Never Again

Chapter 26: Apologies

Hey guys, because this is my last chapter before Christmas I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas! I hope you'll spend it with your loved ones and go easy on the food ;) 

Also many thanks for all your wonderful comments and feedback on this story, it has been amazing! I hope you'll like this chapter as well :)

It had been a few days since she had found out about Seb's other life. The last days had been difficult and she had done nothing more than laying on the sofa, crying her eyes out. Abby had called her every day to check in on her and had tried to calm her down. It had been sweet of her to try, but she was still not doing much better. She hadn't even cared to dress in the morning and was spending her days in her pyjamas. Her daily routine consisted of ignoring Seb and watching as many romantic comedies as possible while throwing everything that was in her reach at the TV. It wasn't fair that all those women ended up with the man of their dreams and living happily ever after. They didn't end up with bruised ribs and being struck with fear whenever someone came too close, that was only for ordinary people.

She threw one of her dirty socks at the TV, but she missed and now it laid sadly in the middle of the room. She knew that her behaviour was far from ideal, but she could care less at the moment. She didn't want to adult anymore, she just wanted to disappear and never come back. She ran her fingers through her hair, but her fingers got stuck in the knots that had formed over the past few days. She hadn't brushed her hair once it that time, not even washed it and she barely got herself to brush her teeth every day. With a sigh she untangled her fingers and watched the rest of the movie.

There was only one slight problem that she wasn't able to overcome without leaving the house. She had run out of food and there was literally nothing more than two black bananas left. She had postponed the shopping as long as possible and she had stretched it as far as she could. Unfortunately it had now came to the point that she had to go out to get some food. She didn't really want to starve to death, because she had heard that it could be quite unpleasant to die in that way. With a lot of effort she got herself off the sofa and she stretched her limbs. She knew that she couldn't leave the house looking like this, because maybe they would arrest her for being a tramp. She needed to at least wash her hair and put on something clean and that wasn't her pyjamas.

Stumbling she climbed the stairs and found her way to the bathroom. She quickly undressed and put her pyjama in the washing basket, something she should have done days ago. When she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror she wasn't as disgusted as usual. Her bruises were almost gone and she looked more and more like herself again. The familiar purple marks weren't there anymore and only a few greenish ones were still visible. It felt liberating to see that the last traces of David were almost gone and maybe she would finally be able to forget about him. He couldn't control her anymore and she was somewhat proud of herself for freeing herself.

It was remarkable how much better she felt after taking a shower, maybe she should have done that sooner. She felt refreshed again and her now clean hair fell perfectly around her shoulders. Luckily she had found some clean clothes so other people wouldn't be able to notice what she had been up to. Also walking outside had improved her mood enormously, the knot in her stomach loosened a bit and her eyes lit up when she felt the warm sunlight on her skin. She had missed this without even noticing, she had been so caught up in the whole situation that she had forgotten what she loved about life. She promised herself to go to the lake later that afternoon, it had always been the perfect place to think things over and she hadn't been there in a while. With a spring in her step she observed all the people walking the streets and everybody seemed to be smiling. Maybe she was imagining things or maybe she had forgotten what being happy looked like, but it improved her mood even further.

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In the mean time Sebastian was enjoying his coffee sitting at his table at the window. His eyes had glazed over and he was staring out the window without really taking in what he was seeing. Sipping from his empty mug it was clear that his mind was somewhere else. It had been almost a week now since he had came back from Belgium and he still hadn't seen Keira. He had texted, called, left voicemails and even went by her house, but it had all been in vain. He had been too afraid to ring the doorbell so he hadn't even been sure if she was still there. Maybe she had gone back to England like she had said she would or maybe even had gone back to her parents. He didn't know and that was eating him up inside, not knowing why she was ignoring him and also not knowing how she was doing was unbearable. There was nothing else he could do to get hold of her, as long as she wasn't coming in for work he had no chance of seeing her again. He hoped that he would at least have the opportunity to talk to her before he had to go to Italy, because he didn't think this would do his concentration any good.