Safe in My Arms

Two days later, Adelle found herself sitting comfortably in a corner of the small coffee shop. She was rereading Looking for Alaska for the eighth time; she really loved that book. Sometimes she would grab her glass of iced chocolate on the coffee table and took a sip and then returned the glass back onto the table and continued reading.

Victoria that just ordered a drink noticed her presence.

“Adelle?!” she called out.

Adelle froze. She put down her book slowly and saw Victoria, smiling widely from ear to ear. Her dimple on her right cheek was really visible.

“Oh my god, how are you?” Victoria asked.

“I’m fine,” Adelle managed to answer. “How’s Italy?”

“It’s great!” Victoria answered, all too excited. “Fashion is probably the most difficult thing I’ve learnt so far, but I’m enjoying it nonetheless!”

Adelle could only nod; she didn’t understand fashion. Sure, she loved dressing up, but when it came to textile and all that fashion language, they didn’t stick in her head for long.

“I heard you’re dating Stephen now?” Victoria asked after two seconds of silence. She’s too bubbly, Adelle thought.

“Yeah, I am.”

“I’m so glad he’s with a really nice girl now! Even though he’s my past I really don’t want him to get with some weird person, you know,” Victoria responded. She didn’t mean anything bad; she was just too cheerful and careless that she often didn’t realize the other person felt offended.

Adelle led out an awkward small laugh.

“Oh hey, I’m sorry if this bothers you but I hope you’re okay with me and him getting some coffee last Friday,” Victoria said.

Adelle was surprised. “Last Friday?” she repeated.

“Yeah, we ran into each other and I offered him to get some coffee.” Victoria noticed the change of expression on Adelle’s face. “Oh my god, you guys were planning to do something together, weren’t you?”

“No,” Adelle lied, almost too quickly. “No – we didn’t plan to do anything together. Nothing.”

Adelle lost herself into a deep thought as she stood to leave, to head to Stephen’s home.

- - -

She knocked the front door and didn’t bother to stop even just for a second. She kept on knocking until Stephen opened the door.

Stephen smiled a bit when he saw her. “Whoa, calm down a bit—“

“You’ve got some explaining to do,” she cut him off, pushing his chest as she entered the house.

“What – what explaining?”

“Where were you last Friday?” she asked.

Stephen was confused. Where was I last – SHIT!

Adelle noticed the panicked look on Stephen’s face. She crossed her arms across her chest, staring at him, waiting for an explanation.

“I can explain—“

“Do it,” she cut him off again.

But Stephen didn’t begin.

“I met Victoria earlier,” she said, “And she said you guys got some coffee last Friday. And I thought you said your highschool friend Tyson—“

“Tyler,” Stephen corrected.

“—Tyler, got into the hospital because he broke his arm! What the fuck was that, Stephen?!”

Stephen really didn’t know what to say. Adelle rarely cursed, and when she did, she was angry and was hard to be compromised with.

“What was that?” she whispered.

Stephen gulped. He knew he had to explain. “Okay, I did get some coffee with her – but I swear we didn’t do anything!”

“Seriously? Six hours of coffee and doing nothing?”

“We got carried away, okay?”

“Carried away and then you guys had sex?” she snapped.

“Adelle! Oh god please say you didn’t mean it,” he said, a little bit scared.

Adelle was a really nice girl. She tried not to get into trouble and to be polite as much as she could. When she started to snap or curse – she was really pissed. And she could mean it.

She huffed, looking away.

“Adelle, please,” he said, walking closer to her and grabbed her shoulders. “I swear to God – hell, I swear to the universe – that you’re the only one!” Those words came out bitter (and Stephen didn’t know why), but Adelle didn’t catch the bitterness in it.

“Adelle,” he whispered.

She looked up to see his pleading brown eyes.

“Please.”

She sighed and nodded, giving in. Stephen smiled in relief and kissed her forehead before pulling her into a hug.

“I really, really love you.”

“I love you too,” Adelle replied, and this time, those words felt bitter to her but not to him.

They were completely unaware about John’s presence sitting on the staircase, listening to their conversation. The moment he saw Adelle parking her scooter in the driveway from his bedroom, he knew something wasn’t right. The way Adelle walked towards the house was different than she usually did.

He didn’t know what to think when he heard them arguing.

He didn’t know if he should think that they should just keep on fighting and then they broke up, or they should stop it and made up. He really loved Adelle and it pissed him off knowing his brother going out with another girl, but he never wanted to see both of them sad.

When they made up, he tried to cheer himself up, thinking, Come on dude! At least you won’t see her crying! and anything along those lines.

But none of them could cover up his broken heart that had been going on for six months, and he knew it wasn’t going to end any time soon.