'I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along'

IX

As soon as the words left Aaron's lips Suha had to bite down on hers to stop herself from crying out, she took a couple of deep breaths before turning around, trying to compose herself, picking up her bag and walking towards the front door. Time seemed to slow down as she was taking everything in around her, all of the little things that Aaron had said and done to make her laugh or smile, all of places in the flat he'd told her he loved her, his stupid Arsenal things everywhere she looked. Although it felt incredibly painful now at least she didn't have to stay in the flat and be constantly reminded of the one thing she wanted but couldn't have, the type of empty that Suha was feeling couldn't ever be put into words. She reached for the handle of the door before looking up and seeing a picture board of photo's of them together, it broke her, and tears were now spilling from her eyes, she opened the door but didn't look back before stepping out of the flat and closing the door behind her. Where was she going to go? What could she do? The only person that she could think about calling was Marco but he wasn't going to be in London for much longer, she text him anyway. "I really really need to see you, can you meet me at the flat? I don't know what to do" She sent the text before noticing the time, it was nearly 2am and she thought that he probably wouldn't even reply now. She made her way down the two flights of stairs to the ground floor before going over to the car park, all she wanted to do was curl up, go to sleep and hope that this was all some horrible nightmare she'd been having. She was exhausted from crying, so tired of fighting with Aaron and now she felt completely numb. Suha fumbled around in her bag for her car keys before unlocking the driver's side door and dropping down into the seat, she pushed down the lock on the door, reached over to the passengers side to where one of Aaron's hoody's were and grabbed it. She held it close to her and inhaled deeply, how could she lose her Rambo like this? She so desperately wanted to cry but nothing came out, she couldn't, she clambered over the handbrake and gear stick in the middle of the two seats and stumbled onto the back seat. Using the hood of Aaron's jumper as a pillow she rested it against the side of the door and in no time at all she had fallen fast asleep.

Waking up alone was something that Aaron was going to have to get used to, out of habit he rolled over onto his side to look at the empty space where Suha would usually lay, he let out a loud sigh before raising his arm above his head and slamming his fist down onto her pillow, he buried his face in the sheets for a moment but all he could smell was her. This was paining him more than he had shown Suha but he had to make her leave, he had always been weak after Colleen cheated on him, he knew that he had to be strong now. He pulled the sheets away from him and slid off the edge of the bed, it was 5:30am and he'd only had a couple of hours sleep. Feeling like death warmed up he had decided to have a steaming hot shower to wake himself up and hoped it might perk him up a little too. He opened the bathroom door and saw that Suha had left his training gear all neatly folded in a pile on top of the wash hamper, another pang in his heart and something else he was going to have to forget. Pulling the glass door of the shower open he spotted her shower gel, her shampoo, her razor, there were reminders of her everywhere. He cleared all of these things out of the shower and put them into the sink before turning the shower on and waiting for the right temperature before stepping in. All kinds of thoughts were running through his head now and he needed to get out of this flat and turn his attention to something else, he had a quick shower before grabbing a towel, chucking it over his head and rubbing his hair a little before letting it drop to rest around his neck, grabbing another towel and wrapping it around his waist and heading into the kitchen to make breakfast. Aaron looked around at everything in the kitchen, everything in the front room and decided he needed to get out, he couldn't spend another second remembering Suha.

Marco had got Suha's text and replied shortly after, they exchanged a few messages before he came to pick her up and take her back to the place he had rented in London for a few months. It might not have seemed like much but it was perfect for what he wanted it for. Suha had fallen asleep not long after Marco had started driving and remained that way for the entire journey, he'd carried Suha from the car so he didn't wake her and she was now still fast asleep on his sofa, it was quickly approaching 9am but Marco was tiptoeing around in the front room so he didn't wake her, he figured she needed a good sleep. He made his way into the kitchen before putting some bread in the toaster and putting the kettle on to boil, he grabbed a jar of jam from the cupboard and grabbed the milk from the fridge, the more he thought about it the more he was becoming attached to this place. He'd got memento's placed all over his fridge there were ticket stubs from all the films he'd been to see with his friends, some photos, some receipts and there was even an underground ticket on there too, now his best friend needed him, did he really have to go back so soon? He would drop everything for Suha in a heartbeat. Without thinking, the noise of the toast popping up jolted Suha from her slumber, she was still wrapped up in Aaron's hoody "Woody? where are you.. woody.." Marco heard her calling out from the front room before quickly making his way in to find Suha in streams of tears. He proceeded to make his way closer to her before moving her legs to sit down beside her on the sofa, he put his arm around her before pulling her closely into his chest "It's okay Suha, i'm going to look after you, i'm going to get you through this. You can stay with me okay? It's going to be alright" he said, swallowing the lump in his throat, this was tough. Seeing her hurting so much and not being able to do anything but comfort her was making his heart hurt, she didn't deserve this, nobody did.