Atlas

Twenty three

My mom called the next day to make sure we had all our things ready to fly the next day. I had emailed my professor and asked him whether it was possible to finish my last exam a day earlier, and he had agreed.

Reece was over the moon, more excited about getting to work with my mom rather then seeing his parents.

He had refused to talk about Dimia at all, but she had anyways left to go back to the States a few days before us to attend her cousin's wedding.

Atlas and I barely had time to talk, but with thirty hours left before he took me to the airport, he made us dinner.

"Spaghetti is the best I can do." He said. "I'm sorry, my love, I'm insanely tired." I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach when he called me that, and reached up to give him a kiss.

"How American of you." I chuckled.

He was dressed in a button-up to go to work, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Anything wrong?" I asked. My question was met with silence.

I ate the food on my plate, deciding I would poke him later about it. When we were done, he helped me clear up the table.

"When is your flight?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Okay. Let me see if I can take some time off work to drop you at the airport."

"You don't have to."

"I want to." He leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Anyways I'm running late, I'll catch you later?"

"I'll be here." I shrugged.

When he was gone, I did the dishes and cleaned up the apartment. Then I went back to mine and tried to figure out what to bring with me. I only needed the essentials, I already had quite a few clothes back home.

Reece called me to explain yet once again how excited he was, and then Dimia called to show me her bridesmaid dress for her cousins wedding. She was so excited about how she would be taking us to Carlos's Pizzeria - our favorite hangout spot in Chicago in just two days. Honestly, she was just happy she wasn't in the UK anymore - the dreary weather was really getting to her.

I did all this but at the back of my mind, I was still worried about Atlas. How he was so quiet during dinner, there was definitely something going on in his head, I just couldn't tell what.

I went back to Atlas's place to try and get some sleep. He would be back in a couple of hours anyways, and since his next exam wasn't for another week, he could spend the morning doing absolutely nothing and I could ask him then.

I settled into his bed. It smelled just like him, burnt wood, pure earth - his scent was like a storm - thunder and fresh rain. Weirdly enough, that was the only way I could describe him.

My eyes soon closed, and I was taken away in a dreamless sleep.

It didn't last long.

Around 2 am, I heard water spraying from the shower. With one eye open and the other one still closed, I turned my back. Atlas must have come home.

Suddenly, a sharp crash rang through the walls. I instantly got up. Outside, it was raining like always but even the sound of thunder couldn't mask what I had just heard.