Dreamcatcher

Chapter Twenty-One: Moving Forward

That night, the Amber family had fallen into complete turmoil.

Words could not express how much James self-loathed himself for doing what he did, but it didn't justify the fact that his ignorance caused the downfall of Rachel's 'perfect' life. Not only that, but his marriage was in shambles. For Rose to hear the news herself, it broke her heart to hear what devious secrets her husband had hidden. Honestly was something to keep a relationship going, but this was obviously the last straw.

By the time Rachel's parents left the room, the two adults shared a heated argument elsewhere while Clark did everything he could to make his girlfriend feel better. Clark sat down on her bed and continued to hold the brunette in his arms.

"Why?" Rachel muttered with a fragile voice.

This caught him off guard yet left him unsurprised to the fact that she was completely devastated with how her life turned out.

"Why did he do this? To me? To... to my mom?"

"Life is just... life is shit. It can be a real dirt bag and put you through your ups and downs, but what matters is having something worth fighting for. You can't give up home when it seems the whole world's turned against you, or if things have gone tits up since the very beginning. Find a light in the darkness that'll lead you to freedom."

She didn't establish eye contact with him and stared blankly at the end of the bed. Rachel let out a sigh of contempt and shook her head before she buried her face in her forearms to bawl her eyes out.

Clark shushed her and rubbed her back before he kissed the top of her head and hummed a song he hand in mind, which in turn became vocal through the speaker in Clark's phone.

The music took quick effect on Rachel as shortly after the music started playing, her sobbing quietened down. Clark raised his hand up to her face and wiped away the tears off her cheeks. It only did half the job, to which Rachel rubbed her eyes with her fingers to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation around her eyelids. Her head tilted and laid on his shoulder as they listened to the song play.

"Clark?" She whispered with steady breathing.

"Yes, Rach?"

Slowly, the beeline honey brown-haired girl craned her head around to look and make eye contact with him. Her eyes searched endlessly for the love she truly deserved without realising it was right there beside her the whole time. Her mouth opened to speak but no words came out, only incoherent mumbles and choked words. So Rachel paused and took a second to compose herself before she got her thoughts together and transmitted her thoughts out aloud from her lips.

"Don't leave me..."

Hearing this shattered Clark's heart. It wasn't just the fact that Rachel was asking him to stay by her side, but the manner in which she spoke made it all the more depressing; thinking about the troubled life she'd lived was only miserable enough that she couldn't be her true self. And she would have had no true self had it not been for Clark Price.

"Never. Not even until the stars die will I just fade away into the cosmos. I'll be your shooting star, baby." Clark whispered delicately as he cupped her cheeks.

His thumb brushed along her cheekbone, allowing the smoothness of her skin to delight his sense of touch as well as feeling the warmth radiate from her. Their faces inched closer. As they did, they could feel each other's breath hit their faces as their lips connected, sending shots of electricity to jolt through them as they dived into the kiss more passionately. The kiss deepened so much that their tongues began to explore the other's mouth by every inch until they would have to withdraw to capture air into their lungs.