Warrior

Violent Delights: Triumph

: i'm trapped by your love & chained to your side, heartache to heartache we stand - love is a battlefield :

Chapter 13: Breakfast, Fake Blonde Girlfriends and a Whole Lotta Family Problems

'Friend of yours?'

Tommy sipped his coffee that I'd noticed he'd never done so before unless it was forced on him. Tommy didn't drink coffee unless it was to be polite.

He looked confused and I focused back on my cup of tea, I poured three sugars into it and stirred, 'the blonde.'

A soft chuckle made me look up and Tommy was leaning back in his seat, his jacket was beside him and I could see his toned muscles, the tattoos poking out of his tight T- Shirt. I'd missed him.

'She wasn't my girlfriend. I saw you walk into the store, she approached me wanting an autograph. Thought I'd try and-'

'Trust me, I wasn't jealous.'

The way I'd said it, the most illiterate of person could've sensed I was telling the truth but there was some lingering depth to it. He shouldn't have treated that girl that way. I couldn't help but think it's something the old Tommy would do. You can't change everything, I guess.

'I got that,' Tommy's smile made my heart lurch and I distracted myself by blowing gently on my tea.

I thought our reunion, not that I'd thought it would ever happen, would go differently. There'd be yelling and tension and anger and Tommy would walk out exactly like I'd walked out on him and then we'd go on with our lives. There was still so much to talk about.

'You look good,' I said truthfully. He did. His body looked even more muscled, his hair was shorter and more styled, his face looked fresher and his eyes were sparkling.

He nodded in thanks and gestured, 'you too. What's with the hair though?'

I fiddled with it with a frown, 'what?'

He took a lock of it between his fingers and I felt shivers, he tucked it behind my ear and leaned back, 'it was much better natural.'

Shrugging I flicked it back out so it went back in my face, anything to hide the growing blush on my cheeks, 'it will grow out. It's only hair.'

There was an awkward silence and I breathed slowly, I wanted to ask him the burning question. 'Tommy - how are things now?'

'Good,' he said quickly. Too quickly.

I reached across the table and touched his hand gently. Stroking a finger across the back of his hand, I half expected him to pull away. 'Your dad is back, isn't he?'

That's where Kelsie was headed today. I knew it in my gut. He'd asked for me and he was back. Patrick was back.

'Pop is...' he turned his hand so his palm was facing up, it seemed my touch was calming him, helping him collect his thoughts, 'Pop is okay. He's better.'

'Did he relapse?'

'When you left,' he said with a curt nod, 'I kinda lost it.'

I swallowed and gripped his hand, this time he tensed and his grey orbs stared at me sternly. He waited for me to talk but I hesitated, he looked as if he'd snap at the slightest utter of my words.

'You... you understand why I left, right?'

'No,' Tommy tore his hand away and sipped his coffee, 'I don't, Lana. You'd seen me before knock someone out. You knew the shit between me and Pop was bad.'

I was shaking my head before he'd even finished and cast a look at the few people in the cafe, there weren't many and they were too engaged in their own conversations to listen in on ours. 'Tommy, that wasn't it.'

'Explain it to me then.'

This was something I'd been planning to do later on. But I owed it to him. 'I was frightened.'

Tommy's eyes flashed but not with anger, with something else. Sadness perhaps? 'Of me?'

'No way Tommy. I cared... I care about you so much. I was frightened I would stop caring for you if I stayed. I couldn't witness that animal coming out of you.'

He didn't say anything else and I realized he was trying to understand. It must've been killing him all this time he still had no idea why I'd walked out and left him in his hotel room.

'Animal's still there.'

I stood up and watched his body tense and I slowly walked around the table, keeping my eyes on him as I sat beside him. He turned his body in my direction but made no move to touch me at all. His eyes were gouging my next action as if he was a deer caught in headlights.

Scrunching my brows I tried to figure out what I would say next. 'Tommy, I miss you.'

He scoffed but his eyes didn't leave mine and I think I saw a glimmer of hope there. I put my hands on his strong thighs and looked down, 'I get it. I hurt you-'

'Don't flatter yourself.'

I stopped, let him have his retort and tried again, 'I don't deserve any of your time but I think there's things we need to talk about. I was still finding out shit about you.'

'Wanna talk about hiding shit, Lana? Who the fuck is Belle? Don't blow me off 'bout some doctor joke excuse either. You have a panic attack whenever she calls you.'

I looked at him as if he'd slapped me. I swallowed the lump in my throat and stood up. I wasn't having this conversation.

'I think this was a mistake.'

Tommy glared at me and stood up too, 'it's a mistake when we talk 'bout you. But all my secrets and scars you wanna know 'bout.'

I made a beeline for the cafe door knowing fully well he was following me. I made it just outside when my forearm was grabbed. I whirled around and kept my head down as my chest clashed with Tommy's.

'Please,' I whispered and looked up at him helplessly, 'please don't do this.'

Tommy's breath was coming out harshly and he slacked his grip only to trail his hand down my arm and around my waist. I buried my head in his neck and fought the burning urge of tears. Tommy's breath was soft on my neck and it made all my hairs stand up.

'Lana, I want us to work.' He whispered and then leaned back, 'let's talk.'

I nodded and sniffed as I thought about how I could possibly get out of this. Was I ready to tell Tommy about Belle? I glanced at the cafe and laughed and caught Tommy's puzzled smile.

'Tommy, we forgot to pay.'

He cast a look around and chuckled as we quickly made our way across the road, the direction of my apartment, 'looks like we aren't going there again, then.'

~VD:T~

'You went back to Army?' I asked, my legs were tucked underneath me on the armchair while Tommy sat fiddling with one of my cushions opposite me on my sofa.

'Nearly. Got so close. I was in and out of trials before they deemed me phyically unfit 'cause of my shoulder.'

I nodded and leaned my head back on the headrest, this was the most information Tommy had told me in a while. He'd talked through the fight, Brendans wife Tess who Brendan had showed a picture of to Tommy before their fight, how the Army said he was a war hero now and needn't go back.

'Do you talk to Brendan?'

Tommy leaned back and threw my cushion on my lap before flicking it back up. I noticed he liked to fidget when he was uncomfortable. 'He calls now and again, he's so determined for me to go visit.'

'Why don't you?'

Tommy looked at me and caught my gaze. He knew if he didn't answer my question, I had a free pass on one of his when this conversation turned around on me. He shook his head and sighed, 'too weird. I can't stand his wife, I don't know his kids.'

'And you never will,' I stated glancing outside the window to my left when I saw a hot pink hot air balloon catch my eye, I'd forgotten it was Valentines.

'One day. Soon,' he shot me an encouraging smile and I knew he was telling the truth. I couldn't return it though because I knew what was next coming out of his mouth.

'Who is Belle, Lana?'

'My sister.'

'The one who-'

'Got in a bad crowd,' I finished for him and looked down. I couldn't look at him.

'When was the last you spoke to 'er?'

'Two years ago.'

'Before you moved here?'

Nodding, I could feel the familiar feeling of guilt and regret fill my body, the urge to get on the next plane and fly back to London. But I couldn't.

'You're far away from them, Lana,' Tommy's voice was soft, it wasn't full of sympathy or pity like Kelsie's had been, 'they can't find you.'

I let out a strangled sob. I bit my lip and faced even further away from him if it were possible. 'Tommy, you don't understand. When I left I made a promise they won't hurt me. Just listening to them beg me to come home hurts me.'

He looked baffled, 'why won't you go home?'

Silence. DON'T SAY A WORD.

'Lana, why won't you go home?'

His voice, his sweet voice so full of concern and determination to get to the centre of my problem.

'Lana...'

'Tommy!' I finally met his gaze with a sharp one of my own. My brown eyes bore into his grey ones and I grit my teeth, 'stop.'

'We're halfway,' he said casually, 'dad's a runaway, mom's a whore, sisters on her way to being both - what more is there?'

His blunt sentence and crude question made me look at him in shock. 'Don't treat my problems like they're nothing.'

'Now you're being a hypocrite,' he said and stood up to pace the floor as if I was being lectured. I felt trapped, I didn't like it. 'You don't wanna talk 'bout your problems and yet when I say them as they are, you get defensive, which is it?'

I kept my mouth shut, he was being impossible. I felt the anger get the best of me but I tried to keep it tame. I wouldn't explode.

'You worried you're gonna get dragged back to London and be like your ma?' Tommy asked, he was leaning against the wall now across the room with a condascending smile on his face, 'or you worried if you sort it out with your family, you won't be the tortured little girl you are now?'

'Fuck you, Tommy!' I yelled standing up, I'd had enough, I grabbed the cushion and launched it at him which he effortlessly dodged, 'I won't talk to them, I won't see them, I won't go back to them because I've finally proved them wrong! I'd been convinced all my life I'm worthless, I'm too ugly to do anything, too stupid to make something of myself. I've done it. It's not the best job but it's a job! I've got an apartment, I'm in a completely different fuckin' country, I thought I found someone too,' I slumped in my seat.

'But he wants to know just like everyone else. What my daddy issues are. Why my mums pictures and porn videos are all over the internet, why half the money I make from work goes straight to my sisters drug problem, why my debts are up to my neck because I'd paid for hundreds of therapists to get my sister out of the same line of work as my mum.' I took a deep breath and stared right into his eyes, 'I had to take off or I'd end up dead.'

Tommy didn't say a word and I didn't want him too. I was ashamed, embarassed and downright fucked up for him to have any thoughts on what I'd just revealed to him. After a moment I felt soft hands on my cheeks, lifting my face to be met with the beautiful eyes. 'Lana...'

'Don't.' I wrenched my face out of his hands and let a single tear fall down my cheek.

Tommy ran his hands down my arms until he was kneading my hips, he rested his forehead on mine and we breathed eachother in. 'Feel better yet?'

'Yes,' I said sarcastically, 'I feel over the fuckin' moon.'

His crooked smile made me smile too, 'there she is.'

'Shut up.' I sniffed, 'you can't say anything at all. You hold a grudge over your dad like a goddamn raincloud, you won't talk to your brother because he chose a chick over you and your mum, which I get it, is a bad move but you still hold him responsible for the responsibility you had to take on for your mum. Your blonde bimbo fan wouldn't know what a fuckin' make-up wipe is if it came and smacked her in the face and don't even get me star-'

My rant was cut short when Tommy's warm lips covered mine in a sweet, loving kiss and he leaned back, 'you finished?'

'No,' I said but smiled a little anyway, 'my boyfriends an emotional wreck.'

'And my girlfriends got family shit as high as fuckin' tidal wave but am I still gonna take her in that bedroom right now to prove how much I've missed her?'

'And what shall I do?' I asked cheekily with a smirk, 'make a cup of tea and wait?'

'Come 'ere.' Tommy's hands and lips were covering me in a second and as we made our way into my bedroom, I finally felt uplifted. Relieved. Better.

A lot of people have liked to know about Lana's family problems so here they are.
Finally they can get back on track a little bit now.
Song is Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Benatar. As you can see I've got a diverse taste in music as well as a crazy obsession with zombies and am a complete movie buff.
Also someone PM'd me asking if I'm actually British. Yes I am. Most of my characters are British, not because they're based off me but because they're so much easier for me personally to write.
Thank you everyone for your reviews and encouragement to write more! :)