I heaved the box I had been carrying into the back of the pickup truck my friend Justin was letting us borrow. Vic effortlessly leaded the two boxes he had been carrying before turning to me and flexing his arms while sticking his tongue out.
"You really need to come to the gym with me sometime Kells."
"You know it's not really nice to call your boyfriend weak. We had a deal. I don't actually need to be helping you with this" I said, crossing my arms and smirking.
He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my waist. "But you are helping cuz you're the best boyfriend in the while world."
I let my hands rest on his shoulders. "What was that? I'm not quite sure I heard you right."
He pressed a kiss to my collarbone and whispered "I said you were the best boyfriend in the whole world."
I shivered as I felt his warm breath on my neck. "Ok lets hurry up and finish so we can go home. I think there are a couple more boxes in the attic if you can get those and I'll walk around one last time."
"Sure thing babe." he said, turning around and walking back into the house. I stood there for a minute watching him go and thinking about how happy I was. We had been dating for a little over 3 years and a few weeks ago he had asked me to move in with him. The deal I mentioned earlier was that I'd move in with him if he did all the heavy lifting. He of course laughed and agreed immediately. Vic spent a lot of time at the gym and lugging around equipment for the band he was in so he had plenty of muscle to spare. Especially in his arms...
I was what most people would call a weakling. I shook myself out of my thoughts and walked back into the house to make sure we had gotten everything.
I had made it through the livingroom and was in the kitchen when I heard a bloodcurdling scream and a crash from above me. "Vic?!" I called out loudly. When I didn't hear a response I started running for the stairs. "VIC!!" I called again, still not getting a response.
I ran up the stairs to the attic as fast as I could. As I got to the top I saw the two boxes on the floor with their contents scattered all around them. "Vic!" I yelled again, making it to the doorway and looking around. I saw him on the floor up against the wall. He was breathing heavily and had tears falling down his cheeks. I ran over to him and dropped to my knees, not caring about the bruises id have. I ran my hands lightly over his small but muscular frame "Vic, honey what happened? Are you ok?"
His eyes flicked to me before flicking back to the far wall, close to where the boxes lay. His breathing was getting out of control and the tears were still coming.
"Vic I need you to tell me what happened so I can help you." I finished inspecting his body and didn't find any injury. I leaned back on my heels and waited for him to say something.
His eyes didn't leave the spot he was looking at. "S-s-spi-spid" she he couldn't get a word out he lifted a hand and pointed at a spot about halfway up the wall.
I couldn't see anything from where we were so I slowly got up and walked over there, finally seeing a spider about the size of a quarter slowly making its way up the wall. I looked back to where he was still on the floor. "The spider?" he nodded and a small moan escaped his lips as he curled his knees towards is chest and wrapped his arm around them, lowering his head to rest on his knees.
I turned back to the wall, took off one of my shoes and slammed it against the wall where the spider was, squashing it nice and good into the wall. I put my shoe back on and walked over to Vic, kneeling down in front of him. "Vic do you have arachnophobia?" I asked quietly.
The only response was his continued heavy breathing and quiet sobs. I brought my hands up and began gently rubbing his arms, knowing I had to get him calm before he passed out or got worse. I suddenly had an idea.
"Vic?" I asked him, reaching one hand up to brush my fingers through his hair. He brought his head up a little bit and I brought my other hand up to hold his face between my hands. He was still trying to look around me at the wall where the spider had been.
"Vic, baby I need you to look at me ok? I need you to look into my eyes and concentrate on my voice."
His eyes flicked to my for a second and then back to the wall. I began humming the familiar tune and his eyes found mine again, staying there this time. I gave him a smile before I opened my mouth and began singing.
Oh, my stomach's tied in knots
I'm afraid of what I'll find if you want to talk tonight
Oooo Oooo
It was a song I had written for him about a year ago after we had gotten into a pretty nasty fight. He kept eye contact and I tried to reassure him with my eyes that he was ok. I kept singing.
See the problem isn't you, it's me I know
I can tell, I've seen it time after time
And I'll push you away (mmm)
I get so afraid
I noticed his breathing began to slow back to normal.
I kept singing as I got to my feet slowly pulling him up with me.
I kept singing as I tangled my fingers with his and pulled him towards the stairs and into the living room.
I kept singing as I left him there and ran upstairs to get the boxes he had dropped before coming back downstairs.
I kept singing as he followed me out to the car and we got in, taking one last look at the house I had lived in for so long.
And I kept singing even when he had gone back to normal and was telling me how much he loved me as we drove towards our new life together.
