Safe in My Arms

Adelle and Stephen walked out of the frozen yogurt store and decided to sit outside on the bench on the sidewalk. A medium-sized cup of frozen yogurt with blueberry sauce, lychees and fruity peebles was held by Stephen. Adelle took the spoon from Stephen’s hand and started eating it.

“Hey, don’t eat the whole thing!” Stephen protested, snatching the spoon from his girlfriend. Adelle pouted as she watched him eating the yogurt. A few spoons later, he held out the spoonful of yogurt and fruity peebles to her. She opened her mouth and let him fed her.

They spent the next minutes finishing the yogurt. When they were done, Stephen threw the empty cup into the bin next to him.

“What now?” she asked, watching the people passing by.

He shrugged. “We can just watch the sky.”

“That’s cheesy.”

“Shut up.” He wrapped his arm and her and pulled her closer to him.

“Let’s go to the cinema and see if something good is on,” she suggested after a few moments.

“Why didn’t I think of that before?” he said to himself, causing Adelle to giggle. He stood up and pulled her up. “Come on.”

They started to walk toward the cinema with Stephen’s arm around her shoulder and Adelle’s arm around his waist. When they arrived, they stared at the movie posters, thinking what to watch.

Stephen raised his hand and about to unsurely point at New Moon when Adelle raised hers and pointed at 2012. He sighed in relief, silently thanking his girlfriend for not being a Twilight fan.

“2012 it is,” he said and pulled her along to the ticket booth. “I thought you wanted to watch New Moon.”

“I saw it,” she confessed. Before Stephen could respond, she muttered bitterly, “Maegan dragged me to see it.” She then continued, “I’m happy Edward is not in the movie for the whole time. Plus, Jacob is fucking hot in the movie.”

Stephen stared at her and she stared back with her green eyes.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“I can’t believe you just said someone else is hot!”

She laughed. “Relax, Stephen; you know you’re my only Oscar.”

Stephen rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I never said I wanted to live in a trash can.”

“I called you Cookie Monster and you didn’t like it!” she whined.

“I am not crazy for cookies!”

“I called you Slimey and you hated it.”

“Worms are disgusting.”

“I called you Elmo!”

“I DON’T HAVE A HIGH-PITCHED VOICE!”

“You don’t like Oscar, Cookie Monster, Slimey, and Elmo, so I guess I have to call you—“

“Never mind, Oscar’s fine,” Stephen cut her off, afraid that she would call him with a weirder name.

She smiled to herself in fascination.

Soon it was their turn to buy the tickets. Adelle was the one to keep the tickets, and then they headed out. On their way out, they walked pass a couple.

Stephen noticed that he knew the girl.

He stopped his steps and turned around, only to see the brown hair of the girl that reached her mid-back. She turned her head to talk to her boyfriend, a smile formed on her lips.

Stephen surely never forgot that smile and those eyes.

“Stephen?” Adelle called, snapping him back into the reality. He turned to her with an eyebrow raised. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he choked out. He approached her and tangled their fingers together.

Stephen was trying to keep it cool, but Adelle knew that there was something wrong.

- - -

John watched as Stephen was walking down the hall to his room.

“How was your date?” John asked out loud from his room.

No reply.

Confused, John stepped out from his room and into his brother’s that was next to him. Usually after a date, Stephen bombarded into his little brother’s room, dancing around like a fool, telling him how the date went. But he wasn’t sensitive enough to catch the tone of John’s bitter responses.

John went into Stephen’s room and found him on the floor with his back leaning against the bed, playing an acoustic guitar.

“How was the date?” John asked again.

Stephen stopped strumming and looked up at him. He looked back down at his guitar. “It was okay,” he mumbled.

John raised his eyebrow. Okay? Stephen never said his date was okay. “You sure Adelle didn’t see other guys?” he joked.

Stephen responded with a shrug. “She said Taylor Lautner was hot, though.”

“Are you okay?” John asked worriedly. His brother was really calm, which rarely happened.

Stephen sighed and replied, “I’m okay. Just leave me alone, okay?”

John hesitated before leaving him alone in his room and went back to his. He grabbed his phone on the bed and dialed the number that he knew too well.

“Adelle? Is your dorm already closed?”

- - -

Adelle opened the door and saw John standing there. She let him in and they both went to her bed. Sitting side by side, they both didn’t know where to start.

“What’s with him?” John started.

Adelle could only shake her head. She actually knew what was wrong, but she decided not to think about it. Besides, she could be wrong.

“Just tell me what made him change,” he said.

“I don’t know, he just suddenly went silent most of the time after we bought the tickets for 2012,” she answered.

“Maybe he was scared to see it?”

Adelle chuckled. “You know he’s not a coward.”

“Yeah, I know.”

There was silence for a while.

“Adelle, I know you know there’s something wrong. And I know you know what is wrong,” he demanded.

She stared at him in confusion. “How come?”

John gulped, realizing the line he just said was the other form of saying, “I keep my eyes on you all the time because you’re just so interesting.”

“I just know,” he muttered.

She sighed. “We walked pass Victoria.”

John knotted his eyebrows together in confusion. “I thought she was in Italy.”

She shrugged. “Truth speaks differently.”

John chewed on his bottom lip, unsure what to say. Everyone knew Victoria Mentley could never seem to leave Stephen’s mind. Even when his mind was starting to not to think about her, she was still there at the corner of his brain.