His girl

Chapter 9

Adrian's POV

As I lay in bed I think to myself. Oh my gosh, I did it!! I've been wanting to give her a promise ring for the past 3 months, but could never seem to gather the courage to go through with it. I guess almost losing her struck a chord within me and I had to show her how much she meant to me. I had to do something to claim her as mine. A life without Katie is something I can never fathom. She means the world to me, and life would be mundane without her by my side. This past week itself was enough to show me that life without her by my side was unbearable and meaningless, so I will never repeat this. I will never hurt my angel like that again. 

Katie didn't directly say yes but the tight embrace she gave me was an answer in itself. We have good antennae when it comes to each other.  I missed the feeling of her lips against mine this past week and feeling them again was blissful. I will never let her go. This girl is mine. Just then a thought occurred to me like a light fuse. I should ask her to move in with me. I mean we have been together for 5 years and my family adores her. Especially my mother. Emma is one of her closest friends and my dad sees her as his daughter. My younger sister,  Lilian, who is just 4 years old loves to play with her, and Katie dotes on her. Who wouldn't love her? She's such an angel. I felt a surge of sadness as I recalled the words her family said to her. How could they be so cruel to someone full of love and kindness? She doesn't deserve any of the pain she's been through. I can't even begin to imagine what else she's had to endure in her past and it's something I still don't know about but I won't pry. Although it kills me to not know about her deepest pain, I respect her and she'll tell me when she's ready.

I take out my phone and type out a message to her that says "Hey baby. Can we meet at our usual spot tmr?" a few minutes later she replies and I'm so glad she agreed. I drift into a deep sleep eagerly waiting for the next morning to arrive.

I arrive at the park to see my beautiful girl sitting there. She's wearing a crop top and a skirt. As always, she looks drop-dead gorgeous. I sit next to her and she scoots in closer. she speaks softly "Hey sweetheart, why did you call me here today?" I tell her about my idea and she looks so touched. She takes my hand in hers and says she'd love to move in with me. I was jubilant, I get to see my girl every day, and I get to be with her much more than I could before.

I drive her to Stacey's place and we explain everything to her. She's ecstatic for her best friend because this takes our relationship to the next level and she always knew we were meant for each other. Stacey helped us pack Katie's stuff and she hugged Katie before we left hand in hand. We drove to my house and my family welcomed her with open arms. I know Katie loves my family just as much as they love her. I'm so glad I could finally give her a semblance of family and the love of parents which she's been missing for probably years now. I feel this primal instinct to protect her from everyone who hurts her. I will never let anyone hurt her again.

I take her to my room and let her keep her stuff before telling her that my family wants to take her out to lunch to celebrate. She looks so happy right now and I'd give everything to keep it that way. Her smile brightens up my world. 

That night, I slept with her in my arms, feeling content. I was awakened in the middle of the night with heavy breathing and incoherent words. It struck me, that Katie was going through psychosis again. She only breathes heavily while crying when she experiences a hallucination. I've helped her through many of these. This seemed worse than any of her psychotic episodes I've seen. She was frantically looking around and crying heavily, her breathing was heavy and her chest was heaving violently. My heart broke seeing her like that, it always did, but even more so as the cognizance of the fact that she endured this alone every night when she lived with her family, because they surely wouldn't help her through this given their nature.

I immediately lifted her into my arms and cradled her close to my chest. I gently rubbed her chest to calm her crying and heavy breathing and I could feel her heart pounding in her chest, so I continued to rub her chest softly as I whispered sweet nothings into her ears, and kissed her temples comfortingly. I assured her that there was nothing else in the room, and just the two of us, being conscious of the fact that she mostly suffers from auditory and visual hallucinations. I know her like the back of my hand.

When she calmed down, she wiped my cheeks. It wasn't until then that I realized I was shedding silent tears. That's just how she is, always putting others before herself even when she's hurting. She asked me if everything was okay. It was like something was triggered in me and tears gushed down my face at an alarming rate. She immediately snuggled closer to me and tried to comfort me. She has only seen me crying once in these 5 years, and that was because I saw her self-harm scars. I confessed to her that every time I saw her crying and suffering like this my heart broke with each sob, each gasp for air. For the record, I've seen her cry uncountable times, held her during her panic attacks, even calmed her down during her episodes of psychosis and after the newfound understanding of her abusive family, her being adopted, and that she had a tragic past, All I wished for was to take away all her pain and give her nothing but happiness. I expressed the agony I feel when I see her in this kind of state and want to take away all her pain. She cupped my cheeks with her small hands and whispered to me that holding her and being ever so attentive and empathetic to her was exactly what she needed.

I  laid down again and pulled her into my arms. She gazed at me with her doe eyes and I locked my lips with hers in a passionate kiss, hoping to offer comfort and take away some of the pain. I pressed her body more into mine, our chests pressed together, in an intimate embrace as we kissed. We pull away after a while and I cradle her head against my chest, giving her all my warmth. She soon falls into a peaceful slumber and I softly kiss her forehead. Soon after, I fall asleep with my girl in my arms.

The next morning I wake up to the aroma of my favourite breakfast, french omelettes. I moved my hands around searching for Katie, and then I realized, Katie woke up early to make breakfast for my family. Did I mention she is a talented cook? She has this magic in her hands that makes any dish turn out scrumptious. I quickly brushed my teeth and took a shower, then headed downstairs.

I was right, my girl was there, finishing off the last omelet. I walked up to her, wrapped my arms around her waist from behind, and kissed her neck. My family had just woken up and they were surprised to see breakfast prepared for them. Emma gave her a grateful smile, my mother gave Katie a motherly embrace and my father patted her head. Katie saw a tired Lilian walking towards us, rubbing her eyes with her tiny hands adorably. She walked up to Katie, and Katie picked her up in her arms kissing her on her cheeks and talking to her. We all sat down to eat and the taste was heavenly. Katie truly has a way in the kitchen. I looked across the table in admiration, just gazing at Katie. She is such a blessing.