Rose Colored Boy - dreamwastaken

chapter ten

tw manipulation/emotional abuse

Blair choose to not sit in the cushy arm chair, instead she was in one of the straight-backed chairs at the counter. She held her apple cider closely, but wasn't drinking from it.

Dream said he'd be back in twenty minutes, but only because she'd asked for some space (and it took several asks).

Adam was, at this point only ten minutes late. Blair kicked her feet against the legs of her chair. She checked her phone twice. She picked at the threadbare hem of her sweater sleeve.

"Hey, thanks for agreeing to meet up."

He came up from behind her put a hand on her forearm before he sat down, and she jumped.

"Yeah, uh, no problem."

"I brought you these," he said, setting down a bouquet of sunflowers. "I know I haven't been good enough for you recently, and I need to step up."

Blair blinked in surprise. "These are my favorite..."

He smiled at her. Just that was enough to bring back all of the memories of movie nights and late-night conversations. "I remembered. What did you want to talk about?"

She looked at him for another moment before remembering what she was there to do.

"Oh, um. Adam, these are really nice, but... I wanted to talk about us. I don't think it's been working out."

"I agree." Blair looked up again in surprise. This was a totally different person than the one she had left last week. "I haven't been treating you the way I should be."

"What?"

Adam smiled sadly. "I hate that it came to this for me to see that. I've been stressed, I think, with how things have been going with streaming and I've been taking that out on you."

"It's okay," Blair said automatically.

"How have you been?"

"Um, I've been good, actually. I started seeing a therapist again."

Adam laughed a bit. "How's that?"

"Good, actually. I really like her."

"What else?"

Blair went to say something about Dream, but stopped herself. Maybe she was scared of what Adam would say, but she knew she didn't want him to know. Blair started tapping her fingernails on the wooden countertop. Adam placed his hand over hers.

"Hey, stop. There's no reason to be nervous," he said with a laugh. "I missed this. I haven't had to put up with all your crazy all week. You wouldn't be you without it."

Blair pulled her hand back.

"What were you saying?"

"Oh, um, I've been thinking about going back to school?"

Adam nodded, taking a sip of his coffee and raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's just a thought. I haven't even looked at schools around here yet," she said. "What about you?"

He shook his head with a smile. "Just thinking about you. How to fix this, how to get you back."

Blair felt her face flush with warmth. "Oh."

"How am I doing?"

"Um, I don't know?" She said honestly.

"I figured you were going to break up with me. I would, if I were you. But I would do anything to get you back, so here I am."