My Saviour - Tanner X Woods

Chapter 21 - Intoxicated With You

Tanners POV

Woods was holding on to me. His face buried in my neck. I could tell he was blushing because his cheeks were really warm. He was so adorable.

I pulled back a little and held him by the waist. I gave him a quick glance before rapidly tickling him. He squealed. "OMG Tanner Stop!!" He giggled frantically trying to wiggle his way out of my grasp. He fell onto the floor and I ended up falling to my knees. I sat on his legs and continued tickling him. He was screaming and giggling so much. I couldn't help but laugh at his frantic efforts to wiggle away. "Tan- OMG" I obviously got him in a really tickly spot because he jumped a mile and laughed so loudly.

I stopped. "How do you feel Woody boy?" I laughed evily. He looked at me with childlike joy in his eyes. It was so amazing to see.

"You could've killed me you idiot!" He joked, poking me in the stomach. I grinned. I hadn't made anybody laugh like that before and it filled me with happiness; especially given his mood before I attacked him with tickles.

We stayed silent for a few seconds. Just looking at each other and catching our breaths. I suddenly realised I was sat on Woods' lap by this point so decided to stand up. I gave him another lift up. "Love you" I smiled as I held Woods in my arms. "Love you too Tan man." He looked up and went on his tip toes to give me a kiss before happily walking away so he could get ready. He winked at me as he headed upstairs.

How could somebody be so cute. I'd never met anybody like him before. Somebody who's presence filled me with warmth and energy. I felt intoxicated when I was around him, everything seemed to slow down and everything that was frantically flying through my mind came to a steady halt. All of those insecurities I have seem to dissolve into meaningless phrases. But as soon as he was gone, it's like my world was flipped. Nothing seemed to work properly and those thoughts came rushing back. 

I heard Woods giggling a little bit upstairs. I went up and saw Woods laying on the bed on his phone talking to Paul on face time. I hid behind the door slightly so he couldn't see me. 

"Yeah, I just thought that he hated me. When I got home, he hugged me and it just made me feel so good." I could sense he was smiling by this point. 

"Aw, that's so cute. It's weird to think Tanner as loving and sweet. I mean usually he is an absolute prat. Nobody really can take him seriously because he is always cracking jokes. I mean, he is a great guy but, I just find it weird to think of him being all loving." 

I wasn't sure whether to take that as a good thing or not. I quietly walked back downstairs and then stomped up them again so Woods heard me. When I reached our bedroom he was still on the phone to Paul. I thought he would hide it but he didn't. 

"Hey Tan, I'm on the phone to Paul but I will be down in a sec." He smiled at me. 

"Oh alright" I laughed a little. "Hey Paul, are you in today?" I asked him as I walked further into the room. 

"I called to say that I'm dying." He smiled.

"Oh, you've got a cold again" I laughed.

"Yep. I mean... Noooooo. I'm dyiinggggg." He whined like a child. This made Woods chuckle.

"Alright man. See you at some point then. Hope you choke on your cough sweets." I joked. Paul pretended to fake cry. 

"Why would you even say thattt?" 

"Calm down Kim Kardashian." My simple comment caused raucous laughter. 

"Don't you guys have to be leaving?" Paul asked. I looked at my watch. 8:30am. 

"Damn, yeah. Sorry. We might call in at yours on our way home. Do you need anything from work or the shops?" I asked. 

"No, I don't think so. Anyways, I will let you go. See ya." He waved a little and ended the call. I heard Woods' phone buzz. He looked at the message and smiled. 

"What did he say?" I asked curiously. Woods smiled and shook his head. 

"Don't worry about it." He continued to smile as he stood up off the bed and began to walk downstairs. 

(Woods and Paul's chat)
P - Okay, maybe you are right. Maybe he can be sweet. Him offering to get me stuff from the office or shop was kind of him. But let's not forget, he did tell me to choke on a sweet. xD.

W - I told you he could be sweet. As you said though, he can be a prat. Haha lol. Hope you feel better soon though! :)

(Back to Tanner)

"You ready??" I asked Woods. He smiled and nodded. I grabbed my keys and waved goodbye to Cassie.

Paul seemed to have really cheered him up from earlier. I couldn't believe that Jamie was like that. In the hospital he came across as really kind and thoughtful. I guess I was very wrong. Saying that, what happened to Woods was about four years ago now so he might have changed. I still hate him for what he did though. It sounded awful.

Woods and I reached the car. "Can I ask a quick question?" I asked. Woods glanced over at me.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Do you still talk to Scott or not? Like I know that that's where you had been when I first saw you, but, do you ever like properly talk to Scott?"

"No. Not really. I mean, I've never really talked to him properly since he moved house and as I said, since everything with Jamie was happening. I haven't wanted to bother him."

"So have you spoken to anybody about any of this?"

"No. I couldn't. After Skylar and Scott, I couldn't do it again. I just kept everything to myself. Whenever people tried to ask me what was wrong I would just become defensive and leave the conversation because I didn't want to be the blame for her another person having some sort of mental health problem."

"You're not to blame for anybody's mental health problems. If you have problems, and you decide to share it with others, it doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't destroy their lives. It doesn't make them question everything in their life. It just helps you move past certain things in your life. It's okay to talk to people about how you feel." I tried to reassure him. Woods just lowered his head and got in the car. I got in also and started the engine. 

After a few minutes of driving, Woods suddenly spoke. "Look, when I talk to people, I feel an immense wave of guilt flood over me. I struggle to trust people, mainly because of Scott, but also small other things since then, they wouldn't usually bother anybody else, but now I seem to notice those small things. Even stupid things like when you were with Paul at work yesterday, I expected you to tell him everything about me,but when he called this morning, he didn't know a thing. He said that I could trust you, but I can't just believe somebody's word like that. I feel bad when talking to a therapist about how I feel, never mind people I love and car about. It is so difficult for me to open up and be truthful about stuff because I feel like people will just judge me and run away."He confessed. 

"Look, I get that feeling of others judging you, but you need to stop caring about what others think about you. It's your life. Do you want to look back when you are older and see you sticking to the rules and playing by the book because of what others will think? Or will you want to see you taking risks and doing what you want to do and not over thinking what everybody thinks. I don't mean this in a nasty way or anything, but their life consists of more than you. If you want to randomly dance your way down the aisles in target with your friends, just do it. Don't let your fun be ruined by onlookers. They might go home and tell somebody at home, but something else will come along and it will clear their heads after a few hours." I need to take my own advice here, but I'm just so scared of what others think of me. I don't even know why I'm telling him all this when I can't do it myself. I'm such a hypocrite. 

You know what... I'm going to take him to target after work and we will dance, together. 

I can't wait.