Something in the Orange

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"It's been a while since you and I been where we started, I don't wanna let it fade away"
Caramel - 5SOS

As the moon cast a dim glow through the curtains, Vee stirred, her body tingling with a chill that seemed to seep through her bones. Blinking against the darkness, she realized she was alone in the bed, the warmth of Nestor she swore had been there just hours before now a distant memory.

She shivers as she climbs out of his bed, his scent clinging to every inch of her, the dull ache between her thighs sends a shiver down her spine as she makes her way to the bathroom. After emptying her bladder, she washes her hands and digs through his medicine cupboard, popping two ibuprofen, and she makes her way back into his dark room. Stumbling to the dresser she digs through his drawers pulling out an oversized t-shirt she slips it over her head before climbing back into bed.

Adjusting the pillows her fingers graze over a cool smooth surface, frowning she pulls the pillow back to find a small pile of photos, her fingers drift across the matte softness as her fingers trace the face of a younger herself. Nostalgia stirring under her skin as she flicks through the photos. Her smile dazzling as she has her arm slung over Nestor's shoulder, Mateo's arms wrapped around her as he laughs at something off camera. The next one shows her with Miguel, laughing in her graduation gown and cap, flicking through the moments of her past life she had buried deep inside. The last photo in the stack stops her breath, and tears burn her eyes desperate to get out.

Nestor sitting on an armchair, his legs spread, his curls wild around his face as he smiles down at the girl in his lap, one hand snaked around her waist, the other tangled in her hair as her head is tipped back laughing, her legs dangling over one arm of the chair, her curls spilling over the other. The slightest of bruises mark her neck, and if you look close enough you'll see the faintest teeth marks underneath them, love bites mark her neck and chest, happiness pours out of the photo, a raw proof that Nestor knows how to love.

A tear falls, landing on the bottom of the picture, the same photo is shoved in the back of her journal, crumpled and worn from all the times she had clutched it in her hand. The only photo of the two of them as adults, one of the only pieces of proof she's ever had of her relationship with Nestor.

Tucking the photos back under the pillow, she curls into herself wrapping the covers tightly around her, she shivered, feeling the emptiness of the room enveloping her, as she drifts back to sleep, the weight of the night weighing heavy on her heart.

An inferno dances across her skin as her breath shallows by the crushing weight on her chest, a stark difference to how she awoke in the early hours. Long calloused fingers tangle in her hair and grip her hip, the bruising imprints unlocking something inside of her that she would rather keep trapped.

Midday sunlight battles against the heavy black blinds as she counts the dust particles floating through the air, devising a plan to untangle herself from the man she has entwined with.

"I can hear you thinking Vee, turn your big brain off and go back to sleep" he mutters into her neck, his breath tickling her neck.

"I need to pee" she says, her voice cracking and raw.

Sleepy whiskey coloured eyes study her face, as he untangles himself, lips brushing across her collarbone as he slips away. Sliding out of his bed, she steps quiet as she pads across the floor into the bathroom. Flicking the tap on, the sound water rushing down the drain fills the room. Relieving her bladder, she washes her hands. Popping two more ibuprofen, she turns the shower up as high as it goes, the room filling with stream as she strips off stepping under the stream.

Tipping her face up letting the hot water burn her sins away, she feels the tears stinging behind her eyes, sliding down the wall, she tucks herself into the corner of the shower, letting the hot water destroy her skin. Her mind wanders to the night before, for a single moment when Nestor had her pressed against the tiles, his fingers wrapped around her throat as he whispered dirty promises into her ear, she had everything she ever wanted, a single moment that has now slipped through her fingers. She wished she had dug her claws in and held on tighter.