Lethal Love

22 ; It's a Promise

When we pull up in our driveway an unusual sight meets my eyes. Dads car is in the driveway. Tyler and I both look at each other, slightly confused. He's not usually home at this hour. It's only three thirty. 

The drunk dad act ended a few weeks ago. Guess the booze wasn't as tasty anymore. That or he just didn't care enough to look for it after Ty and I started hiding the bottles. The latter is more likely.

Now he acts like he's gone back twenty years and is living the bachelor dream. He's at late meetings or work dinners or business trips all the time. He doesn't even come home every night. Only God knows where he spends it. 

But I guess I shouldn't care if he neglects us more than he did before though. At least now he's sober, right?

I start walking towards the front door. I only hear my own footsteps though and turn around to face Tyler.

"You coming?" 

Tyler eyes are trained on dads car and I can see his jaw clenching. "I'm gonna go to the gym. Tell dad hi from me."

I roll my eyes. "Ty, don't be so childish-

He's already putting the car in reverse and is out of the lot before I can even blink. 

"Pussy," I mumble.

When I walk inside and see dads shoes strewn across the hallway a spark of hope ignites inside me. They're thrown just the same way they used to. When he would hurriedly come home just to eat dinner with us. With me, mom and Tyler. And then hurry back to work.

But the spark dies down when I look further ahead and see a pair of heels strewn in the other direction.

My eyes stay on the black Louboutins until the lines blur and then I'm dashing for the stairs. 

He's not with someone else, I tell myself. There has to be an explanation. Maybe it's just a coworker? Or maybe we're moving and it's a realtor looking at our house? Or maybe he's bought me new shoes?

You're so stupid! None of that makes sense.

My breath suddenly becomes more shallow but it feels like I'm not breathing at all. My body feels like it's being ripped apart and crushed at the same time, turning me inside out. I feel my heart hammering loud. Louder. The loudest.

"Oh God oh God oh God... What's happening? What's happening to me?" My voice is unknown to my own ears.

"Adeline?" someone says. 

I'm too frantic to even react to someone else already being in my room. My eyes are still blurry and I squeeze them together and open them again wide as if it'll clear everything. My hands touch the wall to make sure I've not fallen to the floor yet.

"Breathe, Adeline. You need to breathe." The voice infiltrates my mind again.

Don't tell me to breathe. I already am.

I place a hand on my forehead when I suddenly become dizzy, feeling a sheen of sweat coating it. 

A hand takes my wrist and my forehead is met with cold air when I release it. Another hand cups my cheek and I look up.

I see green and brown but everything is still spinning. My breath still hurried.

A hand cups my other cheek and my eyes focus on on the lips that are only a few inches away. 

"Breathe," he whispers.

And I do. My breaths are still a bit uneven, but at least they provide me with actual oxygen. I feel my heartbeat beat slower and slower until it's not raging inside me anymore. My body is not tingling with agony and only when my eyes open again do I realize it's Jackson.