Tears On The Snow (A Syndicate Fanfiction)

IX

"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime, let me lead you from your solitude. Say you need me with you here beside you. Anywhere you go let me go too"
-Viscount Rahul de Chagny from Phantom of the Opera

Rain's POV:

I walked the darkened streets of London, occasionally passing a boarded up window of an old store. The lights were dimmed and the street was an eery black. I couldn't see twenty steps ahead of me because the morning fog had started to settle in. I walked, my arms laced across my chest, the fingers of my hands digging into the frozen skin. I didn't know this area and it had no reception so I could't call or use google maps to get out. I was stranded God knows where with no food, shelter or cell signal. Suddenly, I felt a drop of icy cold water drop onto the end of my nose and slide off down to my chin. I wiped it off and listened as rain came pouring down on me. Now, not only was I cold, lost and scared but I was also soaked through to the skin.

I heaved a sigh and trudged through the cold air. I felt angry because I had left Tom hanging. He'll probably never talk to me again. I'll show up to our hotel room and there will be no sign of him. I sighed again. IF I make it back, that is. Suddenly, a slight vibration from my pocket made me jolt. I grasped my phone and it had one bar of signal. A text from Tom was shining on the screen. I mean, 57 texts. They all had the same context.

Syndicute💜: Where are you? I'm worried. Come back.

Rainy🎉: I don't know where I am.

I realized that my response would probably cause Tom to panic. I headed into my Google Maps app and got a ping on my location and sent it over to Tom. Merely ten minutes or so later, a black London cab pulled up next to me and the door opened. I climbed in, shaking from the cold rain that was pouring outside. Somebody (I presumed Tom) threw a blanket over me. I closed my eyes, my teeth chattering. We arrived at the hotel a short time later and Tom led me to our hotel room where I collapsed on the bed, slowly regaining my normal body temperature. Tom brought a warm rag and placed it on my forehead and dropped a few more blankets on top of me. He gave me my pajamas and told me to change. After twenty minutes of Tom patting my back, I was back to normal but very tired.

"I'm sorry about what happened Tom"

"No worries. I don't want to talk about it"

"But I didn't finish.." I was cut off by Tom putting the warm towel over my mouth.

"I said, I don't want to talk about it" Tom sounded sad.

I felt the bed dip on the other side as he laid down to go to sleep. I head his fast breathing slow and then switch over to the breathing pattern of a sleeping individual. I wandered what he had meant by 'I don't want to talk about it'. Did he think that I was going to say no and break his heart? Because that wasn't the case. For a person with social anxiety, it was stressful for me in those kinds of situations and that's why I was so scared and didn't answer. I had to fix this somehow, before it snowballed out of control.

The next morning was full of quiet packing. Whenever one person who intersect the other, there was a silent nod or a mumbled sorry. I felt horrible, seeing Tom hurt like that and knowing that it was all my fault. Tom was done packing, zipped up his suitcase and wheeled it to the door. I only had the bathroom left to pack and then I would be done.

"Do you want me to wait here or in the lobby?" Tom's question sounded cold, uncaring.

"Whatever you want" I tried to sound caring and compassionate. He didn't say a word in return, just retracted the suitcase handle and sat down on the unkempt bed.

"Thanks" I said and again received no response.

I finished my packing and sat down on the bed next to Tom. He glared in the other direction, not even daring to look at me.

"Tom.. Are we just going to continue being really mad at each other" I faced his back.

"I don't know Rain. Are we? I just want to go home" he said, his voice a little softer than last time.

"Yeah, me too but you misunderstood and I don't want to stop talking because of some misunderstanding between us"

Tom stood up.

"Tom, listen.."

"Misunderstanding?" he seemed confused, his head was leaning a little to the left and his right eyebrow was raised.

"Yes, misunderstanding. Can I finally explain?" now it was my turn to get up and cock an eyebrow.

"Go ahead" he said, his tone compassionate and filled with awkwardness. Looks like he finally understood that he made a mistake. How long did that take?

"Tom, being a semi-adult with crippling anxiety is hard. That's exactly what caused me to run away like that. I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted it to be a simple yes but evidently that's not how everything works around here. It was never a no, Tom. It was a yes but my body couldn't say it" I explained and Tom's face started frowning.

"Oh my god, I had no idea. I knew you had anxiety but I didn't know that was the reason. I didn't think about it. Oh my god, Rain, I'm so sorry please forgive me" he stammered out.

I smiled, looking at his concerned and apologetic face somehow brought the world in a circle for me.

"Wait, so is that a yes?" Tom's eyes widened in disbelief.

Flashbacks wreaked havoc in my head so I just nodded. I nodded and watched the smile on Tom's face grow.

"Yay!" he squealed like a British school girl on her first day of school. I hugged him, feeling his warmth and his arms snanked around my back, pulling me close.

"We're going to be late" I mumbled into his sweatshirt.

"Yeah, yeah we should go" he said and let go, a grin still plastered on his face.