“Shut the fuck up, kid. You know you’re nevera bother. And I was already missing you. It’s been a while since we last met,” he reasons over the phone, shuffling coming from behind him.
“Let him come, Andie! He’s being overbearing, I need him off my ass,” Kaeli’s voice sounds closer than before as she yells into the phone.
“Oh, I love being on your ass and in it,” he thinks he’s whispering, but he’s not.
“I’M STILL HERE, AND THAT’S TOO MUCH INFORMATION, EZRA!” I scream into the receiver. I’ll probably need to bleach my ears and eyes of the visual. A shiver of disgust rolls down my spine as I hear Kaeli scolding him.
“Oops, sorry. Never mind, I’m still coming to your place,” Ezra declares, hardly apologetic for putting me through that ordeal.
“We literally had brunch two days ago,’ I say, rolling my wet eyes at him and his over-dramatic self. No one would believe me if I told them this about Ezra.
“Right! It’s been forty-eight centuries! I’m coming.” That’s all the warning I get before he drops the call.
I can only stare at the phone until the screen turns black. Because wow, he can be really persuasive. Not sure how much persuasion isreally required if he plans on showing up no matter what.
But honestly, the feeling of loneliness has started creeping in again, and I could definitely use my brother’s presence. Though keeping my face blank when he brings up Noah in the conversation is going to be a challenge.
Ugh, I love my brother.
Twenty Six
Noah
It’s worse.
And it keeps getting worse and worse as the days pass.
Whatever this illness is that I have had since the day Andie walked out on me has been hanging over me like a dark fucking cloud.
It’s different than the ones I usually have. I survive them, having already made them a part of me.
But this is…this is different. The hurt on her face as she escaped my apartment haunts me day in and day out. The detached tone with which she spoke her last words to me sliced my heart open.
And whose fault is that?
My brain adds fuel to the fire raging inside of me. I’d kick myself in my ass if possible. I hate myself for ruining her first sexual experience. She should’ve been cared for, pampered, but I went ahead, took her virginity, and told her she has no business asking me the simplest of fucking questions.
I haven’t seen her or talked to her for almost two weeks now, and it’s like I’m having withdrawals with how often I contemplate barging at her house and dropping to my knees at her feet, and begging for her forgiveness.
I feel like I can’t breathe, like the vines of her absence have wrapped themselves around my heart so tightly that now they’re suffocating, digging into the organ, bleeding me dry.
My days have lost color without her. She has taken her rainbow with her, snatching all the colors on my spectrum. What’s worse is that I’m hanging onto the memories of her like an addict to his fix.
I miss her shiny hair wrapped around my fist. Imiss her eyes full of life as she shows me the consideration and kindness that not a single soul ever did. I miss the way she laughs with her heart full. I miss the way her lips feel on my skin—soft, warm, and safe.
But most of all, I missher.
It doesn’t just stop at that, though. My mood swings have been worse than before. The guys have started maintaining their distance from my‘grumpy ass’as they so eloquently call it, moving around me on eggshells, waiting for me to erupt.
Even Seb is not joking around me or poking fun at me. And the dude can find a reason to crack a joke in a fucking funeral. If he can’t be funny around me, then it’s bad. Hell, he instantly averts his eyes the second they collide with mine.
When Ezra pads over to me in the locker room as we get dressed for the warm-ups before the game, I know I’m in for a session.
Fuck, I can’t look at the man without thinking of how sweet his sister tastes, or how hypnotizing her honey smell is.
I instantly wash away any sign of his sister from my face. Do not want to get into something before the game. However, hiding from him is taking its toll on me, weighing me down in guilt.
“You good, man?” Ezra asks as he leans against the stall, ready in his gear to head out.