forum Under The Painted Sky (O/O CLOSED)

Started March 18, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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Sterling smiled against her hair. “Well, we were going to walk to the bookstore. Can’t have the books waiting for too long, can we? They’ll get lonely without someone opening their pages and reading their words.”

Eden chuckled, wrapping her arms tighter around him. “Definitely not,” she hummed. “I might not walk out of that store fast enough.”

“I’ll buy you the books. Let me, please,” Sterling requested, pulling away to smile at her.

Eden frowned at him, though she felt warmth flooding through her. He wanted to spend money on her? “It’s all right,” she said to him. “I can pay for myself. It’s fine.”

“Please,” Sterling whined, burying his face in her neck and hugging her tightly. “I want to buy something for my girlfriend.”

Eden shivered involuntarily—she’d been doing that a lot lately—, inhaling through her nose.

“But not the books… they cost a lot,” Eden protested. “You can buy me something else.”

“Books don’t cost that much,” Sterling protested, keeping his mouth away from her neck. She had said no kissing her there, and he would respect that.

“The Burning Maze costs about $15-$19,” Eden breathed. “And that depends on whether it’s hardcover or not. And I like my books hardcover. And I buy a lot of books, and I can’t do that to you.”

“Eden… I have money. I can buy it for you. I want to,” Sterling insisted, kissing her temple softly.

“I have money, too,” Eden protested again. “Sterling, just because we’re dating doesn’t mean I’m going to take you for granted.”

Sterling buried his face in her hair again. “It’s not taking advantage of me if I offer…”

Eden sighed, knowing she’d already lost. And she thought she was stubborn. “You’re not going to quit, are you?”

“No,” Sterling chuckled, kissing the tip of her nose. “So you may as well give in.”

Eden sighed dramatically. “If you must,” she grumbled, knowing this time, she might have to settle for just one book. The rest, she’d order over Amazon.

Sterling chuckled again and kissed her on the lips finally. “Great. Let me just clean myself up in the bathroom, and then we can leave. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Eden smiled up at him, standing on her toes to try to kiss him. She couldn’t reach his lips, so she huffed, grabbed his collar, and pulled him down. “There. Now go.”

Sterling laughed when she pulled him down to meet her lips. He kissed her back for a moment before stepping away. “See you in a bit, beautiful.”

Eden watched him leave with a fond look in her eyes, leaning back on the counter. For a second, she remained like that, completely at peace.

Then a pang flashed through her heart, and not the good kind, and blue eyes filled her vision. She bit down on her lip, squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep, shuddering breath. It was okay. She was okay. Wasn’t she? He was gone. He wasn’t coming back. She had Sterling.

But a small part of her still argued with her, fought with her. He’d come back. He promised he would. She remembered his words as if they were burned into her skin.

”Mine. Do you understand me?”

Sterling stepped into the bathroom and glanced in the mirror. His dark hair was a bit of a mess, but nothing too hard to deal with. A little water would fix it, and it did when he ran wetted hands through it. He splashed his face with cold water, then used a towel to dry himself off.

Once he was done, he stepped out of the room and saw Eden. Her eyes were squeezed shut tight, hands clenched knot fists. He approached her cautiously, slowly.

“Eden,” he greeted her softly. “Hey, come back… Nothing here can get to you, okay?”

Eden’s eyes snapped open at the soft voice, forcing her out of the hole she’d been pushed into. She looked at Sterling, staring right through him before she blinked, returning to reality. A reality where he wasn’t there. A reality where she was feeling all right—a reality where she had Sterling and he was her boyfriend.

“Sterling,” she breathed, forcing a smile on her lips though her fists remained clenched. Nails dug into her wrists painfully, leaving behind crescent-shaped marks. Still, she pretended everything was all right. She pretended she hadn’t just been drowning in the sea of her memories. “You’re back. And I see you’ve fixed your hair.”

Sterling took another few steps closer to her, until he was right in front of her and looking down. His eyes were narrowed slightly in worry, and he didn’t respond to her words. He lifted a hand toward her for her to take, blinking and moving the worry from the lines around his eyes to inside them.

“Are you sure you’re up for this? We don’t have to if you’re not ready,” he murmured softly. “We could stay here a while longer.”

Eden’s face dropped when she looked at the worry in his eyes. Far too prominent for her to ignore.

Stupid. Look at what you’ve done. You’ve made him worried over such a stupid, trivial thing.

She took his hand, albeit a bit hesitantly, before she regained her confidence and gripped it tightly, wrist throbbing from where her nails had dug into.

“We’re just going to buy books,” she tried offering a pleasant shrug. “What could go so wrong with that?”

Stop being such a burden already. Get over it. It happened two years ago.

Sterling shook his head and took a step closer. “You know that’s not what I meant. But let’s go, I guess,” he sighed.

Eden furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side. She bit down on her lip before opening her mouth again. “Then what do you mean…?”

“You know what I mean, E,” Sterling said softly, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her head. “I don’t know what happened to you, but I know something did. And I’m willing to wait for you to tell me what that was, but please don’t try to pretend like everything is okay when it’s clearly not.”

The calm expression Eden put on her face immediately died out. She looked to the floor and heaved a sigh. “It’s better pretending everything’s fine than showing it’s not,” she admitted. “Because that makes it easier. Pretending makes it easy to handle.”

“And if it comes catching up with you? What then? What happens when you’re forced to deal with it?” Sterling whispered, kissing the top of her head. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

Eden looked at him, offered him a shrug and a broken smile. “How much more can it break me?” The smile was hard to put on, so she let it drop. “Can we, for one day, forget the fact that I’m like this?”

Sterling sighed and pulled away to look at her. “If you want… Why don’t we head out, now? Still want to walk?”

Eden pulled on that smile again. She could force herself to forget if she had to. If it meant making sure Sterling didn’t worry, she’d do it.

“Of course,” she squeezed his hands. “And the bookstore. Don’t forget about that. I need to get my hands on The Burning Maze.”