Sewn {QuickEmmett}

I Got Uneasy

I heard the front door open slowly, looking up from my books and scooting my chair away from my study desk in the corner of our small living room. Hours had gone by since I'd gotten home, thinking he'd be home from work by at least eight...

It was eleven now, and... And I knew what'd happened. Or so I'd thought.

Waltzing through the living room, I leaned against the wall, eyeing James as he stepped through the door. His gaze was tired, but mine was more than awake, because it was just a fact that my body would refuse sleep until he got home. The disappointment in my voice was hard to mask as I spoke up.

"How was work?" I said quietly, and he turned and jumped, as if he'd thought I'd be asleep. Should've known. In a few quick motions he had his coat off and had pulled me close, hugging my head to his chest.

"Long, but I put in a few extra hours..."

Bull shit.

I almost laughed, but wrapped my arms around his waist anyway, weak from my lack of sleep lately. "Did you, now?"

"...yes." He pulled back, holding me by the shoulders and looking down at me with a quizzical expression. Everything about him was still beautiful to me. Painstakingly beautiful. His hair had since grown, sometimes drifting over his light eyes that always seemed to be searching for a way to make me happy. But lately, I'd been anything but.

Because one night, I'd tried to go to sleep. I had packed up everything for the school day to come and done the housework, leaving dinner for him in the fridge. I'd assumed he'd gone out for a drink with his friends, but when I felt him climb into bed next to me, he smelled... Floral. Like a rose coated in sickly sweet honeydew. And as he wrapped my arms around me and drifted off in the crook of my neck, I knew that I wasn't the only person he'd done that to that night.

The boy was cheating on me, and it was pitiful how he couldn't even hide it.

Before I could stop myself, I choked back a sob, staring back up at him defiantly. There was no point in keeping quiet about it anymore. "And how was she?"

James stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes taking on a new shade, a darker one. I could practically hear his heart speed up as he reached out for me, but I stepped back, swatting his hand away. Didn't want to be touched by someone who was a straight-up liar and didn't seem to have any guilt from it.

"Answer me!" I said, stepping back into the hall with a fire in my eyes. "Where'd you pick her up? Or did you get her number at work a few days ago? Both ways seem easy enough for you." My breath shook as I held back my tears again. "Don't fucking touch me."

The poor guy stayed where he was, his mouth open slightly in shock. Maybe I'd overestimated him. He obviously wasn't smart enough to know how to hide his tracks, and he just wasn't trying anymore. Maybe he'd never loved me. The thought made me turn away, and I walked into our room, not even bothering to shut the door or give him another glance.

All of this... I'd wasted myself again... On somebody who didn't care... All these years! I'd loved him so damn much, and then he up and ran into some girl's arms and... The breath started to fade from me, and my throat hurt from holding in so much.