Always And Forever

Chapter 18

At the sound of his voice, I quickly pulled down my shirt, covering up the bruises, but Roman had already seen everything. He tossed his towel on his bag and rushed over to me.

"Kiran, let me see that right now." His tone was serious, looking straight into my eyes.

I looked away from him, "It's nothing, Ro, just leave it."

"Kiran, I'm not going to ask you again. Let me see it if it's nothing."

If I were able to get up and move— I would have. But my body was so sore that I didn't have that option. He moved my arm away from my waist, giving himself access to my tank top, and lifted it up slowly, just uncovering my stomach area to examine closely. His hand gently glided over the purple-blue bruises, and his face became remorseful.

"I wish I could take back that moment... I wish I had seen you behind Seth. I would have never pulled that move..."

Gosh, it killed me to see him like this...

I raised my arm up to touch his face, but the shooting pain in my ribs caused me to curse under my breath. Roman took a seat beside me, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Roman, please stop beating yourself like this." I caressed his face as I watched tears threatening to brim over again.

"I fuckin' hate myself so much for doing this to you. You can tell me if you hate me too, I deserve to hear it."

Holding his arm, I leaned my head against his shoulder, "It was an accident... I can't hate you even if I tried. I just wish we could go back to the way things were before between us."

He managed to pull a small smile on his face as he leaned over to gently press his lips against mine.

[ROMAN POV]
I got off the bed and grabbed Kiran's bag from the floor, pulling out her "Coca Cola" t-shirt and some short shorts.

"Want me to help you change?"

She looked shyly at me, mumbling, "I guess so..."

I could tell she was uncomfortable having to change in front of me, which was not my intention. I went over to the light switch and flipped it off. There was just the faintest moonlight coming from the window above us, enough to see each other's silhouette in the dark. I carefully helped her with her clothes, making sure not to hurt her in any way. Once she was done, I felt her arms go around my waist, placing her warm lips on my neck.

"Thank you for being so caring." She whispered to me in the dark.

"Anything for my baby girl."

She laid back against the pillows and drifted off to sleep. I pulled the blanket over her and left the room.

[DEAN POV]
I noticed Roman furiously typing away on his phone with one hand and downing a bottle of something in the other. Apparently, he was drowning out his problems with alcohol again. He had gone through half of it already before I took it off him.

"Dude you need to just fuckin' chill! Talk to me. What's going on?"

"Gimme the bottle back, Dean!"

He tried grabbing it out of my hand, but I pushed him away. "What will Kiran say if she sees you drinking like this?" I was hoping he wouldn't start fighting with me over the bottle, but instead, he went to the lounge area and grabbed my pack of cigarettes off the table, lighting one up in his mouth. I decided to give him some time to himself and just cool off while I went off to my bunk. Seth was already in his bed and out of Roman's way for the night.

>>>>>

[KIRAN POV]
I slowly turned over and stretched my arm out onto the bed— only to find an empty space next to me. It's 4am.... Where the hell is Roman? The bus wasn't moving, which meant we were probably at a rest stop. I got off the bed and made my way to the front of the bus. My pain had gone down quite a bit, thanks to those painkillers. Roman was knocked out on the couch with a few cigs thrown on the table. I noticed an empty liquor bottle hidden underneath the couch — I could guess who was responsible for that as well. Oh Roman...why do you do this to yourself?