One. Nora took a step over the edge, her hair and dress going into free fall as the world seemed to slow drastically. Tears flew off her eyelashes and she closed her eyes, and felt the water spray across her face. Quickly a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her entire body into their chest.
She opened her eyes for that split moment to see a gust of raven wing black hair and pure obsidian eyes. Her eyes widened as the sunlight seemed to break through the cloud barrier. It can't be. She thought as those familiar arms wrapped around her and held her against that familiar chest.
"Jesus fucking Christ Nora you gave me a mother fucking heart attack." That voice said roughly.
The smell of cheap Cuban cigars filled her nose and over powered the harsh smell of sea water and rain. Nora stood there stunned as he fell to his knees still holding her farthest away from the edge. "For a second there I thought I had lost you forever."
Nora stared at his chest for a long time before quietly whispering past tears. "Patch… Is that you?"
He pulled away from his tight embrace for that one second, her heart skipping several beats in a row as she stared into those familiar eyes. "Yea it's me. I'm sorry I took so long." Patch said warmly.
Nora's lip trembled and then she broke into tears of rage punching him across the jaw. "You dickhead!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. She kicked him in the stomach with her bare foot, pushing him away from her.
"You've made me think you were dead for weeks! Do you know how that has been for me you asshole?!" she shouted.
"I'm here now isn't that enough?" he shouted back standing up.
Nora threw a punch but he caught it. "No you shit stain!" she cried. "That isn't enough because I thought you were dead, I self-destructed because I couldn't live without you!" she cried, tears forming in her eyes.
Patch curled his hand around hers and pulled her close, kissing her forehead. "I'm so sorry." He whispered. "I thought maybe if I disappeared I could keep you safe."
Nora fell to her knees at the touch of his lips again. She stood there on her knees staring up at him, the sun breaking through on him like a single spotlight.
He kneeled down and looked at her with the most sincere and heartfelt eyes she had ever seen. "I thought giving you up would ensure you're safety but then I realized I'm way too selfish. I had already given you up once for your safety and it's something I sorely regretted. I realized I couldn't live without you either." He rested his head over her heart. "If you're mad at me, fine. If you never want to see me again, fine. If you want to mistake this for obsession rather than love, go right ahead. It won't change the fact that when we had that night together. Where it was just us against the world, you became more than my girlfriend or my paramour; you became my hamartia. My one weakness, my fatal flaw." He took a deep breath and kept resting his head over her heart.
"You became my everything; I came back to steal you again. So that we can run away and make that night every day of our lives. And I'm not talking like this just so I can have sex every day; I'm talking about this because I want you. I love you with every fiber of my being."
Tears dropped off Nora's eyelashes and fell onto his hair as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight against her. "I love you more." She whispered, kissing the top of his head.
Patch wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up, carrying her in his arms as he stood. She rested her forehead against his and held his face gently. He smiled up at her "Why don't we pick up where we left off." He whispered softly.
She smiled past tears and pressed her thumb against his lips. "I'll take you up on that?" she whispered back.
"And what about Scott?" he laughed.
"Fuck him." She replied gently as Patch lowered her and intertwined his finger with hers.
"Alrighty then, you tell him." He replied softly.
Nora couldn't stop crying or smiling, it all felt like one big dream to her; something that she didn't want to wake up from. Maybe she did plummet into the rocks and break open her skull, and she's probably bleeding into the ocean right now. Whatever it is, she didn't want to wake up and be snatched away from him again. She looked up to those obsidian eyes and whispered. "Don't ever leave me again."
He replied with a simple, "Not even if God forced me to."
Scott rain through Delphic screaming out for Nora; his feet constantly tripping in puddles and over slippery pieces of boardwalk. "Nora!" he shouted over a loud crack of thunder. Rain started to fly from the clouds, pelting his back and splashing into the dark ocean.
He whirled around Delphic frantically looking for Nora. Please, Nora please. Don't leave us too. He thought, tears beginning to welt up. His foot slipped over the puddle sending him falling to the ground harshly. Scott pushed himself onto his hands and knees and tried to get up but he kept slipping and falling. Nora.
His mind went back to that day when they were kids, the last time he got to see her before he moved away. That happy Nora who was like a sister then his secret crush. Now he didn't even know who she was; that Nora that he loved was gone, leaving behind this cynical hollow shell. How could he love her know when her heart died with Patch.
Damn that angel. He thought bitterly, "I hate them. I hate them all." He said scornfully. His mother was left by a shitty angel, Patch stole the one woman he could ever love, Patch killed the only woman he could ever love, and Patch killed their hope of freedom from being put in chains on Cheshvan.
I will never forgive them. He thought angrily.
"Scott!" he looked up to see Vee climbing out of the Neon. She was protected from the rain by a large red umbrella. Vee ran to him, her feet splashing against the puddles on the ground. "Are you okay?" she kneeled down beside him.
"I'm fine, what are you doing here?" he asked as she helped him up.
Vee smiled weakly. "Something told me that Nora was in trouble so I came here as fast as I could. Where is she?"
"I don't know." Scott replied. "She wasn't in the apartment."
Her weak smile fell, "Nora…" a crack of thunder lashed out across the sky.
She took a few blind steps, "We have to find her… She could get hurt or worse."
"Wait!" Scott grabbed her wrist. "This weather is going to shit you could get struck by fucking lightning or you can slip and break your neck!"
"I don't care!" she shouted over a new crack of thunder. "My best friend is out there and I have to find her!" tears sprung from her eyes, "I'm not going to lose her again!"
"Vee…" Scott said quietly. He sighed, "Well it can't be helped." He grabbed placed his hand over hers on the umbrella handle and tried to force out his best smile. "Let's go together."
She wiped away her tears and they started walking together; the puddles making gentle little ripples on top of the boardwalk, as they walked to the beach's rockier shores. As they walked closer, off in the distance they could see a single figure carrying a smaller one.
"Oh god," Vee whispered, clutching onto Scott's hand tighter. Please don't be her, let that guy not be carrying her.
"VEE!" the light rainy haze subsided and Vee could see Nora being carried by Patch, waving her arm out to them. "Scott!" she had a big smile on her face, all that gloom and cynicism had disappeared completely as if that glass hollow shell was completely destroyed and was replaced with the real Nora that they knew and loved.
"Is that Patch… and Nora?" Vee said softly.
"Yep, the bastard isn't dead after all." Scott said running his fingers through his hair.
Vee's eyes overflowed with tears as she dropped the umbrella and ran towards Nora and Patch. Patch let Nora down so she could run towards her friend. They met in the middle and Vee hugged Nora with all her might. "You're back!" she cried past water falling tears.