War of the heart || Marco Peña Fanfic (The Kissing Booth)

Chapter 9

"It's a lonely thing
             protecting a breakable heart."
                                                    
                                                     ~Atticus

                            *~*~*~*

Chapter 9

Arabella takes her hands out of her pockets as she walks toward the gaming place and bites the corner of her lip. Every fiber in her body wanted to call Noah and come clean. God, she spoke through her ass about moving forward from the accident when she didn't even tell him that her nightmares of the accident were back and not just that...

She kept one crucial detail from everyone. It was haunting her even worse now and—

Her head jerks to the side when she hears a familiar rich sensual laughter that she had become familiar with. The sound flirted with her senses and made her entire body warm as the image of said person's laugh displayed in the forefront of her mind.

Her eyes searched for him with anticipation and her breath caught when she saw him standing there in the corner of the room talking and joking with his friends.

Her heart squeezed in her chest as she watched Marco talk with abandon. His muscles moving under his shirt, his arms flexing as he ran his fingers through his hair as he said something, a grin on his lips.

It frightened her, the reaction she had to him. After just a few days.

Arabella of all people was a great judge of character and something about Marco pulled her in. The honesty in his eyes, the readiness in his smile, and the way he had the ability to make her laugh like no one had ever done before. And there is this, just something, she couldn't put her finger on it.

She knew, had a gut feeling, that he was a great guy. A guy she could see herself falling for, something she had also never done before, not really.

But, she also knew that he had the potential to break her heart. And after the accident, she has been more mellowed out than many would believe.

The tough exterior she held was wearing thin every day since she woke up and she cannot allow anything to break it down to the final embers. It was the only thing that kept her from the thin line to a meltdown.

Her worst fear has always been to be rendered immobile, to be rendered useless, and weak, and that is exactly what had happened when she was in a coma. And waking up to a body that was less than hers had been monumentally screwed up.

Her arms barely had their muscle, her legs had trembled and she could barely walk straight for two weeks, and she had lost some bodyweight and her stamina. She had felt foreign and lost in her own body, feeling like her own skin wasn't her own, she still does. Even after gaining it all back. After weeks of physiotherapy and training with Noah, and sometimes the team, and all their outdoor adventures to gain her physical strength back. Her body was back to the way it was, maybe even better, and yet... she still felt uncomfortable in her own skin. It wasn't like her. She was the epitome of confidence.

She scoffs. 'Yeah, right.' She thought bitterly. 'Not anymore.'

Ari could fake it all she liked, but she knew the truth. She needed help, professionally, but she was too proud to admit it. Too proud to want it.

Every time she got on a bed, it gave her hives. Every time she touched a blanket, it made her want to scratch her skin off. Every time she is surrounded by complete darkness without an inch of light, she hyperventilates like a fucking child scared of the boogeyman, reminded about —