Extenuating Circumstances

Overcoming darkness(Chapter One)

Author's Note:

Hi everyone, welcome to this story. I started writing this book literally in 2014 and it's currently February 2020, so I don't even know if I would call it writer's block at this point, but I finally decided to come back and rework this book. For those that read this from the beginning, thank you, but as time progressed so did my writing style and I think I will be taking this book in a different direction. I hope you guys stick around! - All my love xo.

(Theo's POV):

I padded softly to the bathroom, practically tip-toeing as I tried to minimize the noise I made.  Something about being up before the crack of dawn made me feel like I was a bulldozer just crashing through everything. The cacophony of stringent beeps that poured out of my phone nearly 15 minutes ago was probably the loudest noise I allowed in the mornings, and even still I despised its notion of the start of a new day with a burning passion that superseded my hatred for the noise itself.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I walked up to the sink and turned on the water, kneeling down so that my face was directly under the cold stream that poured out of the facet. It felt good. The sensation of numbness spreading wherever the cold poured over the ridges of my face nearly stopped me from feeling the ache that crept into my head. The lack of sleep I'd been getting these past few weeks was doing me absolutely no favors. 

Pulling back, I peered at my reflection in the mirror: water droplets leaving trails that would never be repeated as gravity yanked them downwards over the already yellowing bruise blooming on my jaw. Even with the bruise I was sporting, the bags under my eyes were probably runner ups for the most eye-catching parts of my face. My appearance did a great job reflecting how I was feeling internally. 

My hair was disheveled and all over the place and my apathy these past few days meant that I had already started harboring a 5 o'clock shadow. I would have shaved but it would end up covering the bruise and the last thing I wanted was to draw more attention to myself.

Glancing over the outlines of my features I frowned. There were times that I hardly recognized myself and when I'm feeling self-destructive it's a good thing, but when you're looking for comfort and can't even find it in something as familiar as your own face it's slightly disconcerting. 

Looking down and lifting my shirt over my head, I noted that my abdomen was on an entirely different playing field from my face. Actually, scratch that, my stomach was literally in a different league. I looked like a watercolor painting if the artist had run out of half the primary colors. If you put your palm over any one part of my waist you'd be able to block more undamaged skin than bruises. 

I turned to the window and pulled up the shades only to realize it was still dark as hell and that it was raining. The weather was doing a phenomenal job of fixing my mood I thought.

Not turning on the lights provided me with not much to go on to really examine the extent of my injuries. Ignoring the pain that spread across my midriff when I rotated to flick on the lights, I nearly collapsed when my vision turned black as the pressure increased above my right hip. 

I grimaced, peeling off the bandage that I put on last night and checked the gash it hid. The cut itself wasn't particularly deep, but it danced across the part of my waist that my pants would typically rest on. The bleeding had stopped by the time I went to bed last night, but the cut hadn't healed enough so I decided to shower and apply a fresh bandage with Neosporin to make sure it didn't get infected. 

I knelt down and pulled open the bottom drawer and grabbed the faded bottle of Advil. I never actually bought this stuff and at this point, the new pills that Aiden added to this bottle every so often were thoroughly mixed with the capsules I never used in the past.

 I was going to miss him I thought, laughing mentally about how I could be poisoning myself with expired medication every time and I'd never know. That would be a pretty funny way to go: to die while trying to help yourself. Now that right there, that's irony if I ever heard it.

I twisted off the cap, grabbed two pills, turned on the shower and stripped out of the blood-soaked shirt and the sweats that were digging into the newly exposed cut.  I threw the pills into my mouth and stepped under the cold water. I held my mouth open and let it fill up before swallowing. 

Sighing, I tilted my head down letting the chilly water encase my sore body the way it had my face.  

The day started like crap and there is no doubt it'll end like anything less. 

By the time I'd finished showering and getting ready it was already half past six and I was going to be late if I didn't leave. I grabbed my gym bag and keys and pulled on my jacket.

 I rushed out of my apartment locking the door behind me and would have faceplanted into the carpeted hallway had I not caught myself because the handle of my gym bag got caught on the door handle.

"What the hell," I muttered. I unattached my bag from the handle and looked down,  my mouth falling open in surprise. 

I had literally tripped over someone's body and the body that I presumed to have been lifeless was now stirring. 

The now moving lump of a body belonged to a girl. A rather scantily clad one at that. She had been leaned up against the wall with her knees up before I knocked into her causing her to end up splayed on her side on the floor. 

She had dark brown that piled over her shoulders and chest as she lay there and was wearing a dark blue dress that most likely barely reached mid-thigh when she was standing properly. The way that she curled her legs into her chest as she tried to roll over and get up, had the dress going up practically right under her ass. 

Snapping out of the haze that her unconscious self put me in I dropped my bags and knelt down to help her up. 

Up until this point, she had been turned away from me and when I finally leaned over her to help her in sitting up, I felt the air literally just leave my lungs. 

She was beautiful. 

Breathtakingly beautiful and passed out by my front door. 

Forgetting about the ungodly time I woke up to get things done and the plans I had for today, I decided that I would help her. My plans be damned, this girl could take up all my time and I wouldn't mind it one bit.

Glancing at her quickly and seeing that she'd fallen asleep again in the new position I went to drop my things off in my apartment. Coming back out into the hallway, I approached her and knelt down. Putting one arm under her knees and one around the small of her back I stood up. She immediately nuzzled into my chest, turning her face into the crook of my neck. She breathed in the smell of my cologne and sighed, her breath whispering soft promises against my skin. 

I felt my heart stutter and I mumbled to myself, "I'm definitely going to regret this." 

Nudging my front door open with my foot, I carried her into my apartment and pushed the door shut with my elbow. I walked into my room and put her down gently on the bed. Grabbing the side of the comforter that she wasn't laying on, I wrapped it around her slender frame. 

She burrowed into the sheets and let out a small sigh. Her brow was puckered, contradicting the content noises she was making and I reached out and ran my thumb over her forehead before I even realized what I was doing. She leaned into my touch and I nearly stopped breathing. 

I didn't even know this girl's name and she was doing things to me that I couldn't wrap my head around. 

She'd sleep here for a bit until I knew she was okay and then she would go. She wasn't safe around me and as much as I wanted to know her, I wasn't that selfish. 

Frustrated with myself I walked out and closed the door gently. 

I wondered what her story is as I went to get water. 

Whatever it was, it would definitely be interesting, but I wasn't going to let myself get close enough to find out.