Healing Nova's Heart

seven: cigarette daydreams

CHAPTER SEVEN: CIGARETTE DAYDREAMS

❝ if you could find a reason, a reason to stay
        standing in the pouring rain ❞

THE SUN HAD STARTED to go down as he pulled up to her tiny house, his hands shaking as he grabbed his present for her. His legs felt like jello as he walked up the front lawn and marched up the front steps. He fiddled with the strings to his brown hoodie, the hood propped on top of his head. He bit his bottom lip as he shakily knocked on the door, praying for her to listen to him, just for a couple minutes, just to hear him out so he could hand her his apologies, give her their happy memories.

The door swung open and a sharp intake of breath overcame him as he expected to see Nova open the door, but instead Delilah entered his vision. Her glare pierced his soul it seemed, her looking completely pissed at him. It was apparent with her body language and facial expressions, her arms crossed and her eyebrows furrowed, her foot tapping on the floor with her eyes narrowed.

"What do you want?" Her voice was cold as ice, making him shiver.

"Please, Delilah," his voice cracking as he spoke. "May I speak with Nova?"

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "No way in hell, jackass. You hurt her, and I can't let that happen again."

Footsteps sounded like they were coming closer. "Delilah, is everything okay?" Jackson. He entered the picture behind Delilah, an arm wrapped around her waist, his eyes stony. "Is there a problem here?"

"Jackson, please, I need to see Nova-"

"You don't need to do anything, Camrin. Go home."

"Yes, I do. I screwed up, I screwed up bad-" Delilah snorted and rolled her eyes. "-and I can't let her go. Not yet."

"You're going to have to. I heard what you did to her, and you should stay away from us from now on."

His structure was cracking beneath him. With his parents pretty much nonexistent, they had become his family. Jackson, Delilah, Nova. Now he was not only losing Nova, but the only other happiness he experienced.

"Could you... Could you please just give her this?" Cam handed the pair his gift for Nova that he had worked on tirelessly for a while now. "I know it's completely stupid and unmanly and moronic, but I just want her to remember the good parts of our relationship, and if we don't always work out now, how we did then. I just want her to see that we were a lot more when we were together. I don't want her to remember the shitstorms in our relationship. Please tell her that... That I want her to remember me by the happiness she had felt before life happened and screwed us all over."

Jackson grabbed the present as Delilah stared at him with a distant expression on her face, her eyes softening.

"I'll give the scrapbook to her when he comes home," Delilah mumbled. "But I can't promise anything."

"Thank you," Cam replied, whisking away.

💔•💔•💔

He drove through the opening of the metal gates and felt his heart squeeze as he drove. His lungs felt like collapsing and his throat clogged up.

He parked his truck when he saw the familiar dreary, curved tree that drooped like an 'n' that completely fit the mood of the place. The lightly wilting flowers and deadening grass covered the land, as well as the large multitude of engraved stones. He dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands as he slipped out of his truck, his hoodie feeling like suffocation for some reason. He was shivering like mad when he reached them, not just from the chill.