Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 6.

Norman

Why did you let her leave like that? She wanted you! She wanted to feel you surround her! But, you let her go, once again. What if she never comes back? You'll never see her again. Her forest green eyes that make you shake, her long tan legs that you'd like to have wrapped around you, her innocent behavior, her long brunette-

"Stop." I speak aloud to myself.

My mind keeps replaying her leaving.

Like I don't torture myself enough.

"Norman, dear," Diane makes an appearance. "I brought you some lunch. You need to eat something," She places the plate in front of me. "I don't mean to intrude, but I know you better than you know yourself. Sweetheart, you have to start treating people with a little more respect. Especially if you love that person. Especially her." I raise my hand.

"That's enough. You can leave now." She huffs, but soon exits the room.

She can't tell me what to do. She doesn't own me. Neither does Alexis.

Yes she does

"No." My mind reminds me once again.

She's everywhere, she's everything. When you eat, when you sleep, even when you're in here, alone, staring at the wall, she's here. She consumes you, Norman.

I let my anger take over, my hand comes in contact with my desk. I can't do this anymore. I can't deny that I'm in love with her, but she can't know this. She can't know that I'm utterly in love with her and everything she carries with her. Since the day she ran into me she's consumed me. I want to hold her and tell her everything will be alright, but I'd also like to tie her up and give her something for that smart mouth.

You're too messed up for her, she won't ever love you. She hates you, she hates you like you hate yourself. You know you aren't capable of loving someone, not after what happened to the others. You can't love someone without them ending up dead.

"Wait, Diane," I call out to her. She peaks her head from around the corner, like she was waiting for me to need her. "Am I really that bad of a person?" She stays quiet, her eyes never meeting mine. "Diane, please, I need the truth."

"You have your days, moments, really. You have issues, but who doesn't? I see the way you look at her, she doesn't notice, but I do. I haven't seen you look at anyone that way in a very long time. You love her, Norman."

"I can't love her, I barely know her,"

"You know enough." She gives me a look, confused, questioning everything that is happening at this moment. "Love has no time, no boundaries. All I'm saying is, you know the difference between right and wrong."

She leaves my sight once again, this time I don't dare call her back in. I don't want to know what else she has to say. Diane has been here for years, she's seen my good, my bad, she's seen the tears, but she's never once judged me for any of it, she's only given me the best advice.

Eight years ago her husband passed away at the young age of seventy-one in a horrible trucking accident. She handled it like a trooper, she told me that he was in a better place, that she'd see him again one day. Something about his death wasn't a time for mourning, it was a time for celebration because he got to be in Heaven, singing and dancing with The King. She's always been a spiritual woman, religious, I guess you could say. If she's not here with me, she's at the church or in her room reading The Bible.

I've never really been into that type of thing, going to church and being around all of those fake people. You'll find better people in a bar than you would a church. I was seeing this woman a while back, she was very religious, her and Diane had that in common. They would sit at the dinning table and have Bible study and pray together, but she refused to go to the church. She said you didn't have to go to church for you to be a christian, and that most people in the church are hypocrites.