Black Rose

Twelve

"Mm." I moaned as I felt vibrations against my body. Whatever it was had me feeling good and I didn't want it to stop. And it didn't. Rolling over on my back, the vibrations became stronger as I felt something hard underneath me. Opening my eyes, I sat up just enough to reach back and grab whatever it was. In my hand was my cell phone and I was receiving a call from Raine. Rolling my eyes, I continued to let it ring as I stood up to get my day started seeing as it was going on eight in the morning. Although the honeycomb yellow sun was sitting in the sky like a golden globe and blasting its light down upon the earth, my emotions felt the complete opposite. It's like a dark cloud over my head and it's draining me of every positive energy I have. Last night I barely slept because I kept replaying the harsh words Raine said to me. He just snapped on me for being upset with him about the crappy prank he did on me. Who does that? His outburst on my suicidal attempts has been gnawing at me and it has me curious on if he has been genuine with me or is this all because he pities me.

Putting on a two piece outfit, I decided to let my voluminous locs free today. I wasn't letting last night incident interfere with my time here. I'm going to live it up with or without Raine by my side. He wasn't even supposed to be here, so I'll go on about my days as I initially planned. Grabbing my crossover bag and cell phone, I unlocked the door and walked out of the room, crashing into a hard chest.

"Goodness gracious." I rubbed my aching nose.

"Are you ok?" Raine asked, trying to get a glimpse of my face.

"I'm fine." Moving out of his reach, I walked around him and towards the front door.

"Mel, can we please talk about last night like adults?" He asked, following close behind me.

"There isn't anything to talk about." I shrugged, reaching for the door. "You said how you truly felt, so I'm just eliminating myself and the burden I clearly placed on you."

He sighed. "You're not a burden to me Mel. Can we sit down and talk, please?"

"No, we can't. I'll stand." I said, turning around to face him with my arms folded.

"I know sorry doesn't mean anything to you but I apologize, Mel--for everything. The prank, the disrespectful shit I said to you, all of it. Look, you wanted me to accompany you in the water and I thought it would've been entertaining to prank you. I didn't consider how horribly you suffer from anxiety and I'm sorry. As for the stupid comment, I can't excuse it because I said it, but you really got under my skin. All I was trying to do was have a little fun with you and I felt like you overreacted, but I failed to realize how easy it is for you to go into a panic." He stated with sincerity. Reading people is a gift I've been blessed with and I can see how genuine and regretful he is. Closing the gap between us, he took my hands in his and kissed them gently. "I'm sorry for ruining dinner and hurting your feelings. Will you forgive me?"

Chuckling at the baby voice he used, I rolled my eyes and nodded. "I guess you're forgiven, but if you ever scare me like that again, I'll chop off your genitalia and feed them to the sharks."

"That's cold-blooded Mel." He shook his head, a look of discomfort on his face. Again, I shrugged carelessly. "So, what were you headed out to do?"

"I don't even know." I pouted. "I'm stuck between deep sea diving and taking a tour of the Rio Camuy Caves."

"You just want to be underground, huh?" I nodded. "Well, if you want to go sea diving first, we can go to Culebra Island. It's the best place for diving. I've been there before and they're good at what they do."

"We can go there. It doesn't matter to me as long as I get to swim with sea creatures today."

"Ok, well let me put on a shirt first and we can head that way." Giving him a thumbs up, I went outside to wait for him. White, fluffy clouds slowly drifted across the soft shaded blue sky and there was a slight breeze in the air, pushing my hair in my face. It didn't feel like spring time down here.