Over My Dead Body

IX. Sparks fly

"Alessia! Give it back!" Connor shouted.

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'.

"Why not?" He whined.

"If you want it, then take it," I challenged him, pulling his blanket away from him.

"Come on, Alessia, you know I can't sleep without a blanket," he said, putting on a pouting face. It looked adorable, but I wouldn't fall for it, not this time.

"You shouldn't be sleeping in the middle of the day. The sun is shining, we should be outside."

"You know I stayed up all night to paint, sweetheart, I had to finish this painting," Connor said, gesturing to the canvas standing in the corner of our apartment.

Connor was an amazing painter. He had painted the skyline of Rome, his favorite city. I recognized the Colosseum. My knowledge about Roman culture didn't expand very further than that.

"It's called As Mighty As Rome," he said when he saw me looking at his painting. "You know, because Rome was once the mightiest city in Europe," he explained.

I nodded, fascinated by how precise his painting was. You could see every detail clearly. It never bored me to look at Connor's creations. I loved them all, almost as much as I loved him.

"It's beautiful," I breathed.

"Yes, it is," he said, but when I looked up at him, he wasn't looking at the painting. He was looking at me.

He walked towards me and grabbed me by my waist, placing my back at his chest while he placed a soft kiss on my head. I quickly turned around and pressed my lips against him, releasing the blanket I'd stolen from Connor. The sparks immediately started to fly between us. I felt complete when I kissed him, like I had found my other halve. No one needed to lit the fire that burnt between us, it just never faded. The sparks never went away and they never would.

"So are you still planning on telling me why you dragged me with you?" Jayden's voice pulled me out of my daydream.

"I already told you. Because I needed someone with a car," I answered.

"You know what I mean," he said, glancing at me. I sighed. There was no retreating now. I owed it to him to tell him the truth.

"It's about my boyfriend," I started after I took a deep breath.

"Wait, hold on, I thought you and your boyfriend were broken up?" Jay asked, giving me a confused look.

"What? Why'd think that?"

"Just cause I haven't seen him around your apartment for a while." Jay shrugged.

"Yes, but that's not because we're broken up. That's because he was murdered."

I noticed that Jay flexed his muscles and suddenly looked really uncomfortable.

"You didn't know?" I asked, trying to understand his weird behaviour.

"No," he swallowed, "I didn't know."

"Well now you do. In order to avenge Connor, I need to find his killer and in order to find his killer, I need you to drive me," I explained.

"You're into some serious shit, Alessia, you shouldn't mess with this person." Jay looked over at me with worry hidden in the back of his eyes.

"And why not? What do I have to lose? He already took the one thing that was worth fighting for from me. I've got nothing left, so I might as well try."

"That's not true and you know it. You still can be happy without Connor. You can move on from him if you just find the strenght inside you to let him go. I know you have it in you." Jay's voice went soft with these words but they didn't reach me.

I shook my head. He was wrong. Jay was wrong. I would never be able to let Connor go because that would mean that I would let a part of myself go and I wasn't ready for that.

Jay sighed and turned his attention back to the road in front of us. The rest of the ride passed in silence.

"We're here." I must've dozed off because hearing those words made me awake instantly.

I looked around and saw that we had indeed arrived at our destination.

"Thank you for bringing me," I said and wanted to get out of the car but Jayden stopped me by placing his hand on my wrist.

"Do you honestly think that I am going to leave you here?" He told me.

I opened my mouth to tell him that I could manage things on my own but he cut me off before I could say anything.

"No, not a chance, Alessia! I'm coming with you, end of discussion."

I just nodded and looked at his hand that was still placed on my wrist.

Jayden saw me looking and quickly removed his hand. "Sorry," he swallowed.

I got out of the car and finally had the time to take in my surroundings. I saw the bench at the exact same spot as I'd seen it on the photo. The bench was placed towards a wall of grafity. I smiled as memories flashed by.

"This is it?" Jay asked beside me.

"Yes."

"Okay, so what do we do next?" Jay asked and I could tell by the way he shifted his weight between his feet that he was kind of nervous.

"We," I said as I gestured between him and myself, "aren't doing anything. I, on the other hand, am going to fix this."

"Alessia, we've gone through this already. I'm not going to leave you here."

"Yeah I know. That's why I am going to fix this and you're just going to be here. I'm not a fool, Jay, I know you've made up your mind. But you're not going to take part in what I'm about to do," I told him.

"Okay, I can live with that," he said but I had already turned my back at him and walked towards the wall.

My finger caressed the place where Connor and I had painted our initials. We had been here a few times before to look at the view and one time we had brought our grafity to mark our love at the wall. Back then it seemed like a good idea but when I think back at it, I realize that we shouldn't have done it.

"Uhm, Alessia?" Jay's voice brought me back from my thoughts once again. "We have company." His statement made me turn around. That's when I saw him. The reason why I had come here. The one I was looking for.

I smiled at him as I saw recognation in his eyes.

"You," he said.

"Me," I smiled.