“Malia…” Scott calls her out, her back facing him.
“Lia,” it rolls off his tongue easily and this time he’s caught her attention.
“What are you doing?” he asks. She turns around. He noticed the bags under her eyes and the unshed tears she’ll never admit having. “I, well I can’t sleep,” she says. “So I came here.”
“What I meant is what you’re doing there at the edge of the bed,” he cleared his statement. “Come here,” he invites, opening his arms wide to envelop her. “You do know that I like being the big spoon right?” she inquires, her eyebrow raised in a playful manner.
“If you agree to be the little spoon tonight, then, I can be the little spoon next time,” he offers. “You promise?” she asks, her lips quirk up. “Yeah, I promise.” He flashed his warmest smile which caused to bring a goofy smile on her.
“That’s more like it,” he murmured sleepily as he inhaled the scent of her shampoo and wrapped his arms around her.
“Goodnight, Lia,” he whispers behind her.
“Goodnight goofball,” she answers back.
She’s late.
Scott starts to worry.
It had been their routine that whenever Melissa is on a late shift, she’d stay at his place since her father’s barely in town thus she’s left alone. It’s almost 10:00. Just when he’s about to call her, he hears her footsteps approaching a mile away which is unusual for Malia. She always walks lightly.
Without a second thought, he followed her. As he approaches, he noticed something wrong with her scent, her chemo signals.
“Lia...” She’s perched on a rock. It’s not just another rock because underneath lay the remains of the ‘accident’ which caused the death of Malia’s foster mother and sister.
“Lia,” he offers his hand. She accepts and he helps her down.
“I’m sorry. I lost track of time.”
“It’s okay.”
“Let’s go,” she starts to walk away.
“Lia,” she paused. “You know you can talk to me, right?” he asks.
“And I’m not asking. I’m offering,” he adds.
She turns around, eyes flashed blue as her tears come pouring down. “It’s my fault they’re gone. I- I’m a monster,” she chokes out. He strode towards her direction, put his arms around her and she clings to him, holding on for dear life. “Shh,” he pats her back in a soothing manner. She looks up at him, eyes blue.
“Today marks a decade of their death. It’s been ten years, Scott. Ten years,” a tear managed to slip out of her eye. He wipes it off her cheek. “I thought that as years pass by, that it’ll be easier but it does nothing to soothe the ache,” she adds.
“You were young and there’s nobody there to help you control.” He gives her a kiss on top of her head. “You can’t change what happened but you can change what you will do for the rest of your life.” He kisses her eyelids. “You have me,” he breathes out. She looks up to his warm chocolate eyes and she knows, he meant every single word.
