restored love

40

TRISTAN

I just wanted to go back home and talk to Olivia. You would think that resigning would mean that I wouldn't have to work anymore but I guess not. This was my last few weeks working here at this hospital and I couldn't be any happier.

I throw my bag over my shoulder as I leave the hospital. I get into my car and I drive home.

•••

I enter our apartment. The first thing I noticed was her blonde hair sticking out from the couch.

"Hey baby." I say, grinning.

She didn't reply. I walk around the couch to see her. My body freezes as my blood runs cold. My pulse was racing and my heart thumping.

Olivia was sitting there with endless bottles of whiskey on the coffee table. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks were red. She was out of it.

I sit beside her on the couch and I shake her body. "Olivia." I whisper, shaking her harder to wake her.

She groans before opening her eyes slowly.  "Tristan." she mumbles, leaning closer towards me. 

"Hey," I whisper, brushing my finger against her warm cheek.

"You're home." she says with a huge drunken grin, her whiskey breath hitting me.

"I'm home. You're drunk." I quietly say.

She frowns. "I'm not drunk." she says, shrugging her arms.

"You are very drunk Olivia." I whisper, glancing over at the bottles of alcohol, shaking my head in disbelief.

"I'm fine Tristan. It's just alcohol."

I'm sick of her dismissing her growing addiction to alcohol.

"It's not just alcohol." I snap, my anger rising.

She frowns again. "Don't be mad at me."

"It's hard not to Olivia." I whisper. "You can't keep doing this to yourself."

"It helps me." she murmurs.

"Can we find healthier option to help you? You're harming yourself." 

"This is the easiest option for me." she mutters. "Can we drop it? I don't want to talk about it."

"Olivia we have to."

Her eyes filled with rage that I had never seen before. Olivia the sweet loving girl was gone, in replace was an angry woman that I didn't even recognise. "No. I don't fucking want to. You're always trying to fucking control me, Tristan. I don't need you anymore." she slurs, pulling away from me.

I don't need you anymore.
Those five words played on repeat like a broken record player. She didn't need me anymore.

"Stop acting like that." I ground out.

She glares at me. "I'm going." she declares, standing up. "I have to go."

I stand up with her, grabbing her by her waist. "Just stop it, Olivia."

"Don't fucking touch me," she yells, and my whole body freezes.

I drop my arms from her waist before clasping her chin so that I could lift her face to look at me. Tears well in her eyes.

"Stay with me Olivia." I whisper, dropping my forehead to hers and touching her face ever so gently. Something that I realised about Olivia is that everytime I gently touch her face or her neck, she always calms down. She loves it when I touch her gently.

She didn't speak, she just sniffles. "Okay Tristan." she mumbles.

I pull away and pulled her to our bedroom. I lay us down and pulled a protective arm around her waist.

"I'm so sorry Tristan." she hiccups.

"It's okay," I mumble but her words never left my head. Drunk words are sober thoughts.

"They called me today." she says.

"Who called you baby?" I ask, caressing my finger against her waist.

"The morgue. They found his body and they're asking me to come down to claim it." she mumbles, turning around in my arms so that she can look at me. "I don't want to claim his body but does they make me a bad person?"

"No Olivia. It does not. He put you through hell and back. You don't owe him anything. If you don't want to claim his body then you won't." I reassure her.

She stays silent. "I'll try to stop drinking Tristan."

"You have to baby. It isn't good for you."

She nods sadly and I kiss the top of her head. "I love you." I whisper to her.

And for the first time since Olivia ever told me those words, she didn't repeat them back to me.