I broke up with him" She admits, confusion wrapping her words altogether, and something deep inside me relaxes.

"Do you want me to answer it? Take care of that?" I nudge my head towards the device in her hands and she just stares at me widely. A few moments later, she shakes her head off and presses answer. He's probably called her 3 times consecutively now; not taking the hint that she didn't want to answer.

I'm surprised to find Tim's voice flowing loudly over the quietness of the night. She had him on speaker with some club song in the background. I gather myself up, not wanting to overstep again; this was probably a private conversation where I had no business in hearing or meddling with.

Her hand grabs mine, pulling me to my previous spot. I look into her with a questioning look, she just mouths 'stay' and I remain rooted.

"Talia, fuck, where are you now" Comes out the goblin's voice. Judging by the stretching of his words I'd say he was either high or mad hammered.

"The hell, Tim. We broke up. I'm not your girlfriend anymore, don't call me again" Talia says furiously through the phone, conveying her anger vividly to the other end of the line.

Realization must've hit his stupid head, he just laughs "I thought that was a joke. I know you're mad but I need you right now" He spitters bullshit all over the phone. I watch for her reaction but her face is set into stone. Stoic. Void of any emotion; almost like the scenario wasn't something new, like she's used to it by now.

"No Tim, when I said I was over with you for once and for all I meant it" She basically shouts it over and I wished to teleport through the phone to his location to beat his ass.

"Fine, you bitch. You were never good anyways. I'm surrounded by much prettier girls I don't even know why I called you" He lastly spits and hangs up the phone.

I look over to Talia, finding her pursing her lips, her hair covering her heated cheeks, all in an attempt to prevent me from seeing her breaking down.

"Tali-" I start but she snaps "I'm fine" Her own voice cracking up and betraying her words.

I notice the pool of tears glossing her eyes, she just stands up and and quickly mutters "I'm fine, I just want to go home" Her voice strangled as she sniffles to conceal the tears.

I take hold of her hand, bringing her to my chest, noticing the hurt in her eyes breaks my own heart and she looks up at me with this doe shy look that I almost melt right here and now.

Her lip quivers and I bring her to my chest, my arms flailing around her, hugging her form to mine. Her arms wrap around my back, her tears staining my shirt; not like I cared about that the slightest under the circumstance.

"You're gorgeous, you know that?" I ask, leaning backwards so I can look her in the eyes.

Her eyes are red and puffy with tears and the look of self doubt and uncertainty shining through. I trail my hand on her cheeks, bringing my fingertips to her jaw and lips. Her hands squeeze my back and the muscles contort under her touch. Her breath picks up pace, coming out in erratic short breaths as I bring myself closer, my lips a hair away from hers.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. He must be really stupid to not be able to see that" I mutter against her lips, I can sense her shuttering underneath my touch and I can only hope she feels a tenth of what I'm feeling.

Then, I pull myself back "Come on, let's get you home" I mutter while stepping to the road. I can only hope the sound of the car's engine overpowers the sound of my beating heart.

•••

A/n:

this chapter took me
a week to write.
I had the first bit
then I kept hesitating
what to write next.
Then, an idea flowed
and this is the final result.
I hope you're happy as me;)