𝐹𝑈𝑁 𝐺𝐼𝑅𝐿

𝑋𝑋𝑉𝐼

Chapter 26: Marvin's Room
West Village, New York
May 5th, 5:34 pm

I'm just saying you could do better
Tell me have you heard that lately?

"It's your birthday and you're sitting here trying to have this conversation with me right now? You should be out having a good time...your last year in your 20s old man." Maleah smiled weakly, Chris only chuckling while leaning back against the wall.

"I'll let you have that, cause it's the first I've seen you smile in about 4 days." He said, adjusting the small chain that sat over his black shirt. He never took his eyes off of Maleah, watching the way she glanced down at her hands shyly from his dimple-filled smile.

He had been in her room for the last 15 minutes trying to get her to open up to him a little bit. Tired of listening to her cry all the time without having the means to help her. He didn't like the way she went ghost and closed herself off from everyone except Kaiden, who was now with Imani.

"But seriously, why are you here? I don't want to ruin your day."

"I'm here because my job is to make sure you not stressing yourself to the point where you could hurt yourself or the baby. And although I can't watch over you every second like before, I hear you crying every night. I won't force anything out of you, and I know I probably play a part in why you been feeling the way you have...but I just want to help." He spoke genuinely, telling the truth.

"Why should I even trust you?" Maleah crossed her arms, not at all forgetting the first time she opened up only to find out he was basically the enemy. Sighing, Chris pulled his shirt over his head because it was a valid question. He didn't expect her to trust him after he already broke it before, but he was serious when he said he just wanted to help her. And it was clear part of that definitely meant being a listening ear for whatever it was she was going through right now.

"Look, I know you probably don't want to-."

"Glad you know, you can leave." She mumbled, lowering her head to stare down into her lap. It wasn't him that was the issue, it was the fact that simply talking about potentially opening up about everything going on in her head was overwhelming in itself, and she didn't want to break down in front of him again. Feeling embarrassed from it happening once already.

"Maleah just let me be there for you-."

"I'm begging you." She whispered, Chris going to continue on pressing her until noticing the water droplets coming from her face and onto the comforter covering her body. They started out slowly until gradually speeding up until she was back crying to herself hard. A hard cry turning into another sob, her hands going up to cover her face while Chris stood watching her.

Yeah, he treated her foully and they didn't necessarily get along that well. However, he would be lying if he were to say she didn't at least have a small bit of his heart. So seeing her so vulnerable and emotional hurt him, and it hurt him even more knowing that he didn't know how to help her.