Through The Dark | √

48

Kenzi

It was a week later and exams were still on. I woke up that morning worrying about Tanner. We hadn't spoken in days and he rarely picked his calls or even replied my texts. When we spoke, he seemed distracted and the one time I went to his apartment, he wasn't home. He couldn't possibly be mad at me and no matter how hard I tried not to let the thought disturb me, Scarlett kept coming to mind.

It was afternoon when I decided to go to his apartment hoping he would be home this time. I pushed the door to his apartment open and the silence that greeted me was so unusual.

"Tanner," I called, taking a peek into the kitchen and seeing he wasn't there. I made my way to his room and found him sleeping.

He slept with a hand on his forehead, one of his knees stayed up. His texts were scattered around him and his laptop lay on the corner of the bed, his phone in top of it. I couldn't help but wonder if he was okay.

I let out a breath, placing my sling bag by the bedside and clearing his bed so he wouldn't destroy his notes, because I knew he performed a lot of acrobatics while sleeping. After that, I walked to the kitchen and helped myself to a bowl of cereal, texting Bambi and Ryan as I ate. Bambi was just as excited as I was about the wedding and we texted for a while about the wedding itself.

I dumped my plate into the sink as soon as I was done and walked back to Tanner's room. He was still asleep and this time, I laid beside him, raising my hand to his forehead to make sure he didn't have a high temperature.

My gaze dropped to his face and I did what I always did when he was asleep. I simply admired his face. His long eyelashes swept over his closed eyes and his nose reflexively twitched as he slept which signified they were cold. Yes. Whenever he was in a cold area, his nose would be cold and it made me laugh.

I then looked at his chest and arms when I saw a red spot with a bit of flesh exposed. I raised my head up immediately, my eyebrows furrowed as I touched it softly.

"Fuck!" He groaned, his eyes opening immediately. I flinched and looked at him with my eyes wide. Then Tanner closed his eyes and opened it back again, sighing, "Hey, Kenz, I'm sorry. I missed you."

I nodded, still looking at him. "I missed you too, but... What happened to your arm?"

"I hit it on this metal by the door on my way out of the exam hall, it's okay."

"The way you groaned wasn't, though," I pointed out.

"It's fine. I was only startled," he told me before pulling me so I could lay on top of him. He wrapped his arms around me, planting kisses from my chin to my neck.

"Where have you been? You've not been picking my calls or replying my texts," I managed to tell him.

"Hmm?" He cleared didn't hear me because his head was literally buried in my neck so I pulled away a bit from on top of him, "I asked where you've been. You weren't picking my calls or replying my texts."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, I was so busy studying I put my phone on silent so I didn't hear it ring, and all the times I said to call back, I either fell asleep or just forgot."

"You do look like you've been losing sleep."

"I've been exhausted. This studying has been draining all my energy."

"You need to give yourself a break," I told him, running my hand through his hair.

"That's why I fell asleep while studying."

"Do you want to go back to sleep? Sorry I woke up, I was only concerned about your arm."

"No, I'll catch my sleep later. I missed you,"he pulled me back to him, " How have your exams been?"