Page 124 of Love Not Qualified

The doors closed in front of us and we were at proximity again for the first time in weeks. I could feel her erratic and shaky breaths and notice the tremble in her hands.

Did she not want to leave? Was she expecting me to stop her?

As soon as we landed on the first floor, Haelyn marched out of the elevator first. I followed her, my eyes pointed at her shoes.

I didn’t know what to do. Was now the time to break the limits she settled? Why did it feel like if I didn’t do something tonight, I was going to lose her forever?

A squeak of excitement got me out of my thoughts and my head snapped up. The beats of my heart doubled in speed since I couldn’t distinguish the fear and the excitement at first.

But when I saw Haelyn running outside through the doors, I released a relieved breath. “It’s pouring outside!”

I went after her, my feet landing on top of a thin layer of water. Furious raindrops were still cascading from the sky, but my attention was solely focused on Haelyn. She rotated over and over, her face pointed at the dark gray blanket above us, smiling from ear to ear with her eyes closed.

I smiled. She was so full of life despite what happened to her and I wanted that too. I wanted her to teach me how to live.

My hands formed a bowl before I sunk them into a puddle, then splashed the water directly on Haelyn’s arm. She came back to Earth, her mouth opened in shock. She looked down at herself before her eyes landed on me.

“Did you just do that?!” She faked anger.

I frowned, acting clueless. “Do what?”

She laughed sarcastically. “Okay, Mr. Graves. You don’t know who you’re fighting with.”

I raised a brow, expecting her to soak my clothes to get back at me, but when she started splashing water towards me with her feet, I ran as if zombies were behind me.

“Pussy!” she screamed at me, but laughed until her belly hurt. “Stop, I have to get my payback. Stop running, it’s not fair,” she pleaded.

However, I kept running and I assumed she was tired since she didn’t say anything else. But I didn’t back down. I kept going with the corners of my mouth reaching my ears.

“Ouch,” she grunted. “Shit.”

I immediately stopped in my tracks, turning around only to face Haelyn on the ground. I strode to her, a pit forming in my stomach.

“I think I hit my leg,” she told me when I got closer.

I kneeled down, inspecting the right leg. “Where does it hurt?” I asked, looking up at her red cheeks.

“Everywhere,” Haelyn said.

Fuck.

My fingers squeezed above the knee, under it, and at the ankle. She flinched every single time. Maybe she had something broken. I couldn’t know because I wasn’t a fucking doctor.

“We’re going to the hospital,” I told her, then leaned down, secured a hand behind her waist and my head found its way into her neck. I was too preoccupied to make sure she was all all right to acknowledge how close we were.

One of her hands dropped on the ground and just when I was about to scoop her up, she pushed my hand under her arm and between her torso, drenching my face with water.

“I told you to stop.” She laughed.

She just… tricked me.

If her laugh wasn’t so contagious I would’ve tried to get out of her hold, but instead, I laughed with her and swallowed so much of the dirty water it was enough to live without any liquid for the rest of my life.

At one point she let me go, then dropped on her back, her shoulders trembling with laughter. I spat some of the rain from my mouth, my cheeks hurting.

“You are a revengeful one, I see,” I joked, then joined her.

She giggled. “Only with those who deserved it.”

---