Page 41 of Atlas
I take a deep breath as my eyes adjust to the dark room. “Bad dream,” I get out though I can’t remember the dream, just the feeling of drowning.
Atlas crawls into the bed with me and pulls me to his chest. “It’s alright,” he coos as he kisses my head.
“Where were you?” I ask as I feel his body stiffen.
“I…” His voice is strained as he speaks. “I got a message that I needed to respond to.”
I push myself up from his chest and ignore his protests. “A message? In the middle of the night? That you had to answer away from the bed?”Away from me?
Atlas sighs and sits up. “It’s not what you think. It was my sister.”
I feel slightly relieved but not completely. “What’s wrong? Why did she–”
“Ren,” He sounds exhausted as he speaks. “Please, we’ve had such an amazing time. I don’t want my family to ruin it.”
“Oh,” I say, my voice small. I can’t lie, it hurts that he doesn’t want to open up to me but, I won’t force him. “Okay, well I’ll leave you alone then. If you need to go back down, go ahead. I’m sorry like I said, bad dream.”
“Stop it.” He warns from behind his palm.
“Stop what?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“Stop being understanding.” I let out a laugh of surprise as I reach over and turn on the bedside light.
“Atlas, what do you want? Me to demand answers?”
He shrugs but doesn’t look at me. He’s sitting right beside me but may as well be a thousand miles away.
I crawl up to him and straddle his lap. I watch a smirk appear on his face. “Princess, I am a drained man. I mean, if you can get him up, he’s yours for the taking, but– Ow!” He cries as I pinch his forearm.
“Look at me.” I say, my voice holding no humor. He looks at me with his cocky face and then crosses his eyes. I flick his nose and narrow my eyes. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?” He whines, rubbing his nose. “You’re the one beating me up, and not in the sexy way.”
“You don’t have to be this way with me, you know that, right?” I watch his mask slip ever so slightly.
“I don’t know–” I press my finger to his mouth.
“Don’t insult me with that lie.” I sigh, and I watch as his eyes soften and he kisses my hand.
“My sister sent me a text,” He said softly while running his fingers over my hand. “She and my mom are sick.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry. Do they need help? Should we go?” I ask as I start to get up, Atlas clamps his large hands on my thighs to stop me.
“Not that kind of sick, baby.” His voice is full of pain and he still refuses to look me in the eye. “My mom and sister have a drug addiction. They are in withdrawals because they’ve been without for a while and they want me to give them money. I was texting Millie, my sister, to tell her I’m not around to give her cash tonight and she, well, she wasn’t happy.”
I sit quietly as I let it all process. “You give your mom and sister money to pay for their addictions?”
Atlas sighs as he leans his head back against the headboard. “No, yes, I don’t know. It’s not intentional. I’m not going around like ‘Hey mom, here’s enough for a hit.’ I just, yes, it’s a disease that started because of something they chose to do. But they still might decide one day to get better. My dad and Alex left a long time ago and left me here with Millie and Mom. Mom was…isa very sick woman that never went to get the help she needed. She thought that self medicating was better. And the pills went to harder pills, then went to snorting and now…” His voice trails off and my heart begins to break for him. “I know that the money I give them goes to getting high, but what am I supposed to do? They need help and everyone else has abandoned them. I just, I don’t want to be the selfish prick that thinks they are too much and writes them off.”
I grab his face and pull him to look at me. “Oh Atlas, there isn’t a selfish bone in your ridiculously attractive body.” I give him a small smile and lean in to kiss him. I go to pull back after a second, but Atlas grips the back of my neck and holds me there as he deepens the kiss. I moan as his tongue runs across my lips and I part to give him access to my mouth, which he eagerly accepts, and the sweet, chaste kiss I started has been replaced by something deeper, something more raw. Something real. Helet me see something in him, something he doesn’t show others. He lets me look behind his mask of smiles and playful flirting to see a little piece of his darkness. Like a test to see if that little sliver would send me running. But I’m not going anywhere. I will accept his darkness as my own. I will show him that he doesn’t have to hide anymore, not with me.
Chapter 16
Atlas
“Oh my god,” Derek groans as I twirl Janie around while singingMy Girlin the middle of the shop room. “We get it, you got your dick wet. Can you fuck off now?”
I stop mid dip to shoot Derek a glare. I would neither confirm nor deny the magic that happened last night between Ren and I, or this morning before I had community service. But saying “got your dick wet” when he refers to Ren pisses me off.
