“You have to calm down,” Zoe ordered softly floating through the door and over to me.

Jaime must have called her.

“I am calm,” I retorted evenly, staring straight ahead.

“Your hands are shaking,” Mike observed. His much larger, lanky hand engulfed mine in an attempt to steady them. I snatched them away, never breaking my gaze on the cream colored wall.

“I am calm.”

Taking a breath, Jaime sat on the other side of me. “Phoenix I’m worr—

“I am calm,” I seethed.

How was I to reel myself back in and slow my beating heart—ease my anxiety if not one, not two but three people were trying to tell me how I felt? I was aware that my physical & emotional state was far from composed but if they’d just give me the fucking chance to clear my head I may get somewhere.

“…Maybe you should take one of your pills,” Jaime suggested softly.

I whipped around and allowed the deadly aura I was repressing to emanate and suffocate everyone in the room that belonged to the man I’m sure could no longer stand the sight of me.

“No,” I hissed.

Taut and nervous, Mike cleared his throat, “It may help with your nerves. Uncle says that they help with relaxing anxiety.”

“By making me either feel like a raging bitch or a fucking zombie,” I dead panned. “No.”

There was a ringing silence. Every few seconds someone would shift or sniffle. The simple sound of them breathing too loudly only enhanced my growing anger and discomfort. There was the vibration of a phone and then the rustle of pulling it out of a pocket.

“Phoen—

“What?” I interrupted brashly.

Zoe hesitated, “I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”

I remained silent.

The same phone vibrated.

“I mean…They were angry but um, I have confidence that they pulled it together before they did anything stupid.”

Silence.

That damn phone vibrated again.

“…Nix your shaking is getting worse if you would just t—

“Get out,” I ordered stiffly.

I was drained; completely and utterly spent. There was no energy to argue, no drive to refuse their advice, no hope to feed off their hopeful words and no patience to tolerate their constant nagging. Their persistence only wound me tighter and the screws and bolts that held me together were slowly turning counter clockwise. The last bit of my foundation was being chipped away and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“W-We can’t. We just want to help,” Zoe tried feebly.

Taking a deep breath, I repeated myself.

The phone tremored.

My eyes remained on the wall.

“We can’t,” Jaime sighed.

“You can,” I bit out, squinting. “You just won’t.”

Aggravation from the whole situation began to transform into uncanny anger. If they didn’t leave it’d surely evolve into unprecedented rage.

“Leave.”

“N—

“Let’s just go,” Mike muttered hurriedly.
Unflinching and my face unreadable the faint sound of Jaime’s neck popping as he whipped around to look at Mike sounded the only noise in the room.

“What? No!”

Mike cocked an eyebrow, “My house, my rules. I say we leave.”

Never being one to disrespect someone else or their possessions Jaime fidgeted and shot me a look. Reluctantly, Zoe and Jaime followed a calm-as-ever Mike out the room.
A deep and heavy breath escaped my lungs through my chapped lips and a shaky hand ran through my tangled, boring brown hair. There was a slight shuffle outside the closed door, a few hushed whispers and eventually the sound of careful feet going downstairs. A long moment of silence tore at me. My head was now allowed a distraction free environment and the weight of concern and bitterness crushed my soul. My grip found one of the navy blue pillows on his bed and slowly lowered myself to lay on it in a way that felt mechanical. His scent, clean and masculine with a slightly mint tinge invaded my sense and my heart clenched. Finally doing what I refused to do since they left the house about 3 hours ago, I cried.

Notes

SO I've had a version of this chapter typed since I posted the last chapter but I felt that I was going in the wrong direction of her character if I had her do what I originally planned for her to do. After fighting with myself a bit, I posted a different version I put together in about 30 mins (thats why its painfully short) Somewhat of a filler. Next chapter is whats going to be reaaaaally interesting. Comment, Rate, Vote Subscribe and all that jazz~

---

QOTD: Who's damn phone was that? What do you think they were, texts? calls? From who? CommentT