Ladies, gents, hold the mother fuck on to your hats
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Taylor made brief eye contact with me and snapped her jaw shut, turning on her heel to lead us far and away to the next shop. For a while Warren glued me to his side and would often squeeze my hip when any other groups of boys appeared.
After a while he began to let up, and when we were nearing the end of our journey, he let go of me altogether and slid his hands in his pockets.
We left the mall after a couple hours (i.e.; too damn many) and made our way back home, Warren becoming more and more distant throughout the ride. Taylor kept trying to make conversation, but we were both answering in grunts; me for worrying about him, and Warren for his own mysterious reasons.
When we got home, everyone lugged the bags inside. Taylor pulled off her sweater and looked at the both of us. "Okay, who's up for food?"
Warren shook his head. "I'm fine; I think I may just take a nap or something."
I regarded him incredulously. "But you haven't eaten anything all day. And you love food."
He shrugged and grabbed the bags that were his. He took off like a flash to the spare room that had become his and Taylor and I heard the door slam from a distance. She shrugged and made her way to the kitchen, used to the sudden outbursts in our family, ready to carry on with the evening.
I, however, was struck with his change in demeanor. My stomach sank.
Wow, I'm stupid.
His mom is MIA, maybe dead, and while Warren seems to be a hard-ass in person, he has nowhere near the mental walls that Taylor and I did, especially when it came to his mom. Where I was used to leaving my family's issues at the door when I left, he was used to just him and his mother, usually on the same page, but never close enough to have thing to fight about. More like roommates, but a family nonetheless.
I felt horrible for making him go out a mere day after his catastrophe, and it was horrible of me to expect him to be normal Warren.
I wanted to apologize, but a tiny peek into his mind (an excruciating peek at that) showed that he seriously wanted to be alone right now.
"Tay, I think I'm gonna follow Warren's lead, 'kay?"
She dismissed me with a wave of her hand, focused intently on the skillet in front of her. I turned and lugged my feet up the stairs, quietly creeping through my door and changing into sweats and a tank. I pulled Freddie out and stroked his head, staring at the door that separated my and Warrens room, willing myself to think about anything other than my own stupidity. After a while, Freddie jumped of my lap and back to his hidey-hole.
I took that as my cue to sleep.
Around what I guessed to be a few hours later, I was awakened by the creaking of a door and a dip in my mattress. I gasped.
"Shh, it's me." There came a voice from the other side of the bed.
Warren's arm snaked around my middle and a sigh left his mouth as he buried his nose in my hair. I felt the back of my head become wet, and I closed my eyes tightly, trying to will back my own tears.
I didn't say anything, and neither did he, and we fell asleep.
Together. Again.
My body snapped up to attention in my bed, reacting to the blaring noise pounding in my ear. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I glared over at Warren, who was standing in front of my stereo system and was steadily cranking the volume.
Then I glanced at the clock.
"What the fuck Warren?! It's four thirty! In the morning." My hands deftly swung my hair into a ponytail as I stomped over and turned the knob on the stereo down.
And Warren immediately turned it up louder than before. His eyes were dark, tired, and angry.
"Leave me alone Kendra." His voice was heavy and weak. He sounded exhausted.
"War," I turned down the volume slightly, loud enough to keep him happy, but quiet enough to keep me from ripping my hair out. "Please, please talk to me. I know, better than anyone what you're going through."
He turned away from me and ran his hand through his hair, slightly pulling at the roots. "Go away Kendra."
I reached out to touch the warm and tanned skin between his shoulders, tensed to a point that made me seriously worried. "War, you're scaring me."
As soon as my fingertips grazed his back he spun around and took a step closer, towering over me.
"Kendra! Stop it! Just stop it! You don't know where I'm at! You know that your parents are still alive! My mother might be dead! Do you understand that?" He was screaming at me, and tears were skipping down my cheeks as my fists clenched at my sides.
"Do you know what it feels like to be falling down a dark, black, never ending hole? I feel like I can't breathe. I try to ignore it, but everything reminds me of her. And I can't help but think that it's somehow my fault! So don't try to tell me that you know what I'm feeling, because you sure as hell don't." He was shaking, and big tear filled breaths racked his lungs.
He grabbed his hair and sat down on my bed, breathing hard and trying to blink back tears, failing miserably. I was still standing rigid, muscles tensed, and my eyes were probably horrifying, open as wide as possible, with my mouth open just wide enough to let out frightened puffs of air. The song had ended, and my room was unexpectedly filled with the quiet of the early morning.
Warren slowly looked up at me, and his features immediately softened.
"Oh, oh, no, no, no babe, oh I didn't mean to scare you." He wiped his face on his upper arm and a concerned look set on his face as he wiped my cheeks of the still seeping tears. Once Warren realized that the tears weren't stopping, he left that endeavor to uncurl my fists. My palms were turned and twisted as he examined the small crescents where my nails dug into the soft flesh.
Luckily for us supers, toughness in our "human" form kind of comes with the package. On any other person, the force I was using would have definitely broken the skin. Warren seemed to have suddenly remembered this fact as he sighed and slightly shook his head before weaving his fingers with mine.
My eyes finally reached a normal state, and my head fell forward onto Warren's bare chest. He abandoned my hands and wrapped one arm around my waist, the other gently releasing my hair from its holder and combing through the strands.
"Shh, shh, babe I didn't mean to." He whispered into the top of my head.
I cleared my throat slightly. "I'm sorry War. I didn't mean to-to push you and…"
My eyes blurred and a sob escaped my lips, causing Warren to make a cage around me with his arms and pull me further into him. "No, no, it's my fault, I could- I could tell that I was scaring you but I couldn't stop. I'm so sorry."
I pulled my arms to his sides and lightly scraped my fingernails over his torso and kissed the base of his neck softly. "Hey, we're gonna be okay. We have to be."
Warren let out a breathy laugh and touched his forehead to mine. "As long as you're here, I think we'll be okay." He pressed his lips to mine.
And I realized that Warren grabbing my hips is actually a thing.
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