Descent (Dysmorphia Series #2)

Redemption

After about ten seconds Florence's brain decided to kick itself back into action again and she realised where she was and exactly what she was doing, unfortunately this was also when her reflexes kicked in and she pushed Alex away with the ferocity of a wild creature, he hit the wall with a painful thump.

His face went through so much emotions that she couldn't pick one to focus on, first surprise, then hurt and then a kind of sad realisation.

"I'm so sorry Alex! Are you okay?"

She still kept her distance right now she didn't trust herself.

"Sorry for what? Kissing me out of the blue or making me bump my head really hard on this wall"

He was rubbing his head and looking up at her blankly.

"Both" she said quickly and then immediately regretted it at the look on his face.

"Alex , I'm really not in a good place right now" she looked at the flowers that were now distributed all over the floor like rays of sunshine.

"I'm so sorry about your flowers too! Wait... why were you even here?"

"To see my cousin, don't worry I'm not stalking you, she had a sprained ankle so I thought I'd bring her these, I had no intention of running into you here"

Oh.

"So why are you here? And what just happened or do you just charge up to any guy you see and then assault them?" he was half-smiling and she thanked him silently for it.

She gestured to the bed behind her, he turned around and stared at the figure on the bed.

"That's your roommate..." he said slowly.

"Yes, thats Cole, he was in an accident, I come here to visit him"

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that"

The worst part was that he actually did look genuinely sorry, Alex was a nice guy and she treated him terribly, he'd made so many exceptions for her mad behaviour and all she seemed to do was hurt him, and ignore his texts.

"I'm just so scared Alex, and then I found something that changed everything, everything that I thought was one way turns out to be another, and then you just appeared and your so nice and you actually genuinely act like you care about me even though I'm such a rollercoaster ride of a person, so when I saw you I guess something just kicked in and I let myself be carried away"

"Right... well given the circumstances, your forgiven"

He smiled, a real smile this time not an awkward one.

Bringing on the swoop feeling in her stomach.

Those eyes...

Florence didn't know how she felt, about anything, everything just felt too sudden, her whole relationship with Chase had been so quick, had ended so swiftly and now she'd been bombarded with all this extra information, she didn't know where she stood with Cole but a selfish part of her brain was loudly screaming that at least Alex didn't come with a whole load of baggage.

"Listen, I'm sorry I didn't reply to your messages Alex"

He shrugged.

"I'm used to rejection" he pantomimed his heart falling out of his chest.

"Right now I can't think of anything except this ward, except Cole getting better, I owe him so much, more than you could know, but there's just something about you that I can't shake off, so please don't give up on me just yet"

Alex looked startled, like these were the last words he had been expecting.

"I gather your one to wait for Florence Clarke, even if you confuse the hell out of me, get everything back together again and then pick up the phone, I'll be waiting"

He leaned forwards and her heart stopped.

But he only kissed her forehead, a fatherly action.

It made her miss her own Dad.

"Goodbye, for now" he bent down and picked up the three remaining sunflowers 

"And no you don't have to give me money for these Miss Bestselling Author, I can just about manage, I'm sure Maddy will love them"

She smiled.

Charlie came back into the room an hour later, looking cleaner and fresher, Florence had decided to forget what she'd read about her, if someone brought up something she'd done four years ago she would have been mad, it was better to leave the past in the past where it belonged, Cole had clearly got over it so she should too.

"Thanks" Charlie said taking the seat beside her.

"I'm just too scared to leave him with the doctors, I just feel like Cole has to be left with people who care about him, like us being here is keeping his fighting, stupid I know"

Florence took her hand.

"Not stupid Charlie, your brave and I know he'd appreciate what your doing but we can't both carry on doing this, if you need a place to crash you can come to my flat, this isn't healthy, the doctors have both of our numbers, the flats ten minutes away, if there's any change we can be here fast"

Charlie's brave face seemed to melt away and she looked alot younger.

"Sleep would be nice" she mumbled.

Florence practically carried her to the car after squeezing Cole's hand guiltily, she could already hear Charlie's light snoring as they pulled up into her driveway.

She left her friend on the couch, the covers tucked up behind her head, looking unmistakably peaceful.

She had other things planned.

When her Mother opened the door, her sobbing was so loud that her Father came running, probably thinking his wife was being held at gun point, when he saw only his daughter in the doorway he froze, and then stepped forwards enveloping the two of them in his arms.

"Dad, Mum I'm sorry for everything, you don't deserve this any of this, to have to put up with me as your daughter instead of a less complicated child."

"Hey, we wouldn't ask for any daughter except the one we've been blessed with, your Mother and I thank our lucky stars for you every day" her father said with a muffled voice.

They stayed there, on the doorstep for a long time, clinging on to each other, glad that at least no matter what trials they faced.

They faced them together.