Tracy looked at him sadly as a tear ran down her cheek. She quickly tried to wipe it away before he seen it. He was always so strong and protective of her. She was going to be strong for him. How could his father do this to him? Why would he do this to him? Her family was always so loving and caring with her, she just didn't understand how it could happen. A million questions were running through her mind. But she didn't want to say, not in the current state that he was in. Taking his hands gently she looked at him. "Link?"
As he heard her voice he pushed his head up he smiled at her but quickly saw that tears were coming from her eyes. He knew she was trying to hide it but it wasn't working. "Awww darlin'. Don't cry. I'm okay." He moved his hands up touching her face. "Please don't cry. This breaks my heart to see you cry. Believe me lil darlin'. I'll be alright. I promise I always am."
Hearing those words stung her This must have happened before. The pain in her stomach just grew. She took a deep breath looking at the boy before her. "Let me go get you some coffee. It will help sober you up." She smiled at him softly. "Just stay here okay?" She kissed his forehead and went downstairs to make some coffee trying to be as quiet as she could not to wake her parents. She had no idea how she was going to explain it to them.
He had been in her room that night of the march so he was pretty familiar with it. He got up slowly from the bed walking on shaky feet walking around the room. He looked at the pictures of the council members all over her mirror and looked at the picture of them from the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant. They were so happy then. Reaching his hand over he grabbed the picture from the desk of her, the one he had before, and smiled at it. He was so lucky. She was an amazing girl and she wanted him in her life. She was his. He took a deep breath and remembered that they had broken up. He started to panic, his heart was racing in his chest and he felt like he could not breath. He set the picture down on the bed and stumbled down the steps to the kitchen "Trace?" He spoke as he walked into the kitchen seeing her standing by the stove. "TRACE?" He said a whole lot louder than he intended. He watched her as she looked back at him. He moved closer to her getting down on his knees holding onto her. "Tracy I love you. PLease don't leave me. We can't be over. I'm sorry. I am so so sorry. Please I love you. I can't lose you. Please you can't leave me. " He rambled holding onto her.
She knew that it was probably the affects of drinking way to much. Kneeling down on the floor next to him she put her arms around him looking him in the eyes. "Link shh. Go up to my room and I will be right up. We will talk when I come up okay? I don't want my parents to wake up."
"Why are they going to hit you too? I will protect you. I won't let anyone hurt you Trace." He asked her softly.
His words rocked her to the core. "No Link. They won't." She took his hands helping him up watching him slowly walk away dejected. She buried her face in her hands and cried for a minute before regaining her composure and finished up making his coffee. Slowly she headed up the steps and walked into the bedroom shutting the door quietly. She looked at him sitting on the bed. "Here drink this." She held it out to him.
Taking the coffee he took one drink and shook his head. "Ugh." Even in his drunken state coffee still tasted horrible. Patting the bed next to him he was asking her to sit down. As she did he looked at her. "Just let me talk." He said softly. "I uhhh." He started to gather his thoughts. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for not letting you in. I didn't tell Amber. She just figured it out. What you saw..." He rubbed his head slightly starting to come down from his drunken stupor. "Amber told me to come talk to you. That is what you saw. Trace, you are the one i want to be with, your the one. My father doesn't get it. He doesn't know how I feel. He doesn't care that I love you. He doesn't get to tell me who I can love. I couldn't take it anymore. So I drank and I drank. It was so stupid but I don't know Trace."
Tracy listened and realized that the fight with his dad was because of her. Gasping softly she looked at him with tears in her eyes. "He did this to you because of me."
"Trace. no. My dad is an asshole. He had been ever since my mom passed away. He drinks a lot and he says stupid shit. Normally he doesn't hit me in the face. I guess this time it just got in the way." He laughed sadly.
Reaching out to touch his face. "Link. I am so sorry." She sighed softly looking at him.
Looking at her he shook his head. "No you have nothing to be sorry for. Tracy none of this is your fault."
"But Link your dad did this because..." She sighed as the tears came again.
Before she could finish he stopped her. "No Trace, if it wasn't because of this it would have been something else. You have to believe me. Please don't cry." He leaned in kissing her softly. His hands moved over her face. He deepened it as she kissed him back. For the first time today he felt like himself. Pulling away a bit he smiled at her. "We okay?"
"Yeah we are okay?" She nodded softly. "How about I go turn the shower on and this way you won't smell so bad." She laughed a bit as he nodded. "I'll be right back." She quietly walked out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. She turned on the shower, checked the water temperature and went back to the bedroom only to find Link sound asleep holding her picture in his arms. She walked down to the hall to turn the shower off and walked back to her room. Shutting the door behind her she slowly walked over taking off his shoes and setting them next to the bed. She took the blanket off and pulled it up as she took the picture out of his hand. She slowly turned around to walk to go downstairs to sleep when he started to stir a bit and half groggily. "Lay with me." He murmured through a yawn.
Pulling back the blanket she slowly climbed in with him not wanting to hurt him. As she laid there he wrapped his arms around her. "I love you Trace." He mumbled softly falling back to sleep.
"I love you too Link." She sighed as she slowly drifted off herself.