37-Apocalyptic-1

"Arianna..." I gulped and turned around so fast that I could've sworn I heard something crack. When I saw him walking towards me, it felt like every part of my body had become unhinged, like I was a withering mass of skin and nothing more; the look he had...that look told me something was very wrong. "How is he?" My heart pounded, a shrill ringing sound in my ears was making my head spin and blood was starting to pour out from where I was digging my nails into my skin. I could feel how heated my face was, something that always happened when I was tense and this...well this was possibly the worst thing to have ever happened to me. "He's lost a lot of blood, the bullet missed his heart but it ruptured an artery and..." Liam's voice broke down as he sank against a wall, placing his head in his hands and sobbing. I stared, my mind refusing to process the words that had come out of his mouth but seeing a grown man cry had hit something inside of me that I'd numbed for a very long time and now when I allowed myself to feel, actually feel pain, it felt like the most horrible feeling you could imagine, like someone stabbing you with a knife repeatedly, like someone pouring acid down your throat, like needles being pricked one by one out of your skin. Oh God. -Three Days Earlier- Carter had kept true to his word and like a persistently annoying puppy he followed me around wherever I went; there was just no hiding from him. Danny had to exercise a lot of self-control to keep him from hitting him but eventually he too got used to Carter being around me and I was beginning to think he actually liked the fact that the player of a quarterback wouldn't leave me alone. "So are you guys hanging out again today?" he asked one evening when we were done with homework. He lay sprawled on the couch while I was sat on the floor, my back pressed against it. Randomly flipping through channels, I tried to avoid the question because I knew what he was hinting at. "We don't hang out, he tutors me and no he isn't coming over today." "He's different around you, you know? At school he acts like a cocky asshole but when he's around you he's kinda a decent guy." "What're you trying to say?" I frowned because once again be brought up Carter and once again he suggested however indirectly that I start dating him. He was under the opinion that I was 'scarred' as he called it and that I'd never have a normal relationship in my life again if I didn't try, so basically he wanted to force me into dating the first guy who seemed interested in me. "I'm saying that you need to move on with your life and that you just can't keep mourning over the past. Shit happens and you need to get over it Ari." I scoffed at his words, turning my neck around to face him. "Shit happens and I should get over it? I lost my baby, my sister held me hostage, my ex-boyfriend turned out to be a molester and my husband had me run over by a car and you want me to get over it?" I knew I shouldn't be yelling at him but I couldn't take it anymore, he should know better than to set me up, he needed to be mature and think about the fact that I wasn't just another girl who'd had her heartbroken and was still hung up on an ex; the things I'd seen, the things I'd been through, I couldn't be in a relationship even if I tried. He looked taken aback by my outburst and his eyes offered me a silent apology but I had to get out of here, I didn't trust my emotions and I didn't want to make things worse with the only person I could count on at the moment. That night I hardly slept and it wasn't just because of my fight with Danny but it was something else entirely; I had a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that something was wrong but then...what could it be? My life was as mundane as you could imagine, everything around me was the usual, a routine I had created for myself and one which I followed religiously because when I had time on my hands I would think about things that I'd rather not think about. I tried to concentrate on what it was that was bothering me but it was of no avail; sleep wasn't an option anymore so I sat up straight and grabbed my laptop, hoping I could answer all the emails I'd been receiving. The first one was from Grace, actually most of them were from Grace asking me whether I was alive or dead and threatening me that if I dared disappear on her again she would do brutal things to me. I smiled as I replied, lying to her about how I needed to stay with my grandparents in Texas as my grandma was sick and that she wasn't supposed to tell anyone. After a few more replies, I opened a search engine but before I could type out what I wanted I stopped myself. What was I doing? Was I really stupid enough to get tangled up in all that again? Did I really want to know what he was up to, what he'd been doing since I'd left? It was at times like these that I wondered whether he missed me at all and whether he still cared. Yes, what he'd said to me should've made it abundantly obvious that I was nothing more than a burden for him but I had been so completely convinced that he loved me...was my judgment so bad? I typed up Price Enterprises and looked through the latest news on the company; the deal with Thorpe Communications was obviously making rounds and was the highlight of every business website. Going through the various links, I stopped on one which had a picture attached, a picture from the day of the signing and reluctantly I opened it, enlarging it so that I was able to see it all clearly. There he was, in his signature Armani suit looking as formidable as ever but there was something in his eyes that made me pause. I knew him well enough to say that they looked...empty, cold but almost angry as they bore into the camera; his body language screamed of tension with his stiff shoulders and his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. Strangely enough the image was very familiar to me, he'd looked like this throughout the initial months of our marriage and it seemed like he'd returned to his cold hard self.