the various chances

chapter twenty three

Jeremy

I feel the weight on my shoulders shift. I had been maintaining a stiff posture for last 30 minutes and the back pain started with it turned out fruitful because Lizzie slept. I stopped asking questions the moment I felt her head on my shoulders. Her nonstop talking got her so busy and tired that she actually forgot she can't sleep.

Silently closing the book, I keep it aside and lift my hand to remove the strands of hair falling in front of her face.

What happened to you Lizzie? Where and How have you been all this time you were not here? What is the reason you are so closed off? I thought we were closer than this. I thought you could trust me with your secrets. I thought I could help you out of any god damn pit.

Watching her sleep brought flutters to my heart. Her insomnia had to have some reason, but yet again her sleeping softly brought me relief. She needed that after being ice cold for half of the flight.

I freeze when I feel her stir but she just adjusts her head on my shoulder and her hand grabs my biceps. Some other person would call me a creep if he or she caught me the way I was staring at Lizzie but it felt like as if I could see past through her face and stare in her soul. I knew from the very beginning that she had walls around herself not allowing anyone to see past through them. I could see it felt like I was meant to see what she felt.

What I knew right now was that she had been in trouble for those years she'd been on her own and that may or may not have made her stronger than ever. Lizzie was one of the strongest and powerful women I'd ever see in my life.

Because imagine, you lose your mother after which your shitpiece of a father makes you flee the country so he can be with his new wife i.e a step mother to you, but you refuse and ask him for your own space that you can share with your elder sister. A year later your sister dies in some fire incident, the shitpiece you call your father doesn't shows up even after you were almost burned to death and you are left with nothing.

I couldn't care less even if Lizzie was putting on a façade of being happy and at peace because I knew that she never came out of the grief, she was grieving both, her mother and her elder sister. To say someone close to her saved her life at that point and took her in was a relief thinking I couldn't be there when she didn't even expect me to be but a part of me always wanted to be there for her but shit drastically changed between us.

My fingers skim her cheekbones and again tuck a few strands of hair falling in front of her face behind her ear. I wonder if I had always truly hated this face. She makes it impossible for me to come to any god damn conclusion. There was a high possibility of me already having an answer but I'd be damned if she were to walk away again and that was a restraint that I didn't wanted to let lose.

Wrapping an arm around her waist I secure my hold on her and pull her closer even when there was practically no space left between us. A few adjustments later, I had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and we were lying flat on the bed with Lizzie in my arms. I knew this was an intrusion of her personal space but fuck if I wanted to let her go because the last time I did, the world almost lost Elizabeth Lily Pierce, almost.

Minutes later I feel her shuffle. She pulls the blanket up to her chest and after that palms her hand on my chest, right above my heart. God, this woman, I swear. This felt warmly intimate. With us like this, we had barely any space left for hate but the moment she will wake up in morning she was going to throw fits about this which was a worry for the morning because for the current notion I had a small smile on my face.

It was somewhat fucking 4 in the morning and last I knew Lizzie with her face in the crook of my neck and hand on my heart was sleeping peacefully then the hell was I feeling trembling. I partially pry open my eyes to assess the situation when I realize she had completely woken up. To avoid the fight I close my eyes pretend to be in deep slumber.