Hollis
It feltnice to finally acknowledge that I didn’t need to go to a surgeon to take care of my problem. I had Bates and there was no one in the world better with sharp objects than he was.
It would just take some time to talk him into it. To make him understand that this would be the best thing for both of us, and if he continued to refuse to help me, then I would help myself.
It would just be safer if he did it.
He’d know where to cut, when to stop, and how deeply to go. I would just hack at the fucking horrible thing stuck to me until it fell off and finally died.
It’d haunted me since birth.
I’ve hated it since then and never felt comfortable being this way.
But my Bates… he’d save me again when he was ready to. I’d just need to have the patience and do everything I could to restore my faith in him.
“Want some?” I asked when he pulled away. I held up my popsicle and he smiled at me, before lowering his lips around it and giving it a taste.
“This really is pretty. Thanks for convincing me to come here,” I said as I glanced around him at the ocean waves, gently crashing against the shoreline again.
“You’re welcome, Holls,” he replied in a soft tone. I tore my eyes away from the crashing waves and looked up at Bates.
The way his hair gently moved as the wind blew again. The way his eyes seemed a little brighter with each passing second. But most of all, the hope that shone so damn brightly that I knew the moonlight would never be able to compare to them if we stayed here that long.
“It’s getting cold,” I said softly, knowing that he would immediately move to keep me warm.
Slipping behind me, Bates wrapped his arms around my body and pulled me back against him, resting his chin on the top of my head.
“Do you wanna go home, Holls?” he asked before he nuzzled my hair with his lips.
“Not yet. I like the quiet chaos of the water. It reminds me of us.”
“Is that what we’re like?” he inquired with a chuckle. “Crashing waves?”
I nodded.
He didn’t see it, but I could.
I was the ocean crashing against him, and he was the shoreline trying so desperately to hold me together, to keep me where I belonged.
I let out a sigh when a seagull cawed from somewhere above us, then conceded that maybe it was time to go home after all.
The beach was a beautiful place, full of hidden little wonders; majestic almost.
Not a place for something like me, I thought as a tear rolled down my cheek.
___
On the ride home, Bates couldn’t keep his hands off me. Each time I swatted him away, he’d give me a grin and grab at me again.
I wasn’t sure if it was being at the beach that shifted his mood, or my concession that he would be able to help me better than any doctor could, but I had a feeling that I’d be in for one hell of a night.
“Can I ask you something?” he began slowly after he pulled the car into the driveway.
“Sure,” I replied, turning slightly in my seat to look at him.
“What made you change your mind?”
My brow furrowed in confusion. What made him think that I had changed my mind about anything?