Isabella

Chapter 22

A/N - I told you I'd be back LMAO

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"You're back!", I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fucking ecstatic to see Ezra and his family; they'd got back from the airport about an hour ago and he'd told me to come over as soon as possible, so here I was.

"We're back!", Aleja, who was in a blue frilly dress with a tiara, jumped into my arms and giggled, "can we do makeup?".

"Let her breathe Ale, damn", Maceo rolled his eyes and pried his sister off of me, "miss us Isabella?".

"Who said anything about missing you?", I teased, "how was it?".

"Amazing", Aleja grinned.

"Hot", Maceo huffed.

"Boring", Eli muttered.

"My favourite optimist", I cooed, ruffling his hair, "where's Ezra?". Eli glanced towards the doorway, his blue eyes narrowing before they made contact with mine again.

"Our room, second door on your right", he replied and I nodded, following his directions and tapping on the closed door.

"Ezra", I said in a sing-song voice, "it's Izzy". Silence followed and I frowned a little, Eli said he was in here so I tried again, still nothing.

"Ezra", I called out a little more sternly this time, opening the door and peering inside. I nearly tripped on a pile of T-shirts as I cautiously approached the panting figure of Ezra; his hands were planted firmly on the desk in the corner and he was hunched over, seemingly struggling to breathe.

I closed the door behind me and went to walk further into the room, jumping when he spun around and made a beeline for me. I think I forgot how to breathe when he wrapped his arms around me tightly and buried his head into my shoulder - oh my god.

Ezra was hugging me.

Ezra was fucking hugging me.

I needed to focus on the task at hand though, he wasn't doing too good.

"Woah, woah, what's happened?", I tried my chances and snaked my arms around him too, no reaction came from him so I squeezed a little tighter, "Ezra?". He pressed his face into my shoulder even harder and inhaled shakily, his hands were gripping my hoodie like there was no tomorrow too.

"I'm sorry", he whispered, "I just- I was- the airport". Oh.

"It was packed?", I asked and he hummed, "too packed?".

"Mhm", he mumbled, "I was trying to-to stay close to Maceo, but people kept- they kept nudging me and I-". His breathing hitched and he let out an unsteady exhale into my shoulder.

"It's okay, you're home now yeah?", I attempted to console him, "I'm right here". We stayed in that position for about five minutes or more, the sound of Ezra's breathing the only thing I could hear for that time and when it finally started to slow to a steady pace again he pulled us apart apprehensively. Ezra hugged me.

"Thank you", he breathed out, scratching the back of his neck briefly, "I needed that quiet darlin'".

"You don't need to thank me", I smiled, "are you okay?".

"Yeah", he confirmed, "just had me overwhelmed as shit".

"Well, I know something that might cheer you up", I revealed the small gift bag from behind me and held it between the pair of us, "your late Christmas present". He grinned and took it off of me, pulling apart the handles to peer inside.