Resisting the urge to sprint away as she left the rowing lovers to it, Rachel fought off the tears she felt prickling at the back of her eyelids. Half running and half walking to her car, she felt adrenaline pump its way with force through her body, and she fumbled with the lock on her car boot for an agonising while before it gave way. She was desperate to get away from the school and what was happening, in complete shock over Melissa's betrayal and her subsequent revelation. Her blood was boiling and she felt it raising her hackles, simmering with fury about the position she had put her son in, her fiancée in.
Her sister in.
Rachel had lost all train of rational thought when confronted with a truth she hadn't ever managed to accept, and reacted immediately with outrage and denial. She could still hear herself shouting, and the noise reverberated around her head and rang out in her ears, screaming liar.
She didn't notice the other figure bolt out the school in much the same manner as her, temples throbbing with adrenaline too and an alluring mixture of panic and hope sunk into the worry lines around his forehead.
"Rachel!"
The words hung between the two of them as her head snapped up, his voice tickling gently behind her ears and dissipating the brick of fury that had settled in her throat. She caught his gaze and held her breath, terrified that the next word she would hear wouldn't be the ones she was praying for.
Eddie on the other hand, had no idea what his next words would be. In fact, he couldn't really account for very much of what had just passed between the three of them. All he knew was that he felt like a prize pillock; and not because of Melissa's betrayal. The lies didn't hurt, and neither did the pleading; etching a helpful door in the back of a convenient relationship. His very own get out of jail free card.
What he resented the most was that it took her of all people to slap him into action, and to do what he should have done long, long ago. He had hurt the woman he most wanted to wrap in cotton wool for the rest of her life, dragged her hopes across an ice metal journey and all in the name of denial.
And now, now that he was ready to tell her everything she stood there looking so perfectly vulnerable and broken and shaking every word of sense out of his head. He took a hesitant step towards her, and when she didn't shirk away he took another, and another, until he was standing in front of her. He could hear her ragged breaths grating against mingled fear and broken promises and his telling inaction. He could hear her heart trying to mend itself and her head telling her to walk away; and yet she stood.
And he stood.
He reached out and traced the contour of her jawline with his index finger, and lifted her chin so that their eyes locked, and he saw the trembling tear escape from the corner of her eyelid. As it burnt its way down her face and onto his fingers she shuddered and broke the stare.
"Just let me go, Eddie."
Hooking his other hand firmly round her back and holding her in place, he stroked a dampened strand of hair away from her face and drew her eyes back up towards him. Shaking his head lightly he began to close the space between them and whispered against her cheek.
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
She didn't let herself believe it meant what she wanted it to. Rachel bore enough scars from believing things that were never warranted, and the sound of tension rattling in her ears was blocking out all vestiges of thought or sensibility. A myriad words fought for precedence on her tongue but none managed to spit themselves out, overruled by the pressing touch of his hand tight against her back, holding in all her fears.
"I can't let you go Rachel."
He couldn't read her. Terror and relief and pain were all flashing across her face; he wasn't sure what was genuine and what she was simply throwing out as a meagre defence to his determination. Dumbstruck at the surge of emotion he felt with his hand drawing her in, he tried to find the words to reassure her, to placate her, to protect her from everything that wasn't him. From her past. From his mistakes.
"I'm never going to let you go again."
He could feel the desperate thump of her heartbeat as he dew ever closer and pressed a tiny hot kiss against the tip of her nose. Sensing her barriers crumbling he went a step further, and tried one in the very corner of her mouth. A tiny gasp escaped from her lips as she tilted her head to meet him face on. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she met his lips with her own; hesitant and inviting.
A perfect beginning.