I Hate You, I Love You

Chapter 11: "If I were you I would never let me go"

Three days later:

Finally doctors decided I was well enough to go home. I had been off IVs for about a day and no longer needing blood. Cassie had to return to work, but Marshall never left my side, not for one second. In these three days together, I had really began to get to know him again as a sober man. He had developed some new habits. Like he couldn't watch TV without some kind of snack. I was constantly laughing at him because he was so naturally funny and charismatic. If it were even possible, I think I had fallen more in love with him than I ever had before.The discharge nurse came in and helped make sure we had all my stuff. They threw out my old clothes because of all the blood on them, so I had Cassie go get me some fresh clothes before she went home last night. 

Marshall had called a car to take me home I had assumed, but I was quickly corrected. He helped me in, and went around to get in on the other side. "Where to Mr. Mathers?" the driver asked. "My place." he said, and I looked at him. "What?" he said. "You think I'm letting you go home alone? You coming home with me where I can be sure you get taken care of." I rolled my eyes. "You're going from one extreme to the other don't ya think?" I asked him. He took my hand. "Maybe. But I ain't letting another thing like this happen to you ever again."

We pulled up in his driveway and he came around to help me out of the car. We went inside and he got me situated on the couch. I had to admit, him acting like a nurse towards me was kind of cute. Marshall had left the room to get something and looking around I noticed that not only was this the first time I had been here in a really long time, but the first time I had been here since we were both sober. He came in and saw me looking around. "I'm not the decorator, so don't judge." I laughed. "No, it's not that. It's just the first time I've been here that were both sober." He sat down on the edge of the couch next to me. "Ya know? I think you're right."

Marshall had some work to do that day. He wouldn't go into the actual studio though because of me, he worked solely out of his small booth in his basement. After a couple hours he came up to check on me and I started up a serious conversation. "So, Marshall, you going to avoid the elephant in the room forever or...?" He looked over at me and I knew he knew what I was thinking. "No. I know we need to discuss it." We sat there for a moment, stuck in a bit of an awkward silence. "Marshall, you brought me here. You obviously had some kind of intentions behind it." He finally looked me in the eyes. "Being with you over the last few days, even though in the hospital, it made me realize if I quit thinking so damn much about everything, I really do have feelings for you too. I know I wanna protect you from ever being in a fucked up situation like this ever again. And I promise if you let me, I'll do my fucking best to do just that." These were the words I had always wanted to hear from him. It kind of felt like a dream because I was beginning to think I would never hear them.

I sat up from my spot on his couch. I pulled the neck of the t-shirt he was wearing until we were nose to nose and kissed him like I had been wanting to for so long. This time, there was no hesitation, no fighting me, no resistance. He kissed me back fully and deeply like he actually meant the words he had been saying to me for the last week, but especially over the last three days. He broke the kiss only to give us a chance to catch our breaths and said "You sure you wanna go for this? I don't know if I can hold back, and you're still injured." he smirked and I knew he was full of himself. "Please, don't do me any favors." I replied calmly.