SEVEN MINUTES || L. NORRIS

TWENTY NINE

If I come around would you even care?

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I didn't go home after my training session the next morning, I drove myself straight to Isabelle's apartment, praying that she would be there to answer the door. I still had a key card for the main entrance of the apartment complex, so I tapped that against the scanner, the door unlocking and opening for me to step through. I held my hands in the pockets of my shorts, chewing on my lip as I slowly made my way to the lift, pushing the correct button so that it took me upstairs to Isabelle's floor.

I knocked on her door, closing my eyes as I hoped she would answer. I hoped she was awake, otherwise this was a complete waste of time and there was no other way I could make her listen to me. I could hear mutters and groans coming from the other side of the door and I looked up, a grin wide on my face as I heard the key in the lock. She opened the door and stood on the other side with a disheartened look on her face, her hair messy as her pyjamas clung to her body. Her facial expression softened when she saw me standing before her. She rubbed her eyes before looking up at me.

"Lando?" She looked so beautiful. I could have cried at the sight of her in front of me like this. She beckoned for me to step inside. "What are you doing here at this time?"

"It's nearly ten," I chuckled. "I've been training this morning. I just wanted to stop by, Issy. We really need to talk."

"I know," she sighed a little, walking through to her front room. It was a little tidier this time. "Sit down."

I sat on the sofa and waited for her to join me. She reached for the pale pink blanket from the back of the sofa and draped it across her body, before she sat cross legged by my side. Issy glanced at me, a frown painted on her face.

"I'm sorry for leaving yesterday. I felt horrible for the way I spoke to you," she tensed up a little and my heart broke at the sight. "I knew that you didn't want to be around me."

"Isabelle, I..." Tears spilled from my eyes and down my cheeks as I looked at her. Everything I'd ever wanted was sitting right before me, but I couldn't have it right now and that broke my heart into millions of pieces. "My heart is so broken without you, Isabelle."

"I don't know what to say," she whispered, chewing on the skin on her lips, sighing as she used the bobble on her wrist to tie her hair back. "Apart from I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen like this. I should never have shouted and argued with you that night. Talking about it like proper adults would have made this so much easier, but my anger got the better of me."

"I know it did, Issy, which is why I called you and why I came back, but even that didn't seem to help me much," I bit down my sore lips. Due to the anxiety of these past few days, I'd not stopped biting them, but now they were sore and I regretted taking my feelings out on them. "I need you, Issy. My life is a fucking shit show without you."

I exhaled and collapsed onto the sofa, falling into Issy's arms with my chest resting in her lap. She was quick to begin running her fingers through my curls, calming me and shushing me with quiet and slow movements.

"Do you still care about me?" I muttered through my tears, my nose becoming stuffy as I whimpered out to her.

"Lando, of course I care about you," she sat me up, caressing my cheek with the tips of her fingers as she moved closer to me. "I've always cared about you, ever since we met and one silly argument isn't going to stop that."