HER

𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝟺𝟺

♪ɴᴇᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴏsᴛ (sᴏ sɪᴄᴋ) Tʜᴇ ᴋɪᴅ ʟᴀʀᴏɪ♪

                                       Rᴏxʏ

I found it quite strange that I had yearned most of my life for papi's presence. To have met him once again and to have had conversations with him, real ones. To have told him all about my experiences and how I had gotten through them all without any of his help. The strange bit was that I had stopped yearning. I barely thought of him much.

I just realized a bit too late, how exhausting it was, caring for the wrong person all these years.

"Oww! You're going too deep." I gasped and he chuckled lightly. "Don't be such a crybaby. I'm nearly done."

Troy and I were two very different people. He seemed almost perfect. He was caring, kind and sweet. He was good at almost everything, like drawing, singing, playing piano, cooking, sex too. It kinda scared me. I felt sort of left out, as if though I wasn't merely enough.

"Okay, stop! It hurts!" I cried out. He froze for a bit then broke into a goofy smile. "Jeez lady. Okay." He raised his hands in surrender then placed the nail clipper on the bedside table.

I looked down at my short fingernails then at the nails that lied scattered on the sheet. I found myself frowning. I'll be missing those long nails.

"What color would you like me to paint them?" Troy asked, opening a medium sized glittery pink box before me.

My eyes scanned the inside of the box, there were different colors of nail polish, every color in the rainbow and in between. I couldn't possibly just choose one. "Black and that brownish color." I answered, pointing at the two glass bottles of nail polish.

He nodded and took the chosen glass bottles out of the box. "Your right hand first." He instructed politely and I held it up.

He started painting my nails and I smiled. I inhaled the strong smell of the nail polish in deeply. "You like the smell?" He questioned with a smirk.

"I love it." I answered truthfully.

I loved strong smells, such as paint, glue, petrol and nail polish. It each held memories of my childhood.

Paint. Whenever I inhaled the smell of it, it reminded me of all the times papi and I would hand paint the rooms in our little house and how I'd join him. We'd play fight and he'd chase me around the house.

"What's going on inside that pretty head of yours?" He questioned.

A lot, mostly the future.

"Nothing." I answered sweetly.

I held my left hand up next and he immediately started painting those nails too. I watched him as he focused on painting them perfectly. "Not everything has to be done perfectly, you know?" He looked up from my nails and into my eyes. "I'm just saying, you're allowed to mess up sometimes." I quickly added.

He nodded. "I know but to me, it's not about perfection, it's about effort and giving your best, even if your best is 50%."

"True." I agreed and he continued painting my nails.

                                          ➪

Tonight's the big night, it's the boxing match. I encouraged Lucy to distract Troy for the night with exploring more of Dallas. I hoped things would go to plan this time. It had to. This was my one last shot.

"Guess who?" Troy questioned as he came from behind me, covering my eyes with his hands.

"My one and only?" I answered cheekily.

He chuckled lightly, removing his hands from my eyes. "Bring it out, Lucy." He told her. I kept my eyes closed and bit my bottom lip lightly. "Hands out, baby." He told me and I did as he said. I heard Lucy giggle as she placed the surprise in my hands. I opened my eyes slowly and saw a book in my hands. It was thick and the cover was mostly blue, the smell of its pages made me smile. I traced my fingers alongside the title of the book. "The fault in our stars." I read it out loud. I smiled to myself as I suddenly remembered back to our first date.

Fʟᴀsʜʙᴀᴄᴋ

"What's yours?" He asked a second time.

I smiled as I thought about how to answer his question. What's my happy place? Definitely boxing! What would he think though, about me boxing at tournaments? "I have many happy places." I answered cheekily, looking up at him again.

"Like?" He raised his right eyebrow with a cheesy smile as he looked deeper into my eyes.

"Books." I decided right there and then that I'd answer his question with the next best thing. Books! I loved books. Not diaries. Books. I found some sort of peace in it.

He smiled at me and we continued walking. "Favorite book?" He asked me.

I didn't even have to think about how to answer that one. "The fault in our stars." I answered, taking another lick from my ice cream before quickly adding. "Believe it or not but I've never actually read it. I've seen short clips of the movie on YouTube but that's it."

He raised his eyebrows at me again, like he'd always do when he was confused. "Wait, so, you've never actually seen it or read it before yet it's your favorite?" He asked and I just nodded.

Fᴀsʜʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴇɴᴅs

My eyes teared up a bit and I stood up on my tippy toes to hug him. "You remembered." I said through the sniffles. "Of course I did." He whispered back, then gave me a soft kiss on my forehead. "I love you so much." He said looking deeply into my eyes.

I just smiled and blushed a bit.

"Okay enough with the lovey dovey, read the book already!" Lucy cried out in excitement.

Troy chuckled and we walked over to sit down on the sofa. "This is not some bedtime story Lucy, it's going to take some time to finish but I'll read a line or two for you." I told her as I opened up and paged to the first chapter.

I took a deep breath before starting. "T-t" I blinked my eyes and moved in slightly closer. "What's wrong?" Troy asked.

I chuckled awkwardly. "Damn, this print is tiny. I can't even make out the words."

He didn't believe me. "Oh come on, you don't have to be shy, read to us."

I couldn't. I couldn't read. I couldn't make out the words, I could barely see them. It was like I had a blurry vision.

"Roxy?" Lucy looked at me with a concerned expression on her face.

I couldn't take the pressure so I jumped up from my seat and shut the book quickly then ran to my room.