The Coffee Shop -Nochelle

Chapter 44: Ugly.

Noah's POV

"Richelle?" I ask softly, knocking on my bedroom door.
"Sorry I'm in here. I just feel safer" she sniffs, still not making eye contact with me.
"You feel safer in my room?" I ask closing the door and walking towards her. She's sitting with her legs crossed and her hair covering her face.
"It's weird I know" she whispers turning to face the wall. She lays down on her side and brings my blanket up to her face. I feel so sorry for her. My girlfriend has had a terrible life and there's nothing I can do about it. All I want to do is protect her from everything that's bad but how can I do that when it seems like everything in the world wants to hurt her?
"Baby please don't do this anymore" I say, tears forming in my eyes. It literally hurts me to see her like this.
"Do what Noah?" She whispers, snuggling deeper into my sheets.
"Shut me out" I say, my voice breaking because of the sharp tears I am holding back.
She turns around and looks at me shocked. She spreads her arms out wide, inviting me to join her on the bed. I take off my shirt and lay on top of the bed, wrapping my arms around her.
"I don't mean to Noah" she cries.
"Richelle..." I trail stroking her hair softly.
"It's just... it's what I've always had to do. I've always been forced to shut people out when bad things happen to me, which seems to be quite often" she chuckles at the end.
I stare at her intently waiting for her to continue, her voice is so mesmerising, like an angel.
"So when you came into my life I opened up to you, and it scared the absolute shit out of me. So when that thing happened today I was already so scared that I didn't want to scare myself even more by opening up" she blinks, small tears escaping from her delicate eyes.
"Richelle, it's honestly okay. I get it now but you know you can come to me with literally anything and I'll still love you" I say to her, wiping away her tears with my thumb, smiling down at her precious little face.
"Noah I know I can, I'm still getting used to having someone I can actually trust" she jokes, snuggling in closer to me, tangling up our legs.
"I love you so much Goldy Locks" I whisper, caressing her cheek with my fingertips.
"I love you more Pretty Boy" she beams.

Richelle's PoV

I honestly don't know how the perfect man loves me. Like how? It just doesn't make sense. I'm not complaining though, because it makes me the luckiest girl in the world. After laying in bed for around 45 mins just chatting and kissing, I decide to take a shower.
"Where are you going?" Noah asks holding me tighter, not letting me go.
I laugh and kiss him on the cheek "I have to take a shower"
"Hurry back" he mumbles putting the pillow over his head.
He is just fucking adorable.
I turn on the shower and stare at myself in the mirror. Life will get better right? I mean, right here right now I am happy with Noah and his gorgeous family. I can stay in this feeling forever right? I look at myself more closely. I have dark circles all around my eyes and my hair is a knotty mess. I grab my brush and aggressively tackle all the knots in my hair. After about 2 minutes of basically yanking my hair out, my hair is soft and straight again. I take off all my clothes until I'm standing in the mirror naked. I can see every scar and every fading bruise. This is ugly. I am ugly.