Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifty

"Wading's not enough,
It's more than just dipping your feet in,
Dive in if you want,
But I'll be jumping off in the deep end."

....

Tuesday afternoon. Tom had been in custody for two days before he'd come home, Adora's guard was down, and so was her family's.
I felt relief, I felt safe. I felt her.

The school was empty now, exams over for the senior students and classes for the day over for the others. It was safe to empty my locker, and fill hers.
I sniffed the vent slits of the metal and smelt the faint scent of her hand cream. A soft and warm scent I could see myself getting lost in.
My bag was on the floor at my feet and I closed my eyes and put a hand up to the cold metal door.
I enjoyed the moment with her scent; I could feel her soft hands on my hair, caressing my face as she smiled at me.
Love in her eyes every second she saw me.
I moaned and pulled myself away.

Opening my bag revealed dead petals in a plastic bag. Roses I had saved from her bouquet. There were two cards I'd been holding back since killing Gus.
Originally I had intended to give her a clue that he was gone, the drawing of him on the cliff before I hit him, but I'd waited too long and now it didn't matter.
Instead I'd sent her the picture and text telling her what I'd done for her.
Nobody would ever force her like Gus had again.
Nobody would even touch her if she didn't want it.

I started pushing the petals through the vents a few at a time. The dried scent lingered over the subtle hand cream smell and I was almost disappointed.
It felt like ages pushing the petals in until the bag was empty.
I put the bag into my own and sniffed at Adora's locker again. My hand touched the padlock and I stroked it with my fingers.

Just a few more days and she would run into my arms, in her beautiful dress, with her hair and make up perfect.
And I would hold her as she cried, and comfort her and caress her and never let her go.
I let go of a shaky breath before I knelt down and pulled out the last card. The portrait of her, her strands of hair stuck around her face. The colours exactly as her lips and eyes were.
A labor of love, one she would get framed and hang in her bedroom.
She saw me now, she knew who I was, and she knew how I loved.
Will was not going to distort my dreams, Will was a coward, he was nothing. Adora was everything.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Debbie's voice broke me from my dreams and I jerked and dropped the card on the floor. She knelt down and picked it up.
"I'm emptying my locker." I answered reaching for the card as she opened it.
"That's Adora's locker though..." She looked at me and then down to the card. Her lips parted and her eyes rose back to my face. "It's you."

I didn't know I was so fast until she was sliding down the metal doors. I had some hair in my fingers from the back of her head, and I could see blood smeared on Adora's padlock.
"Shit."
Debbie groaned from the floor and I knelt down and turned her head. A deep gash across her forehead from where I'd slammed it into the lock. I looked around and swallowed a lump.
Nobody was around, nobody had seen, but what was I to do now?

______

A/N:

You missed me didn't you?
Admit it ;)