After She Left

THREE

"We won't be distructed by comparison if we are captivated with purpose."

-Bob Goff

"When did you become so rude, bella?" Luke laughed at my attitude.

I raised my brow, crossing my arms on my chest: "you really don't want me to answer that, do you?"

He grinned at me awkwardly: "yeah, I guess I didn't give it enough thought.."

"Anyways," he got up from the bed, handing me one of the shots that had been in his hands the whole time, "shots"

I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth twitching upwards as we both took the shots.

"What the hell was that? Tequila from devils ass or something?" I winced.

He coughed: "you're right, s**t's disgusting. Blake gave it to me for my birthday, I guess it was his plan all along to poison me."

I laughed, completely forgetting about the past and everything else. He gave me a look, opening his arms: "come here, bella."

And so I did, the hug was tight, I think part of us didn't want to let go since we knew that once we did, the moment would be over, the past would catch up to us. Yet I couldn't help but feel the familiar feeling of care and love I felt for this guy, I hadn't realized I'd missed him.

"I knew you'd eventually realize you're in love with me and come running back," he said confidently, patting my back.

I pushed him away, laughing: "sure, you wish."

He looked at me, I looked at him and the moment was gone. The smiles and jokes disappeared out of the window replaced by awkwardness, guilt, and past weighing us down.

"So.." I looked at him, "how did you get in here?"

He gave me a wink: "you're a genius, but the fact that I'm drunk 98% of the time doesn't make me any less of a one too."

I raised my brow once again, a teasing smile on my lips: "sure. But seriously, how did you?"

"About.." he said right when I heard Hanna's scream from the kitchen, which made him look at me awkwardly, "..that."

I gave him a murderous look, running downstairs to the kitchen: "Hanna, are you.."

Right then I reached the kitchen, seeing my girlfriend on the table with Angel on top of her, holding a knife to her throat, whilst smirking.

"Kill?" Angel looked at me, raising a brow as if seriously asking me the question.

"That's my girlfriend, get off Angel!" I screamed, rushing over the table and pushing her off.

"No need to get feisty babe," Angel shrugged me off, "just doing what I'm getting paid for."

I checked if Hanna had any wounds, whilst she just smiled: "I'm okay, Preciosa, she's all talk."

"Henry!" I said loudly, whilst Hanna and Luke just looked at each other as if I had completely lost it.

Sure enough a second later Henry and 3 other guys came rushing in from some kind of a secret entrance, a "fight me, b***h" look on his face and a gun in his hands, yet when he saw what was happening, he just rolled his eyes, whispering "abort mission, she's just being an i***t" in the device connected to his ear.

"Did you forget how to make pancake batter or something, miss Gold?" he asked whilst the other guys were leaving.

I looked at him, then at Angel and Luke, then back at him completely confused. My mouth was open, yet nothing was coming out, the ability of forming words suddenly gone.

"The hell is this, Hen?" Hanna asked, pointing at Angel with her head, "did you confuse our apartment with a psychiatric hospital?"

Angel just laughed, winking at Hanna: "sugar, give me a minute with you in bed and trust me, you'll be the one going nuts."

"From disgust, perhaps," Hanna gave her a very fake smile, "I think watching zombies eat peoples guts in horror movies turns me on more than you ever could."

Angel licked her lips: "whatever gets you going, sugar."

For a hot minute, I thought I was actually going nuts or having a very twisted nightmare, yet Henry's voice made me believe this was the undeniable reality.

Suddenly his eyes lit up in realization, his mouth opening: "I completely forgot to tell you. You won't be living alone, your dad hired them to protect you for max security. So yes, since you know them already, I'll get going now."

My mouth hung open in shock: "and it just so happened to slip your mind, Henry?"

He looked at me as if nothing was wrong: "yes if I recall, you've told me a couple of times that my age must come with memory loss. I guess it truly is. See you tomorrow."

With that, he got on the elevator leaving the apartment and me with a very confused look on my face.

"Ruby, you alright? You look pale," Luke walked closer to me, his face concerned, "maybe you have a fever or something."

"It's just you two, right?" I asked quietly, hoping this wasn't happening, as I took a step back from him.

Luke looked at me, his face telling me whatever I knew was already true.

Right on cue, the elevator made a "ding" sound, alarming me of someone's arrival. And sure enough, Blake and Andre walked in, full grocery bags in their arms, talking carelessly about something. Then Blake noticed me, nudging Andre's side and they both dropped their bags, rushing to me and squeezing the life out of me with their hugs.

"You weren't supposed to arrive for another hour!" Blake said, putting me down, "I swear I would've prepared some food. Hope these two welcomed you well enough."

Luke scratched the back of his neck: "about that.. Angel kind of jumped this girl here, Henry forgot to tell her that we'd be here and I think she's still confused, partly out of it and probably thinking she's going nuts."

Andre gave him a slap at the back of his head: "you moron, you ruined the whole thing."

"Hey! It was Angel!" Luke whined, while Angel just shrugged whilst looking at her nails.

Hanna's soft hands wrapped around my arm: "Preciosa, you know them?"

I had most certainly lost the ability to speak, since Luke decided to jump in, grinning from ear to ear: "she does. I'm Luke, her drinking buddy, and undeniable best friend. That's Angel, Andre and Blake."

Hanna raised her brow at him: "I've been her best friend her whole life and I've never heard about any of you."

Andre and Luke looked at me questioningly, whilst I just shook my head: "they're Eden's family."

Complete and utter silence overtook the room, the atmosphere shifting from fun to a very serious one. It stayed quiet for a couple of minutes.

"Look, Ru, I'm sorry it turned out this way, it wasn't meant to be like this," Blake said, "I swear I did everything I could, but your dad insisted, we had no other choice."

I raised my brow, stepping closer to him: "for real? Had no choice? After all I went through, you were the ones who had no choice? For f**k's sake, get out of my home this very second, I never want to see any of you again."

There was a silence and then Luke's voice rang: "well that backfired, huh."

A second later another slap from Andre followed and an "ouch" was heard from Luke.

"Preciosa, your dad.." Hanna said, probably feeling bad for how I treated them, "you should let them stay, they're just doing their work."

"Amen," Angel said in a sarcastic voice, still picking at her nails, looking as bored as ever.

"Does my dad know?" I asked, looking at Blake.

He stiffened: "Ruby, this is bigger than that, okay? I swear I had no choice if I did none of us would be bothering you now."

"Are you all going to start crying eventually too?" I heard a voice above us all.

"Eden," Blake was giving her a silent warning.

I didn't want to look up, I just couldn't, her voice was enough to make me freeze right then and there. I had to be dreaming, the whole situation was way too absurd to be real.

"Get out," I said loudly, not even looking up to whichever floor she was on.

"Or what?" she laughed, venom rolling off her tongue as she spoke, "gonna run away for another 6 months?"

"Eden!" Blake raised his voice, "that's enough."

"I and Hanna are going to my room," I informed them all, "I expect for all of you to stay out of there at least."

"Ru..." Luke said, stepping closer, but Andre stopped him.

"We understand," he nodded, giving me a supportive smile.

"Sorry it turned out like this, little one," Blake said quietly, probably so Eden wouldn't hear, "I'll do my best to keep her out of your sight."

I took Hanna's hand in mine, climbing upstairs to my room, in hopes of finding a way to get out of the situation I was in.

"Preciosa.." she said quietly, squeezing my hand in hers whilst I pretty much dragged her upstairs, "are you okay?"

We finally reached my room, but I turned around before I opened the doors: "Han, I'm so sorry, but can I just.."

She smiled understandingly, kissing me on the forehead: "sure, Preciosa. I'll be downstairs, getting to know the morons since it seems we're going to have to spend a lot of time with them."

With that, she turned and walked downstairs while I went into my room. Bile rose up my throat as I ran to the toilet, vomiting out all I had left in my stomach. I got up, washing my face whilst just staring at my reflection in the mirror.

This was all just too much. Her, them. I hadn't even been here for 2 hours yet and here I was again - my mind a mess, bawling my eyes out whilst having trouble breathing. You can't run away from things, they always catch up to you.

So this is how it feels. To have your heart broken again and again just because of the voice you heard, the face you saw, the song that played. I had yet to look her in the face but I wished I'd never had to and until 10 minutes ago I truly believed I never would.

Here I was, after half a year, back at where I was, back with the people I ran away from, back in the toilet, vomiting and crying out of fear, pain, and confusion. This time it wasn't cancer, it was her, part of me thought it had always been her. Cancer had simply been physical proof of her destroying me.

But I had to tell myself it will be okay, it's all fine. Because if I didn't, there would be nothing left apart from insanity and physical pain.