Second Chance (part 4)
Lucia’s POV
I was running fast. The wind was groaning screaming and whispering something into my ears, all at the same time.
“Don’t run…!” That was what they said.
I could feel the grasses tickling when my feet pressed hard on the ground, water flashed as I tried to speed up. I started to panic when I realized nothing around me was familiar. Darkness surrounded me and slowly poured on me a scare that was unable to describe.
“Don’t run away from love...”
“I didn’t run away from love!” I tried to yell back but all came out from my throat was a scared sob.
Okay, now I really wanted to stop. Whatever was chasing me, it could get me now. I didn’t want to run anymore. I was tired, out of breath and most of all, I was terrified. I was alone. And lost.
“Stop, Lucia!!” I told myself but legs didn’t listen. They disobeyed my order and kept running with full-speed. My eyes were sore and tears were streaming down on my cheeks. It was like what was laying inside wasn’t my mind anymore. I could do nothing to control myself.
“I will protect you, Lucia. Don’t be scared!”
A voice, differed from all the screaming and scary noise around, spoke to me. It came from middle of nowhere. It was low, deep but filled with love and care.
That voice spoke again and even when it was just a whispered, I had a feeling that it could beat the darkness around me
There was a sweet and soft feeling on my lips. Something was pressing against them, something smooth, gentle but firm and passionate. I closed my eyes in reflex. The air finally could fill fully in my lung and I could breath quite normal again…
“Trust me, Lu!”
I felt safe, and being protected…
******
“Lucia! Lucia! Wake up!” Someone was shaking my shoulder and calling my name.
I slowly opened my eyes, tried to adjust with the lights when I realized something: Harry was right there.
He was hovering himself above me. One of his hand was placing next to my head while the other was pressing on my cheek. Warmth was left on my skin as Harry breathed in and out. His lips were extremely close to mine.
Not until then did I realized my hand was holding and squeezing Harry’s shirt tight. It became wrinkled as I startlingly pulled my hand away.
“Did you have nightmare?” Harry asked gently and rose his hand to tug some disordered hair behind my ears. My face was wet because of tears.
I nodded.
“You was screaming and crying. I thought there was something wrong with you. I was so worry.” He said and breathed out in relief.
Harry’s eyes caught my attention in a quick moment, but they forcefully made me look into the green and deep color, look into the worry and the care raising in them. I was always the one who made Harry have to worry about.
“I’m okay, Harry. Don’t worry!” I grinned to reassure him.
“Good!” His lips curved into a happy smile, showing me his dimples. “Time for dinner! You have to wake up now, Lu. My mom is looking forward to meeting you.”
“Anne’s here?” I asked. “Give me a minute. I have to change.”
“I’ll wait you outside.” Harry said and when I was about to protest, he gave me a look saying obviously that he still didn’t believe completely that I was okay.
******
Harry’s POV
I closed the door behind and leaned my back against the wall, waiting for Lucia. A sight slipped out of my mouth as my head recalled a few minutes ago.
Vani said dinner was ready and she asked me to wake Lucia up. When I came to her room, my mind was frightened with what was happening then.
Lucia was still sleeping but tears was streaming down on her cheeks as she kept screaming. Her hands squeezed the pillow and her body was shaking. I knew immediately that she was having a nightmare.
Quickly, I rushed to her bed and laid down next to her. I grabbed her hand and pulled her close to me. Her tears wetted my shirt but I didn’t care. My arms firmly squeezed her small body so she could feel my appearance, my warmth.
“Shh, I’m here. Everything is okay. It’s just a nightmare, Lu.” I said in her ears.
“I didn’t run away from love.” Lucia whispered, sobbed in tears. My body was frozen when I heard her words.
I pulled her closer to me. Her little body fitted perfectly with mine in everyway. She was always the one I had to care about, but I loved caring about her. She was the one who always ran away, hid away, but I loved chasing her, pulling her back with me. I loved everything about Lucia. If Lucia gave me a chance, I would able to tell her. But ever since we broke up, she always stopped me every time I tried to.
“I will protect you, Lucia. Don’t be scared!” I said and kissed away her tears, let my breath wash over her face.
Slowly, I leaned in and pressed my lips on her soft lips, my fingers running through her silk-like hair. I felt Lucia calm down in my arms. Her hand moved to my chest and held my shirt, squeezed it like a kid in fear, afraid that the person protecting her would disappear. I smiled into the kiss as I knew I had managed to calm her down, to protect the girl I loved…
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the door was opening by Lucia. She was wearing jeans and a simple T-shirt, letting her hair fall down naturally on her shoulders. The sweet and unique smell from her caused a smile on my face.
“What’re you smiling at, Curly?” Lucia asked and shook her hair a little.
“Nothing!” I lied. She gave me a eye brows raising.
“Humm, weird kid keeps smiling weird smile.” She said.
“And you should be careful.” I finished her usual words, making her laugh. “I know you too well, Lu. Now stop making fun of me and move your feet. I’m starving.”
“Eating monster!!” She teased and ran away before I could catch her.
******
Lucia’s POV
Dinner passed and everyone was really enjoying themselves. It was nice to see Harry’s family again. Anne asked many things about me and my parents. I couldn’t blame her. We hadn’t seen each other like forever.
After dinner, Chloe arrived, carrying many things she had bought for the wedding. She seemed really tired, but her smiles were always on her face. Harry told me that her new photo shoot had some last minute problems and they needed her to be there to do it again.
“Are you coming, Lucia?” She asked me when I was pulling away some dishes.
“Coming where?” I asked surprisingly.
“To our party, of course. It’s just a party for us only, to celebrate our last “single” day.” She smiled and grabbed her arms around Harry’s waist.
“Naw, you guys go. I’ll stay here and finish this mess.” I said, not really wanted to throw myself in any loud and crazy place right now.
“Oh, don’t worry, honey. We old people will finish it for you.” Anne said and Chloe’s mom agreed with her.
“Thank Moms.” Chloe smiled to them. “Come on, Lucia. We can’t leave without you. Pleaseee?”
I looked around and found no more excuse. Everyone was looking at me with hopeful eyes. Haizz, I guessed I had to go.
“Okay! Let’s go!” I smiled.
*****
The club was crowded and noisy, just as I had thought. I still remembered Harry and I once sneaked out of our bedrooms and come here when our parents had fallen asleep upstairs. Somehow, my dad finally found out and we were both grounded. As a 16 year old girl, I kept yelling at Harry, saying it was all his fault, causing him to get mad and didn’t talk to me for the whole week until I had to say sorry. It was one of the unforgettable memory when we were a kid.
“What’re thinking about, Lu?” Vani sat down, interrupted my reminisce with her loud and happy voice.
“Nothing.” I laughed.
“Liar! Both you and Harry. He was here a minute ago, smiled just like you and when I asked, he said “Nothing” just like you. Good, don’t tell me, even when I’m your BEST FRIEND.” Vani looked away, pretended to be mad at me.
“Dramatic queen.” I laughed to hide away my surprise with what Vani had just told me. “Where is everyone?”
“On the dance floor. And Niall is taking some drinks for us.” She said, looking around to find Niall, who was trying to pass through the crazy dancing people to get to our desk.
“Here you go, ladies.” He said and put three cups down. “Wow, it is crazy there, at the bar. I have to fight to get these.”
“Irish warrior.” I giggled and took a sip from my cup. The beer was cold and hard to drink. I swallowed it down my throat slowly.
“Vani, do you want to…um…dance?” Niall asked and Vani looked at me.
“Naw. I think I’ll stay here with Lu.” She hesitantly said.
“Oh hell no!” I pushed Vani out of her chair and into Niall’s arm. “Go, don’t worry about me. I don’t want “anybody” to stay mad at me.”
I teased and winked at Niall, who was blushing slightly. Vani gave me a Are-you-sure look and I nodded, smiled and waved at them. Being “left” alone at the desk, I took a look around everyone. The boys were probably dancing with their girlfriends somewhere on the dance floor. I saw a curly boy was dancing with a red hair girl not too far from me. Chloe whispered something into Harry’s ear and he laughed, placed a small kiss on her cheek.
I looked away, unable to watch anymore. I finished my drink and decided to get another. Making my way to the bar, I tried hard not to think about what I had just seen.
“What do you want, lonely girl?” The guy at the bar asked me.
“Just water, please.” I said.
“Just water?” He asked. “Are you sure? Well, usually lonely people don’t drink water.
“No, wait. Can I have some wine, please? Something’s strong.” My words got out of my mouth before I could control. The waiter put my drink in front of me and I gave him the money. He was grinning widely, seemed to happy with himself.
“Cheer!” I said to an invisible friend, picked up my cup and poured all in my mouth. The hot liquid ran down my throat, burning anywhere it went to. I didn’t drink much, and I knew my capability of drinking wasn’t that good.
“Can I have another one, please?” I asked again. I didn’t what had happened to me, but I was obviously going crazy.
******
It must be my forth cup and I started to feel the room was spinning round and round in front of my eyes. The music got into and quickly turned into a messy noise, like bee sound or something.
“Okay, I really need to stop now.” I laughed sarcastic and got up from my seat. I stumbled into some random people as I tried to walk on my feet. Finally I could get back to my table, when Vani was the only one left there.
“Hey!” I said more cheerfully than I expected. Now I knew why whenever Harry was drunk, he always acted strange. The alcohol just got control of my mind and I became weirdly happy.
“Where’ve you been? And Lucia, are you drunk?” Vani asked worriedly.
“Pretty much.” I giggled and let myself fall down like a leaf next to Vani.
“Wow! Lucia, you’re really drunk.” She looked at me with surprise.
“Gosh! I swear I will never drink again! That stupid thing is killing my head. I’m gonna die soon if I have another one minute listening to this stupid song.” I waved my hand like a little kid.
“Stop saying “stupid”. Do you need anything?” Vani was still giggling at me.
I didn’t answer her question because I was busy watching Harry spinning Chloe around like in the waltz. She was laughing hard and fell right into his arms. He grabbed her close to his chest, pressing a kiss on her forehead. Chloe stood on the tiptoes to place a kiss back on Harry’s lips before pulling him with her and disappeared into the crowd.
Even when I was being drunk more than I had never had in my life, I still could feel the hurt. And it wasn’t just the hurt in my heart, but my whole body. I remembered Harry used to do that with me back when we were dating. The headache appeared as I rewound the old pictures. Each of them ran throw my mind like a old film, with black and white only, no sound, moved really slowly, really gentle. People in the pictures were laughing, enjoying the time they got together but somehow, those smiles didn’t give the scenes any sunlight, any wave of happiness. They were still cold and dark, hard like a rock and hurt like a sharp knife.
“How could something so beautiful but hurt so bad?” I asked myself.
“Because that something doesn’t belong to you.” Another voice talked to me.
“But why? Why it doesn’t belong to me?”
“Because…you’d let it go.”
Oh yes, that was right. I had let it go. I was the one who wrinkled all those pictures in one mad moment, and then was too afraid to take it back…
“Lucia! Lucia! Are you okay?” Vani’s voiced pulled me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality.
I shook my head to wipe away the sadness, attempt not to let my tears fall. I didn’t want to be weak again. I didn’t want to run away again. I had to stand up and face with the fact that I’d let Harry go, and now I couldn’t take it back anymore.
“Vani, a weak person will always be a weak person, right?” I asked slightly.
“What’re you talking about, Lu?”
“Oh! Nothing!” I faded a smile and stood up. “I’m gonna go home. I’m tired. Tell everyone goodbye for me?”
“I’ll go with you!” Vani stood up with me.
“No! Stay here.” I shook my head. “Don’t let me ruin the party. Besides, you have to stay here with Niall. Don’t let he think you’re running away just because of me.”
The words slipped out of my mouth without any intention. Not until when Vani opened her eyes widely to look at me did I realize it. What did I just say?
“Okay! Be careful on the way home. Text me when you’re home.” Vani nodded and smiled. Looking into her face, I knew she had understood.
“Lucia, it’s gonna be okay. Don’t overthink and just let it go. Don’t take too much energy on deciding what to do. Take time think about what you feel. That’s the most important thing. Give yourself a second chance to do everything.” She whispered and then waved goodbye at me. I quickly walked to the door and went outside. Vani’s words echoed all the way home.
[To be continued...]
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen3h.Co