Sequel to Broken.
"Memories have the ability of unlocking new emotions. They allow you to relive moments with surfacing feelings you were unable to experience then. It's your choice to let these feelings live and take hold or tragically, or in this...
Atlas decided to skip the one-on-one lesson with Sean and use the fitness center in his apartment building. He was usually in here on the days he wasn't at Sean's and today he felt the need to skip it.
He felt good when he exerted himself physically, it helped him get his mind off everything and be present. He wasn't sure how he survived the first few months after the accident. He remembered being so miserable yet having one goal that drove him to get through physical therapy.
Thea.
Getting to her and getting out of there had been his one and only motivator to pull through his physical and mental weight. If only she knew how much she'd helped him even without being there or knowing the full extent of what had happened and how badly he wanted her support. He remembered being on the phone with her a few times and having the urge to tell her everything. But the burden of the weight on his shoulders felt easier to carry knowing that they weren't on hers.
After his workout, Atlas spent some time doing some post-workout stretches before he had to head up to his room. On the way back, he sipped on some water and wiped the sweat from his face and neck. He took out his keys as he stepped out of the elevator and into his hallway. Getting to his door, he slid the key into the slot and was surprised when the door unlocked after one turn of the key. He entered knowing whose doing it was. There was a quiet click as he shut the door behind him.
"About time you got here."
Atlas smiled as he placed the key in the bowl on the cabinet next to the door. He headed towards the kitchen where he knew she would be seated with a tub of ice cream. "How long have you been waiting?"
"A very long while," Thea looked from the ice cream tub in her hand to Atlas as he walked into the kitchen, "10 minutes."
"Enough time for you to finish that I gather,"
"Oh," She looked at the tub in her hand, "I got started on the second one a couple of minutes ago."
Atlas was glad that it was a small tub of ice cream. Then again according to Thea, she was gifted with a fast metabolism. "As long as you don't get sick from eating so much ice cream, we're good."
Thea's smile lit up her face, "I thought I'd find you sick in bed or hitting the books."
"Why?" Atlas went around the counter, where she sat, to get out all his ingredients to make a green shake,
"Because it's a Wednesday," Thea sat with her back to him, "You're usually there on the days I am. You haven't skipped a day before and I wondered if you were alright."
Atlas washed the greens under the running water, getting them ready to blend. He took a moment to find a response that would satiate her. "Yea, I was on my way, but didn't feel like it."
"Hmm."
Her response bothered him more than if she'd said words. "Hmm, what?"
"Just hmm." Thea ate her ice cream.
She was quiet for a moment as he got his Whey Myprotein and added some into the blender with the rest of his greens.
"I just thought maybe you didn't show up for the same reason Mac was in a mood."
Atlas put the lid on the blender and turned it on. The noise filled the silence between them and he used that time to think about what she'd said.
Makenna was probably moody for some other reason. After their encounter earlier in the day, he was certain she didn't care about how he felt or didn't feel. She just seemed like she was caught up in her own world to basically meet him where he was.
He didn't fault her for any of it. For not feeling the same way he did. For not thinking about their kiss as much as he did. For not seeing that they could be so much more. For her reaction to any of it. Those were things that he couldn't control and they weren't in his favour. Pushing her may have been his first approach, but he'd quickly realized that it was the wrong approach. They would only make her want to push back and he didn't want to alienate her as much as he already had.
But damn, was he hurt.
There is nothing. There can't be anything and there never will be. Her words replayed in his head again.
He built up his hope in the prior days and he'd been nervous about breaching the topic, but confident that she felt the same way. He figured she was avoiding him because she was simply scared about what she felt. But he had thought wrong.
Atlas felt the flicker of hope die as those words left her mouth. A part of him wanted to hold on to hope because of the look he caught in her eyes before they disappeared, but he wasn't going to do it again. He'd made up his mind there and then and he wasn't going to back away now.
He was done pursuing Makenna. There was no going back to being friends with her either.
Atlas turned off the blender, "You thought wrong."
Thea spun in her seat to face him, "You weren't this way a few days ago. What happened now?"
Atlas looked at his sister, "Nothing, Thea. That's the thing. There is nothing."
There was a finality in Atlas' tone that set off many questions in Thea's mind. But the look on his face told her it was a closed topic, never to be brought up again. It took a second for her to connect everything with the conversation she had with Makenna a few days ago and the way she'd seemed at the gym earlier today.
Atlas and Makenna both looked like they had been bruised.
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Happy New Month!
I was going to announce that I was getting my book published, but I felt that April Fools' prank was going a bit too far. 😅
Anyway, we have two book-related content up now. A booktok just went up on my Instagram and a YouTube video about Bruised went up earlier this week. I love creating book-related content for you guys, so your support on these would be appreciated. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd love to see more of. (Direct links --->)
