Deserving | ✔

Chapter 27

I stopped the car in front of Stephanie and she quickly hopped in. She placed her backpack on the backseat.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled her into a tight hug. She brought her arms around my back and held me tight.

There we were, completely silent, taking in the fact that we were together now and we were safe now.

"Hi," I muttered and she said it back.

She parted from the hug and buckled herself in.

"Start driving. It's a four hour drive to home and the traffic's building up," she said monotonously.

I agreed, ignoring her tone and started to drive.

An earthquake, which people are calling as Virginia Earthquake, hit New York City yesterday. The impact was felt all around. Even I felt it in my Yale dorm room yesterday night. It was a mild feel there but it was what it was: a shock.

It was actually much lighter in Boston, but as it is a frequent calamity prone zone, the alarms went off like crazy everywhere, even at Harvard. The alarms went off during 1:30 AM and Stephanie called me at 2:00 AM to pick her up and take her home.

The drive from Harvard to our home town Lancaster usually took five long hours and the fact that it was freaking 5 AM in the morning didn't help. But one look at Stephanie's face and I knew she needed this. She needed to go home. And I was more than happy to drive her home.

***

"Babe, wake up," I whispered and slowly shook her. She's been asleep for the past hour and looked disturbed in her sleep. I stopped at Starbucks to get us coffee and wanted to calm her down from the turbulence of her sleep.

I shook her a little more and she woke up, startled.

"Hey, it's okay. It's me, baby," I said and pressed her shoulder.

She slowed her breath and closed her eyes to calm down.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She just nodded and asked, "Are we home yet?"

"No, I thought we'd get some coffee."

She looked out the window and said, "Get me a hot chocolate cappuccino. I'm gonna stay by the car."

"Steph," I say and she nods, still looking out the window.

"Stephanie, look at me." She turned her head towards me, but her eyes didn't meet mine.

"Look at me, Steph," I said, firmer.

She slowly lifted her chin to look at me. Her soft blue eyes were frightened and scared, a little vulnerable and a lot sorrowful. They seek out an SOS to mine, telling me to save her from drowning into this hell of sorrow.

I cupped her cheeks softly and asked her, "What's wrong, baby?"

She shook her head to deny it but I gripped her face a little firmer and looked into her eyes and asked her again.

That broke down her walls.

She buried her face in my chest and held the collar of my shirt and sobbed into it.

I locked my arms around her and caressed her hair as I let her cry her heart out.

"It's okay, baby. I'm here. You're alright," I whispered and kissed her hair.