Ever After -Completed-

And Be A Man About It

/\Josh/\

The elevator's light had turned on only a few seconds before, but it seemed to me that it had taken so much longer. Honestly, it had already been one day, two hours, and some amount of minutes (I'm insane, but not that insane) since I had seen her. Did the universe really need to prolong this?

Finally, the doors slid open. Collin's feet didn't seem to even touch the four feet of carpet between them before she slammed into me, holding me so tightly you would've thought that a meteorite was going to crash into the building at any minute.

I kissed her hair, twirling her in the air once before setting her on the ground. Honestly, for someone who lived with a cookie-making machine, she was extremely light. "Am I allowed to say the words yet? Because I've been practicing and I think you'll be quite wooed."

It was only then that I realized that her shoulders weren't shaking because of laughter. I put my hands on the small of her back tentatively, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Collin? What's wrong, sweetheart?"

She laughed a little bit, taking strained gulps of air. "Sw-sweetheart? Where'd the nickname come from, anyways?"

I shrugged, realizing that I was running my hands through her hair and holding her hands instead. "It just happened. What's bothering you?"

"Meg's being hurt by someone."

I tried not to show my surprise. Knowing the girl as I did, I would've suspected she'd be the one hurting someone, not the other way around. "Who? Does she have a boyfriend?" I hoped to god that it wasn't that Jacob kid-Matt would be crushed, first of all, and he didn't actually seem like too bad a guy.

Collin shook her head, holding her temples like she was warding off a headache. I'd never seen her so upset. Heard of her being so, sure. But physically being there, witnessing it first hand? Not for a second, and I had no idea what to do. "No, no," she whispered, almost to herself. "Her dad-he only had seventeen years. Fit of rage or something, lesser sentence. No restraining order-we didn't have the money for a trial. She didn't want to not be able to see him again, anyways. He was still her father no matter what. It makes sense she'd go back. And-oh my god, Josh, what if she can't do it? What if she can't call the police because she loves him?"

"Collin. It'll be fine, alright? She has us. We can always do it, right?"

"No, no, no. You don't understand. Nightmares, always. She always has these flashbacks to that day. PTSD, I guess. And she can't trust anyone because she's too afraid. She needs the closure, she has to do it. Don't you see? It must be her."

She started to cry even harder, pulling her hands from mine to cover her face. "I can't watch her hurt herself like this anymore. I just can't."

Collin was tough, like an old tree in the middle of a park. Through lightning, wind, time, it just shakes its branches as if it's challenging nature and life itself. But now she had been struck, one bolt striking a crack through her heart that would never heal. Scar, yes, but never go back to normal. 

It was just like Matt had said. Loving someone was risky.

"Look at me, okay?" I took her chin in my hands as gently as I could. I couldn't imagine what this would look like on the security footage, but I also couldn't worry about that right now. "Watch me. I love you. Watch me."

I love you. 

She nodded and kissed me. 

Watch me.

Neither of us closed our eyes, instead getting lost in each other's.

///

The text said just one thing.

tomorrow.