Love Again (An Avi Kaplan Fan Fiction)

Wonderfilled

Avi’s P.O.V

I walked away from Sam with a smile on my face. Looks like she didn’t expect me to say I’d pay for her dinner. It’s her fault, she’s the one who said it was a date. And like I said, a true gentleman pays for the lady on a date.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Sam laughed as I herd her hurried footsteps. I turned around and saw her running towards me with a slight flustered look on her face, and for the millionth time today, I found myself smiling at her. Before she reached me, I opened one of the double doors and stepped aside to let her through. I watched her walk by me. When she was through the door, she looked back at me with her ice blue eyes and a small smile on her face.

“Thanks Avi.” Was her courteous reply. I couldn’t help it, but my smile turned into a wide grin.

“Not a problem.” I answered graciously, then added quickly, “M’lady.” Sam quickly looked away as I walked next to her. M’lady? What compelled me to say that? Real smooth, Avi. Real smooth. Wait, since when am I this self conscience? We walked in silence as I argued with myself internally untill her hand brushed up against mine, which caused my train of thought to completely derail. I looked to my left to see that Sam was walking quite close to me. I could feel myself blush at this discovery. I looked at her left hand and it almost seemed like it was shaking. I looked up to make sure I wouldn’t bump into anything or anyone, considering we were now on the second floor where some of the slots were. There were a lot of people here, but crowds don’t bother me the slightest.

I looked back at Sam, and she was looking straight ahead with a frown plastered on her face. She was also playing with the zipper on her sweater, rapidly zipping, and unzipping it slightly with her left hand. Something told me that there was something wrong. Even though I just met her, I could tell that she normally didn’t act like this.

“You ok?” I asked, becoming concerned.

“Uh… Yeah. I-I’ll be ok.” Sam replied with a shaky voice. I looked at her and frowned, seeing her right hand now slowly balling up into a fist.

“You sure? I mean-” Before I could finish my sentence, someone who wasn’t watching where they were going knocked Sam right into me. Quickly, I grabbed a hold of her waist with my left hand before she had the chance to fall. I looked down at her eyes and all I could see was fear. She also looked on the edge of crying and her breathing was rapid, almost like she ran around the building several times. Watching her practically gasping for air caused me to panic slightly, untill I remembered that she had mentioned yesterday that she had a Panic and Anxiety disorder. She was having a panic attack. I had to try to get her to focus on something other than whatever was making her panic.

“Sam, look at me.” I said softly, but loud enough for her to hear. I took my shaking right hand and placed it on her cheek to lean her face up for her to continue to look up without looking to the side. “Listen to my voice. Breathe. You’ll be ok.” I looked into her eyes as they searched mine. Tears threatened to fall from both of our eyes as I continued to coach her through the panic attack. “Look. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Ok? Try to focus on me. Nothing else in the room matters. Just focus on me.”

As I talked to her, she nodded, not looking away from my eyes. I stared into her glassy, ice blue eyes, hopefully looking for the look of fear to disappear. I wanted nothing more than to take her out of the crowded room and hug her worries away.  We stood there with my left arm around her waist and the other on her cheek untill her tears no longer threatened to fall. I smiled warmly as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I brushed her hair out of her face with my right hand and pulled her into a hug, which she hastily returned. I took a small, but deep breath in myself. Because of our closeness, I could smell her perfume. It was a sweet sent that reminded me of watermelon and strawberries. I looked down towards her, slightly hoping to get more of the sent.