When the Sky Comes Down

Chapter 13

[Nicole’s P.O.V.]

After breakfast, we decide to play some card. I get a picnic cloth and the cards out of my room, Keith and Coden are getting some snacks and drinks from their room and Harlen and Lexi are simply passing time in the garden. I worry about leaving them alone. Harlen has been getting a lot worse over the last week. He has been spending more time with her as Keith has been spending more time with me. That makes it harder for him to take the time and get his thoughts in order. He is still afraid of telling Keith, but now that Keith is finally fully experiencing the bond mating creates, I am fairly sure he will understand. Nonetheless, Harlen wants to convince Lexi before talking to Keith. I fear it will be a long time before he can finally let his hair down if he goes for that approach. Lord knows it took me forever with my careful approach. Who knew kissing him would do the trick. I wish I had kissed him sooner. Then again, maybe Keith wasn’t ready before.

When I got everything we need, I go down to the gardens. Before going outside, I stop. Harlen and Lexi are having a heated conversation.

‘You can’t just-‘

‘I am sorry.’

‘No. Stop apologising.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Harlen!’

‘I-I just-‘

‘Why?’

‘B-because, I- I-‘

‘Bec-‘ Her sentence is cut short in such a way that I get worried. I quickly make my way towards them. Lexi is on the ground, holding her ankle. Harlen is simply standing there, hopeless.

‘What is going on?’ I ask. I drop down the picnic cloth and hurry to Lexi.

‘It’s nothing,’ she says. She is looking at Harlen and she isn’t looking happy. I can only imagine how much that look hurts Harlen. If Keith were to look at me that way, I would feel absolutely heartbroken. She looks as if he has betrayed her. ‘I just sprained my ankle.’ She looks away.

I glance at Harlen. He indeed looks heartbroken. ‘Let me have a look at it,’ I whisper. I am trying to hide my fear. Rejecting a mate is very painful. If Lexi has rejected him, or of Harlen decides to reject her, he will end up in terrible pain. Not just mentally, physically too.

‘I’m fine,’ Lexi assures me. I have a quick look and then help her up.

‘What happened?’ I ask again. Neither of them answers me. ‘Lexi?’ She just shakes her head. I look at Harlen. ‘Har?’

‘I- I-‘ he only mutters.

Coden comes walking up. ‘Keith will be joining us in a minute. He bumped into Graham, and they are having a discussion about- Well I honestly have no idea what it is about.’ He waves it away. He has his bag with him, I assume he has all the snacks in there. ‘Let’s set up. He said we could start without him.’ Coden doesn’t seem to notice the mood at all.

‘Yes, let’s.’ Lexi says.

Keith joins us a little later. ‘Graham and Ilion will be joining us.’ He comes and sit next to me on the cloth and pulls me close. I have to admit, it gets my mind off of Lexi and Harlen for a moment. He kisses my neck and I close my eyes in enjoyment. ‘Did I miss much.’

‘Yes,’ it is out before I know. He has that effect on my. He looks at me in surprise. ‘I mean- No, not really. Lexi twisted her ankle.’ I glance over at a hurtful looking Harlen. ‘But that is it.’

‘You didn’t tell me that,’ Coden said. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘A little,’ she mutters. She doesn’t look anybody in the eye.

‘Let’s play cards,’ I say, before anybody can ask any more questions. I get out the cards. My diversion seems to have worked.

‘Anybody wants a snack?’ Coden grabs a bag of fireflake and garlic potato chips and opens it and lets it go round the group.

‘I’ll walk Lexi to her room,’ I tell everybody. We have been having an amazing day and we just ended with eating dinner outside. Now it is starting to get a little chilly and we decided to call it a day. Harlen and Lexi have barely said a word to each other, and I want to find out why.

‘Can I meet up with you later?’ Keith asks me. The idea of meeting up with him in my room tonight and making love makes me feel all hot and tingling.

‘Of course,’ I whisper under my breath. We give each other a kiss and Coden needs to push us apart to actually stop kissing.

‘Yeah yeah, we know you two love birds can’t keep your hands off of each other. Now let’s go.’ I give Keith another smouldering look, before hooking my arm into that of Lexi and pulling her along. She has a little hop as we go. Her ankle must still be sensitive.

Once we’re out of hearing distance, I pull her a little closer. ‘So, what is going on between you and Harlen?’

She growls a little. I have never heard her growl before, it sounds cute. ‘Keep out of it Nicole.’ She has never told me to stay out of her business. Usually she is very willing to accept advise and even a little eager to talk. Either it is serious, or she doesn’t trust me anymore. I decide not to push it. We simply walk in silence.

When we finally reach her door, she seems less angry, more upset. ‘Lexi?’ She looks up at me. ‘If you need anyone to talk with, know that I am here.’ I give her a hug. ‘I am here.’

‘Thank you,’ she whispers. She hugs me back, but then lets me go. ‘Good night, Nicole.’ She goes in and locks the door behind her. Though I am not Harlen, though I am not mated with her, I can’t help but feel a little empty. I am sure Keith will be able to fill that emptiness tonight.

[Alexia’s P.O.V.]

I let myself fall onto my bed and feel the tears welling up. ‘You are so stupid,’ I whisper to myself. ‘So, so stupid!’ There’s a knock on the door. ‘Go away,’ I cry. Another knock. I curl myself up and ignore it, but it happens again and again. It stops for a while, but then happens again. ‘Go away!’

‘Alexia.’ It is Harlen. He sounds upset. ‘Please talk to me.’ I ignore just softly whine on. ‘I am not going away Alexia. I will spend the night sleeping against your door if you need to.’

I close my eyes and try to ignore the fact that he is out there. He stays quiet and so do I. I cuddle my legs and try to stop myself from crying. I can’t, the tears just keep coming up. ‘Stupid,’ I whisper to myself.

When I wake up, my eyes feel puffy and my belly hurts from pushing my knees in them so hard. I hadn’t even noticed I had fallen asleep. I sniff and look at my alarm clock. It is four in the morning. I get up and go to the toilet. I probably won’t be able to sleep anymore.

After washing my hands and looking at my pale face in the mirror, I walk back into my room. I can’t help but wonder. Is he really still out there? I walk to my door and listen, but I cannot hear anything. I unlock the door to open it a little, but as soon as I put down the handle, the door flies open. Harlen comes falling in. I have to admit I hadn’t expected him to be there.

He jumps up. ‘Alexia?’ he looks around bewildered. He must have been asleep. His eyes fall on me and I just see the pain in his eyes. ‘You have been crying,’ he whispers. He lifts his hand, then seems to rethink his actions and lets it fall down.

‘You’re still here,’ I whisper.

‘I told you, I am not leaving.’

‘There is nothing to talk about Harlen,’ I say. I want him to leave.

‘Alexia-‘ His voice is breaking. ‘Please, let me explain.’

‘Explain what? W-what is there to talk about Harlen?’ He looks like I just punched him in the stomach. He opens his mouth, but I am not ready to let him talk yet. ‘What do you want to say? That I am an i***t? That is was stupid of me to kiss you?! Do you think I don’t know that yet? Don’t you think you haven’t made that clear enough by pushing me away?!’ I feel the tears welling up again. ‘Please leave.’

‘Alexia, please let me explain.’ He seems so desperate.

‘Please leave,’ I say again.

‘Alexia.’ I see tears welling up in his eyes too. Why is he the one that is this hurt. After all, he is the one who rejected me. ‘Please,’ he begs.

I bite on my lower lip. He stares at it. ‘Fine,’ I decide. ‘Close the door behind you.’ I turn around and walk to my bed.

I hear him close the door and lock it. He then proceeds by walking towards me. He kneels down in front of me, in front of my bed. I just look at him, with my knees pulled up again. ‘Alexia,’ he whispers. ‘I- I-‘ He puts his head against my legs. ‘I am so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.’ He never wanted to hurt me, yet he pushed me away.

‘Then why?’ I try to hold back the tears. Did I truly let myself get swept away in the moment? Did I imagine things? When we were together, waiting for the others, we had talked about the flowers in the garden. I know quite a lot about them. I had bowed forward to take a sniff of a firelilly, then he did the same, but he seemed to sniff me more than the flowers. He was so close. I smelled him too. It hit me then and there how intimate he actually had been with me. The constant hugging, the arm around the waist, the sniffing, the low voice, and even the constant staring. I had truly believed he was interested in my and, in that moment, I admitted being interested in him. Maybe it was the way he made me feel, or the things he did. Hell, maybe it is only the fact that he’s a guy and I’m a girl and I have been longing for someone to be with.

‘It-‘ He looks up at me. ‘I was getting- I was-‘ He wraps his hands around my exposed calves. ‘I am afraid that if I tell you, you will run away.’

‘Tell me.’ His hands move up my legs, underneath my jeans and I try to stay composed.

‘I was getting aroused,’ he says, staring straight at me. ‘Your lips on mine.’ He lets out a moan and I feel my heart jump. ‘Your body pressed up against mine like that.’ He slowly stands up as his hands go as high as they can underneath my pants. ‘It made me go wild.’ He bows forward, moving his head closer to mine. ‘I wanted to jump you then and there and had I not pushed you away, I would have done exactly that.’ I feel his breath against my skin, I can smell his breath. He still smells like dinner. ‘You aroused me,’ he whispers. Suddenly, his lips are on mine. I moan, something he seems to see as encouragement. He pushes me back onto the bed and moves over me. His hand slips underneath my body, lifting me up a little, so he can move me more onto the bed. His lips are devouring mine. His scent is intoxicating me and I let my hands go over his body. He moans and his lips leave mine. He moves back a little, so he sits on my legs, leaning on his shins. His eyes are dark and he is breathing quickly. His hands slowly move up my shirt, making sure to touch every inch of my body in the process. Are we really going to do this? I lift my body up a little, allowing him to take it off. He bows forward and starts kissing my chest. His hand goes down my pants, unbuttoning it, disappearing in them. His fingers start rubbing.

‘Ah,’ I moan.

Then I wake up. In my bed, with red, puffy eyes and a headache. I feel like somebody stumped on my chest. ‘i***t,’ I whisper. He rejected me and still my head decides to give me an erotic dream about him. ‘Stupid.’

[Harlen’s P.O.V.]

I lean against the door. Alexia has not responded to any of the things I said. I am not even sure she heard them. I explained everything to her. I could not sleep and I was not sure if she could. I admitted being mated with her, I admitted wanting to jump her, I admitted everything. I did it softly, because I am sure that there are still others present in this hallway. I do not wat any of them to hear me. My back hurts and my ass feels cold, but I refuse to move. I am still hoping for her to open the door and let me in. I want to tell her again, I want to kiss her, I want to please her, make love to her. I want to do all sorts of things to her, but I know I cannot. Eventually, I see it becoming light outside. I hope at least one of us has managed to get some sleep.

When the door unlocks, I make sure not to lean up against it anymore. She opens it and I look up at her. Her eyes are red and puffy. ‘Alexia,’ I whisper. I get up. My joints are stiff.

‘I don’t want to talk Harlen.’ Something is off in her voice.

‘Can I at least walk you to the canteen?’ I ask. ‘It is my turn to walk you there.’

‘Sure,’ she whispers. I reach out to her, but she moves away from me. I ruined it. I absolutely ruined it. How could I be such an i***t. Should I have just jumped her? I used all my power not to, but maybe I should have. She locks her door behind her and starts walking. I quickly follow her. She has her arms around her body and her head down.

We are the first to enter the canteen. Even Lydia has not even finished setting up yet. She seems surprised to see us. ‘G-good morning?’ she says.

‘Good morning,’ Alexia sounds sad. She is sad and it if my fault. ‘Could I get some cereal?’

‘Of course, love.’ Lydia seems completely thrown. ‘Which one?’ she points to the different ones. ‘Eh- the one with chocolate.’ She points. Lydia makes her cereals and hands it to her.

She then looks at me. ‘The one with strawberries,’ I mutter. Alexia is already walking away. When I get my bowl, I quickly follow her out the doors. She has decided to go outside. She is sitting on one of the few tables in the sun. She pulls up her knees. She looks so small. I silently come join her at the table and start eating my cereal. The way she acts tells me she has not heard a word I said. I wonder what would be better, to tell her or not to. I ponder over that until Nicole and Keith join us, then I ponder some more. I do not engage in conversation, I do not look at anybody, I just eat my breakfast and think about ways to solve this.