To Caress My Day

“STOP! PLEASE, STOP! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!” Twigs screamed out in agony as she broke down into sobs that echoed into the cold night around them. She hated this. She hated that he was touching her which forced her to touch him back in order to fight him off. She hated being able to feel Seth’s warm naked skin under her hands again. The same beautiful skin she used to worship with her lips and tongue when they were alone in bed together…

“Alright, alright!” Seth pulled his hand back as if she was on fire, and jumped took a few steps back so that she would calm down. Within seconds, He put the perfect amount of space between them that he felt was necessary, just as she requested of him. However, her screams was still ringing in his ear, and he couldn’t help but noticed that they had been filled with such fear towards him as if he was going to hurt her. Seth knew that was a ridiculous notion! He’d sooner die than to ever put a hand on Twigs, but it didn’t seem that she was aware of that. Raising both of his hands up in submission, he nodded his head towards her. “Its okay baby, it’s okay. I’m over here now, see? I’m gonna stay right here. I promise I won’t try to approach you again. I just…I need you to understand that what you saw back there did NOT happen the way you think it did. I swear to god baby, it didn’t!”

Twigs closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him, and sarcastically repeated what he said to herself with disbelief. “…wasn’t what it looked like.”

“IT’S TRUE!” Seth shouted back defensively, but he knew raising his voice wouldn’t help the situation at all. Exhaling sharply, he made a second try to explain to her what had happened. “Pixie please, just let me explain what happened back there before you go jumping to conclusions, and condemning me.”

She visibly winced at the prospect of reliving what she had just walked into again, and covered her eyes as the image of Rebecca and Seth in their underwear flashed through her mind. Twigs didn’t know if she could stomach having to visualize that scene again for the sake of allowing him to defend himself. She opened her mouth with the intention to decline, but instead a sob came bursting forth with several more following close behind. Shakily she slapped her hand over her mouth to prevent her sobs from being heard by Seth, but they were impossible to silence. Twig’s slender petite frame trembled from the eruption of her mind, body and soul slowly breaking down. Her anguish had built up within her body so intensely, it was physically draining her and causing her to bend over from the weight of it all.

“Baby, no please.” Seth couldn’t stand idly by anymore and watch her shatter this way so tragically, even if it was his fault. Despite what she felt towards him now, she was still his woman in his eyes, and he wasn’t about to let her slide to the ground in defeat. Hurrying to his girlfriend’s side, Seth gathered her back into the familiar arms of his embrace. “Shh, baby shh. You need to calm down, and take deep breaths.”

Twigs had been taken by surprised when he pulled her up against his chest, and once she realized the distant between them must have been closed unbeknownst to her, she began to struggle against him. She tried shoving his bigger frame away from her, but he wouldn’t budge an inch. A desperate sob exploded from her lips as she frantically shook her head, her curls brushing back and forth across his chin. “No, no let me go! Let me go, Seth! Please, just fucking let me go!”

“Listen to me, first!” Seth demanded her as held her tightly to his chest, despite her weak struggles. “I let Rebecca stay the night because she got drunk from some party. Florencia detests it when her children drink anything alcoholic because it brings back memories of when she and her siblings were abused by her alcoholic relatives. Rebecca already knows this story, and so she asked me to let her crash here for the night. I told her she could. Baby no, please stop struggling, I don’t want you to hurt yourself.” Seth pleaded with her, and was a bit relieved when he noticed she was beginning to lose her energy to keep fighting him. “I led her to guest bedroom, and left her there. I thought that was going to be the last time I saw her until morning. After a while I went to sleep myself and woke up thinking you had returned from your party and had slipped into bed beside me, but when I rolled over…” Seth hesitated, squeezing his eyes shut in pain at the horrid memory, before opening them again to continue. “I smelled the alcohol. I never would have thought that a drunk Rebecca would dare to go as far as to hop into my bed with me in a million years…but unfortunately she did. I jumped out of bed the second that I realized she wasn’t you, and that’s when you walked in seeing us arguing with each other. I swear to you Tahliah, I didn’t kiss her. I swear to you that I didn’t fuck her. I swear I’ve never even thought about it once! I swear, baby, I swear! Please, forgive me…” Seth was now on the verge of tears.

“Let me go…” Twigs mumbled from within the hold of his arms, not wanting to believe his lies. She caught him in bed with another woman that much had been nothing but clear. Of course he was going to make up lies to protect himself, and get her to forgive him, but she wasn’t a stupid naïve love-struck girl that would condone this kind of behavior each time he decided to stray. No, he cheated on her, and as far as she was concerned, he decided to end their relationship together, not her.

Seth closed his eyes in grief before opening them back up to gaze down at her curls, shaking his head in refusal. He was terrified to death of letting her go. If he did, it could be the very last time he’d ever hold her like this ever again. “No, d-don’t.”

“Let me go, Seth!” Twigs wailed as she began to softly cry again, her body shaking against him.

Mentally cursing himself, Seth reluctantly obeyed her command, and loosened his hold. He watched her take a few steps back away from him, and wipe her cheeks down with the palm of her hands before she cleared her throat. He could still see that she was still internally a mess, and was attempting to cover it up on the outside by appearing like she was under control of her emotions. “Tahliah, please baby. I am so sorry for what you saw back there, I truly am, but whatever idea you’ve made up in your mind about me isn’t true! Baby, I would never cheat on you, NEVER! You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me…”

Throughout his apology, Twigs had turned around with her arms crossed to purposely face away from him. She could barely stand to listen to him now, and instead focused on trying to get a handle of her own self. Her tears, her screams, her fighting. She had never wanted to react this way towards him, no she wanted to handle this maturely as she could. If only her phone hadn’t died at the party! She could have been far down the road by now and away from Seth, but oh no, she had to make a stop in his kitchen to call Derek first to come pick her, who decidedly was taking his sweet time getting here.

“Baby, please you have to believe me.” Seth begged past the unpleasant lump that had formed in his throat. He waited for her to say something in response to him, but she remained silent. Not knowing what else to do, he too went silent. Sadly for Seth, the quiet was both irritating and suspenseful. It was killing him not knowing what she was thinking. Was she going to stay with him, or leave him for good?

Twigs needed some peace, and to not look at him in order to pretend that he wasn’t there. She needed to believe for a minute that she was alone in solitude, at least for her own sanity’s sake. Eventually, the silence helped her mind click back into gear, and sharpened her focus. Now that she was a little collected, Twigs finally parted her lips and spoke up but continued to face away from him. “I think it would be best if I...” She hesitated for a minute when she noticed her voice was starting to break again, and squeezed her eyes shut. She gave herself a moment before continuing on. “…if I head back home for a while.”

Seth was visibly paled and was taken aback by what she said. Sure, he hadn’t any idea on what to expect for her to say, but this definitely wasn’t it! Hurt was etched all over his face before it shifted into anger. He took a step forward towards her, his voice becoming strict. “The hell you fucking will! I refuse to allow you to give up on what we have over some stupid fucking BULLSHIT belief that isn’t even true!”

Twigs didn’t care about how he felt, or at least she shouldn’t anymore. His opinion on their relationship no longer mattered to her, or at least it shouldn’t. Lifting her chin up high, she looked towards the wide towering gates that led straight towards the road. She tried to focus her mind on the thought of home, and nothing else as she began to walk towards it, whispering a soft. “Goodnight, Seth.”

Before she could get far, Seth had strode up from behind her, and grabbed ahold of her wrist in a vice-like grip. “Are you serious? Are you seriously just going to walk off this property just like that after everything I’ve said?! You can’t just go, Tahliah, you have to stay here...with me.”

And just like that, the waterworks started up again, and her mind raced off track only to crash into a concrete wall. The tears that she had fought back successfully were pouring down her cheeks once more and her sobs were starting to bubble up her throat again. She tried to leave their conversation at that by shoving him off her and walking away, but he wouldn’t have it. As she was praying for Derek to show up and rescue her, Seth continued to follow her while far off in the distant in the doorway of his mansion stood a sobered fully dressed Rebecca watching the emotional scene before her through wide eyes.

“Tahliah, please! Don’t leave me! Please, just turn around and we can go back inside together and pretend this all never happened!” Seth pleaded her once more even though he knew in his heart that she wouldn’t listen. Dropping into a dangerous level of desperation, he picked up his step and once again wrapped her slender form back up into his arms to prevent her from walking any further away from him. “Don’t go Tahliah, please.” He whispered as he buried his face into her ebony curls, her back pressed against his chest. “I promise you this will never happen again, I swear on my mother’s grave this won’t ever happen again, please baby, please!”

Twigs was reduced to tears in his arm, as her struggles had now become sad pathetic smacks of her small hands that seemed to only bounce off of the arms that were wrapped around her tiny waist. She knew she wouldn’t be able to form a coherent sentence even if she tried to, and so she could only respond with a weak shake of her head. “P-Ple-Please...”

“No, no, no, no, no, I CAN’T! You can’t ask me to…you can’t ask me to do that!” She wasn’t the only one that was becoming weak from all the emotions running through her, Seth was too. He had been more successful than she had in keeping himself together, but when he heard her say goodnight to him so softly, and detachedly, it damn near killed him on the spot. The thought of her walking out of life was successfully stripping away every shred of strength he had left keeping him standing. The tears he hadn’t known he’d been holding back were filling his eyes, and his knees were on the verge of buckling underneath his weight. He had been the only thing left holding the both of them up together at this point, but now he too was dropping down onto his knees, taking her with him and letting his tears flow into her hair. “No, no, no, no, please don’t leave me, baby. Please, don’t.”

Twigs continued to cry even when she was taken down to the dewy ground with him. Her fingers were now digging into his arms instead of trying to pull them off of her, but Seth welcomed the feel. It was hitting him more and more what he was about to lose if she left him. The reminders were as painful as hot glowing swords that were just pulled forth from a forge piercing through his flesh, cooking his organs from the inside.

Everything Seth felt about Twigs had been rising up to the surface from that moment she said goodnight to him, and now it was about to come out. He was finally going to do it. He was finally going to tell her that he was in love with her.