It All Started With A Payback

Twenty-five: Favors

They were both silent in the car on their way back to her apartment. As soon as Tori dropped her keys on the console table, Louie held her waist and pulled her against his chest.

"What's wrong?" He murmured as he slowly turned her around to face him. "Nothing, I'm just a little tired, I guess." She replied. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face against his chest, relaxing as she listened to his steady heartbeat.

He slowly stroked her hair, "When a woman says nothing is wrong it means something IS definitely wrong. And when Tori says nothing, it means I better figure out what is wrong, do it fast, and fix it and or aplogize on bended knees or I will regret it for the rest of my life."

Despite how she was feeling, she laughed. "You're exaggerating!"

He pulled away from her and made her look at his raised brows. "Am I?" His mouth turned up in a smirk.

"I clearly remember someone drawing a decapitated guy whose built suspiciously resembled mine, a few days after I told her that she looked better in normal clothes and it would make me happy if she lost the nose ring."

"You haven't been your usual sarcastic self and didn't take my bait for two consecutive days so I knew something was up. Whenever I asked you if something was wrong you would always answer, nothing. Can you blame me for believing that nothing was wrong? My sister Lana, was like that when she has her period, so I assumed it was like that with you."

He held her by the hand and led her to the couch. When they had settled down, he pulled her against his side and draped an arm around her shoulders.

She chuckled, recalling the look of horror on his face when the paper she was drawing on to pass the time in her homeroom class fell on the floor. She had had no intention of letting him see that, he had his stupid football buddies who were engaging in horseplay to thank for that. One of them bumped her so hard that all of her belongings went flying everywhere while they were walking on the corridor.

"And when I asked you about it, you remember what happened, right? You lashed out at me, enumerating every single thing that I do and say that irritates you, every mistake I did that I didn't know until that day, was a big deal to you. "

He tipped her chin up, "Do you have your period right now?"

Repressing a grin she shook her head.

"I really don't want to see another drawing of me with a missing body part, this time it might be more vital than my head-"

She laughed out loud, "What body part could possibly be more important than your head?!"

He grinned, "As soon as we sort this out, I'll show you."

Her eyes grew round in understanding, "Oh! That body part!" She patted his chest, "It's safe, I still have use for it, so no, I won't cut if off. Not even in my artworks."

He burst out laughing before he bent his head and kissed her squarely on the mouth. "Man, I love you."

"What is wrong with you!" She said smiling up at him. "You love someone who drew a picture of you without your head and the base of your neck squirting blood like a fire hydrant!"

"Okay, that drawing WAS really gruesome!" He kissed her temple and then he turned serious.

"I want to make you happy, Tori. And to do that I need to be aware of how you feel. When I came back from the office, I saw your face."

He ran his palm up and down her arm before squeezing it.

"Something is bothering you and I can't make you happy if I don't even know what it is."