[1] Midnight Lips | Ghost

𝐂𝐇. 09

VALENTINA
༻❁༺

     The silence ate us up afterward. Simon Riley's last words were lingering in the air, but they vanished as I stepped into my mind surrounded by my thoughts from the Mexican Army persecution this morning.

It was such a roller coaster. From almost leaving this world to laughing while we were on it. My mind drifted to Riley's executions. There was no doubt that he was the MVP, getting hurt and saving lives despite it.

I pressed my lips together.

Now that I wasn't high in adrenaline, my stomach sank deep. I didn't treat him the correct way. I didn't even thank him and he didn't deserve that. It made me extremely uncomfortable and I hated being uncomfortable.

I finished patching his back wound up. The bed moved and groaned when my weight left the spot, and I went to stand in front of him with a purpose.

"Hey, so..." I fidgeted with my fingers. Riley leaned back, his eyes slowly going from the ground to my face, skipping only my chest on the way up and I wish I hadn't noticed. "I'm sorry."

His eyes narrowed under the mask. "What for?"

"I never thanked you for... saving my life, you know? All I ever did was complain about it." I stepped over his legs to his left side and dragged the emergency stuff to the edge of the bed, that way it would be easier to grab them while I attended to his front wound now.

I could feel his eyes on my face, and for some odd reason, those eyes made me so nervous to the point that my mouth betrayed me. "You just have to understand that... having you watch my back instead of yours felt too personal. As if you didn't believe I was capable of handling myself."

I opened the next blue gauze package a little too hard, it almost fell from my hands, but I continued babbling anyway. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't take care of myself."

Why was he so quiet? It made me even more nervous.

"I was trained for this. Two years in the military weren't for nothing... You know what? Screw that. You should be the one apologizing."

I stared at him and all he did was stare back, blinking and blinking until all he said was nothing.

I grasped my hips. "I know you're usually quiet, but why are you so quiet?"

Blink.
Nothing.

I groaned. "Fine. As you wish." If he didn't want to talk, I respected that. I bent over to pick up the bottle of solution and poured some on the gauze. My last claim felt like sour in my mouth, and I hated sour. "Screw all that too. I'm still sorry for not thanking you."

I went to his right side again. I knew instantly that this wound was going to be hard to take care of. It was in an awkward position, and Simon Riley wasn't being shy about staring at me.

Did I have something on my face? That couldn't be possible. I pushed the little hairs behind my ear and shoved Riley back so I could have a better sight of his wound. I cleaned around, this time I wasn't soft. I did it rough without even noticing.

Why was he so quiet anyways? Did I say something wrong? That was the reason why I didn't like quiet people. I always thought I did something wrong because they never said what was in their mind.

I sighed. One last try I guess. "Thank you, and I'm very sorry for how I reacted."

Riley's fingers wrapped around my wrist, the gentle touch sent sparks up my arm as if he was electricity. I looked at his face, his eyes were unreadable. "Don't."