Losing Her Wings

Chapter 15

Fraser was much happier than Ruby was by the time he got back to his apartment after dropping in on campus to pick up a few notes from a friend on their business class. He had found his chat with Pepper and Devin very productive, even if he had almost let the cat out the bag in a way that his girlfriend Mara would never have forgiven him for. Thankfully, he was a great liar when he needed to be and had covered it up quick enough for no-one to ask questions. Now all he had to do was admit that to Mara and hope that she didn’t get upset or angry with him. It had been a bad enough day without his little slip making it worse for her. And when he walked into the living room of their apartment just two blocks from campus he hesitated before telling her, saddened by the pale face and red eyes that looked up at him.

She looked absolutely drained and her eyes showed signs of tears and fatigue, he didn’t know if he could upset her even more by telling her about his mistake and how Pepper was likely to follow it up. It would only hurt her even more, so he waited until after he had made dinner for them before talking about it. “I bumped into Pepper and Niles today…they say they’re organising a party to cheer up the new girl Skylar. Niles says you’d love her.” He explained the few events of his day that were worth mentioning, waiting to see how she was going to take their conversation before admitting to what he’d done. It wasn’t exactly a crime but he really felt like he’d betrayed her trust just by the little slip up. But Mara couldn’t help but smile at how guilty he looked.

“That’s nice. It would be nice having someone else to talk to. Why does she need cheering up?” She wondered, skirting round whatever he wasn’t telling her to see if it was important enough for him to tell her. If it wasn’t, she wasn’t really interested. Whenever he wanted to tell her, he would tell her but until then she didn’t really care because it obviously wasn’t worth knowing. Fraser was a little surprised at her nonchalant attitude, considering he knew that he looked guilty as hell but he just went along with her question and explained as best he could all he knew about Skylar.

“Something about baggage and Ryan having kissed her only to tell her she meant nothing to him. He literally told her to go for Niles instead.” He didn’t realise how he little knew had found out from Pepper and Devin about the new girl. The news of Ryan and Niles’s involvement with her was evident from the campus rumours alone, all Pepper had added onto that was the news of the party and the fact that she needed cheering up because she was dealing with ‘a lot’ right now. Whatever that meant. He wasn’t surprised when Mara asked if that was what Skylar intended to do, go after Niles if Ryan didn’t want her. “Pepper’s adamant that she won’t let any man near her so no, I don’t think she’ll get together with anyone. She’s being very protective with her…I’m not sure why but we’ll find out tomorrow. I thought it would do you some good to get out to the party tomorrow.” Fraser knew the time was coming. Dinner was almost over and he wanted to spend the rest of the night cuddled up to his girlfriend, making her happy and taking her mind off all her health problems. The treatment was brutal on her, her doctors were negative about her survival rate and there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her. All he could do was hold her hand and make sure she was happy.

“I’d like that. It would be nice to get out of this place for an hour or two.” Mara agreed quickly, glad that he was finally pushing against the doctors orders that she stay inside all the time and not do anything interesting. She missed her social life, she couldn’t even go to classes because of it and so she spent every day and night in their apartment. The only bonus was that she always got Fraser to herself. He had always agreed with the doctors that it was for the best, but now she was happy to see that there was no beating what she had, they had to face facts that going out to a party just once wasn’t going to kill her, but staying inside forever just might. If not her body then definitely her spirit.