Chapter Thirty-two

Athena's POV

''Checkmate.'' I say and Alex's jaw drops to the ground—making me let out my laughter. He looks back up at me and lightly rub his temples, showing how frustrated he is for losing the game, ''Seriously, you should give up because I've won for like—five times.''

He sighs, eyeing my features before taking out his wallet, ''Here.'' Then he takes out a hundred dollars, ''A deal is a deal.'' He adds—putting the money right in front of me.

I look down at the money before pushing it back toward him, ''I've got like five hundred for winning. You can keep this one.'' I say, picking up the five hundred dollars and wave it in front of him. Alex rolls his eyes as he drop his wallet on the couch, ''Aw, come on, someone has got to lose right?'' I mutter, touching his hand.

''Woman, if we keep this up, I'm going to be broke.'' He mutters under his breath—making me chuckle and pull him closer toward me. I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his shoulder. Shortly after, he lightly pull my head closer before kissing on top of my head, long.

I lift my head up, meeting his eyes. How I love those sky blue eyes. They never fail to enchant me. Running my thumb on his cheeks as I smile to myself. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to end up with him? It takes a whole fortune of luck because he's one hell of a man. I know how I don't deserve him.

He slowly put his hands on my hips before resting his forehead on mine. His lips curve up into a small smile as he lick his lower lip. I run my fingers on his jawline—enjoying the intimacy. Within seconds, he turns us around so that he would hover on top of me. I yelp as soon as my body hits the sofa.

But he quickly kiss me on the lips. I could never resist his lips—they are made for perfection. I pull his face closer to deepen the kiss and he tilt his head so that he would have a better access. The way his hands are wrapped around my body is making me feel wanted. I back my head away, making him groan and chuckle afterwards.

''Playing hard to get, are you?'' He whispers softly near my ear, making me shiver at the contact of his soft lips on my earlobe.

With all my strength, I turn us around so that I would be on top. He pulls my body closer so that they would collide with his but I remain still—not letting him. Both of my hands on his chest, holding me from colliding our bodies. My lips curve up before grinning at him as I look down directly at his face.

He smiles back at me and in my surprise, grabs my butt before he sits up and holding me back from falling. His lips collide with mine in an instant as he runs his hands inside my shirt—feeling the warmth of my skin with his.

''I love you.''

My heart somehow stops beating as I look into those blue eyes. Just like that, I could see directly inside. From all the sweetness and love, changes into something dark. Something filled with hatred, depression and torture. My eyes widen when I see images of me being roughly shove into the wall and my head being slammed onto the ground.

Blinking, different images start to flow. I see myself being choke as I look into a pair of hazel eyes. They look back at me with revenge—covering his own love for me. My gaze drops as I see someone else looking at both of us in shock. Within seconds, he is holding me as he shakes my body, keeping me awake.

I feel him pulling my body closer as I hear his heartbeat raises. My brain seems to stop functioning as I just look into his eyes—somehow feeling safe. His eyes widen once he realise that I stop moving and stop breathing all in once. Both of his hands cup my face as he check for my pulse. Hearing voices, shouts, I couldn't comprehend what.

Just like that, everything turns pitch black—not even a single light shining into the darkness.

My eyes open wide as I sit up straight, gasping for air. Someone touches my hand, pulling me closer as he rub my back. I cough—the tight feeling starts to disappear. I hear the machine stops beeping as I look up to see a familiar brown hair.

''Alex?'' I mutter under my breath but as soon as he looks down at me—revealing his face—I somehow feel like the world came crushing down. ''Liam.'' I breathe out, seeing his brown eyes pierce into mine.

He lightly lay me back and it gives me a better view of his face. I can see wrinkles under his eyes that weren't there before as he tug me in. I can also see a light shade of dark circles forming and how dull he looks. When he notice me staring, he looks back up, making me look away immediately.

''Are you okay?'' He asks, frowning, eyeing my every feature.

''Yeah.'' I nod slightly.

Liam moves a bit, adjusting himself beside me before sitting on the chair, ''You had a concussion.'' He breaks the silence. I look back up at him and see him playing with his fingers, ''Your head—Do you remember what happened?'' He changes the subject quickly.

I furrow my eyebrows as I look around, taking my surroundings. The smell doesn't ease me at all. I have never been a fan of hospitals. ''If you're talking about someone banging my head against the floor, then, yeah, I do. I remember most of it.'' I add a little bit sarcasm but he just smirks, ''How long was I out?''

''Since yesterday. I'll call the doctor so he can explain.'' He stands up, pressing the button as it beeps. He sits back down, just looking back at me, ''Does it still hurt?'' I start to hear footsteps outside and as soon as I look at the door, it opens—revealing the doctor. He looks inside before walking in.

I was out since yesterday? Wow.

Liam stands up. The doctor walks toward us, ''Hi I'm Dr. Marc, how are you feeling?'' He asks me with a smile on his face. I smile back at him as an answer and he looks back at me, ''Alright, you had a violent blow to your head, as described by your friend, which causes your brain to slide back and forth forcefully against the inner walls of your skull. This injury affects brain function, usually for a brief period, resulting in signs and symptoms of concussion. You don't have to worry, it's nothing serious, luckily. No damage or bleeding around the brain which is good.'' He looks directly into my eyes, ''No certain memory loss?''

''No.'' I reply.

''That's good. You're lucky.'' He nods before writing it down. Then he looks back at Liam before looking back at me, ''I will check up on you in a few hours, so, if there's anything, just call me and I'll be right on time.'' Liam nods his head and Dr. Marc smiles once more before heading toward the door until he's completely out of sight.

Liam sighs, ''I've called Alex.''

I quickly turn to look at him, ''What did he say?'' From what happened, I can never feel safe if I'm not around Alex. It feels better if I'm near him and right now, I just feel empty and lost. Whether I need him for comfort, it just feels important.

''He doesn't sound happy. At first, he didn't quite believe me but when I shout at him, he was speechless. I guess he stayed silent for a minute or so. Then he ends the call without saying anything. When I tried to call him back, I can't because his phone is off.'' Liam says, ''Athena.''

Alex ended the call just like that? Where is he now? Did he end the call so that he won't be receiving any afterwards? I guess his work is much more important.

''Yeah?'' I raise an eyebrow.

What is he going to say? I thought.

''What happened in England... I didn't—well I can't really say that I didn't mean it because I was sober but, I just want to say that I realise who I was kissing and I really want to. I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't. It feels like I'm betraying my own friend. I'm sorry—''

I cut him off by grabbing his hand, ''Hey don't worry about it. It happened, okay? I was clearly drunk to even push you away, so, it's fine. We'll just let it slip.''

He smiles at me, holding onto my hand. My eyes widen to the door as soon as I hear it open—seeing Alex looking directly at me. His breathing hard as he furrow his eyebrows when he see me and Liam holding hands. We both quickly let go of each other's hands and Liam stands up in an instant, ''I'll leave you two alone.''

Then he walks toward Alex, eyeing him. Alex looks back at Liam, clenching his jaw as Liam pats on his back. When Liam steps out, Alex pulls him slowly by the arm, ''Thanks, man.'' He mutters quietly. I see Liam looking back at me before nodding.

Alex closes the door behind him and eyes my whole body before looking at my eyes. I don't even know what I look like right now. I slowly sit up as he sits down at the chair which were occupied by Liam. He just looks at me—making me feel slightly uncomfortable under his gaze.

I look down at my hands, playing with my wedding ring before tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Alex leans forward, sighing before rubbing his temples and looking down. I take the moment to see that he is in his suit. He probably hasn't changed yet. I use all my might to lightly touch the back of his neck and as soon as my hand made contact, I feel him breathe out once more.

Rubbing slowly, I can somehow feel the stress radiating. Biting my lower lip, I let out a breath of my own. Alex lifts his head slowly and I see that his eyes are slightly red, ''I can't pretend that it didn't happen, Athena.'' He says, his voice low—sending shivers down my spine, ''What happened last time in Rome was bad enough but what happened to you right now is the worst.''

His blue eyes came into contact with my brown ones. They are looking back at me with emotions, feelings but I can't see through them—I can't feel them back because I don't know them too well. ''You know what I'm going to do to him and you're not going to stop me.'' He adds. I look closely and see that he's clenching his jaw ever so tightly and his hands are being pressed together, somehow holding back some sort of force, ''He may be with the police but I can't let that be it.''

I reach out for his hand but he stands up—walking away toward the window, making me sigh in defeat. He turns around, ''You don't know what it feels like to watch him do that to you.'' He continues. My eyebrows furrow when I hear him. What does he mean by that?

''What do you mean?'' I ask, slowly.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, breathing out and when he let go, I can see his nose redden as he bite onto his lower lip—making them red also. And then it hit me, the surveillance camera. I close my eyes as I breathe out. He sees everything that had happened in the house.

''Alex, I'm fine. Besides, just like you said, he's with the police. There's nothing that he can do to hurt me anymore. He's—''

He runs his fingers through his hair as he cut me off, ''You don't fucking get it, do you?'' His voice sounding, frustrated. ''He could have killed you. He could have killed you and I'm not fucking there for you. What if Liam wasn't there to safe you? Then what would have happened? Me seeing you dead as soon as I get back here? That is a possibility. That could've happened.''

''Well, I'm here. I'm not dead.'' I mutter under my breath.

''I'm worried about you!'' He says, a bit louder. I just watch as he looks back at me—his eyes filled with anger, ''Why can't you see that? If anything happens to you, I'll be the one paying the price. It isn't just that, I'll—'' He stops. I see him breathing hard as his chest raises up and down in a quick motion.

None of us could say anything. Not even me. I don't have the words to say it at his face. I just end up watching him. Watching him breathe, watching him control his anger, watching him gazing out the window. Words couldn't seem to appear.

''Surprise!'' I turn to see Sarah and Jon at the door with balloons in their hands. Sarah has a wide smile on her face as she look back at me. As for Jon, he ends up covering his face with the balloons. I turn to look at Alex who still has his back facing the door.

Sarah's eyes widen when he realise the tension between me and Alex. She turns toward Jon, ''Bad timing, bad timing.'' I hear her mutter quietly toward him and just like that, they quickly close the door.

Alex has both of his hands in his slacks' pocket. He turns around, not even glancing my way as he walk toward the door, ''I need some air.'' Then he's completely out of sight—leaving me alone. I rub my temples, not even knowing the mixed signs he's giving me.

Yeah, he's worried but he doesn't need to be all upset about this. It's not even his fault to begin with. I can't even blame myself for this. There's no one to blame, there's nothing to put the blame on. Never in my wildest dream that Jeremy would turn out this way. He's completely the opposite.

When I think about it, he's everything, he was like the perfect guy. That's one of the reason why I fell for him. Now, he's the exact nothing. He's nothing but useless and hopeless.

The door opens again, revealing a confused Sarah. She enters quickly with Jon trailing behind her—still holding the balloons. She wraps her arms around my neck before pulling me in for a hug, not even saying a word. I hug her back as I see Jon putting the balloons down as he smiles at me.

She breaks the hug to look at my face, ''Hey, you alright?''

''Yeah,'' I smile at her and she smiles back, ''Just a normal argument.'' I add and she nods her head before taking out a card behind her back. I look down and read it out loud. A chuckle escapes my mouth, ''Get well soon because I miss getting wasted with you.''

Sarah joins me laughing, ''Do you want to have a girl talk?'' She suddenly ask, glancing toward Jon who is right now taking out a cigarette, ''Jon, no smoking.'' Sarah says and Jon sighs before putting it back in his pocket.

''Nah, I'm all good.'' I mutter.

We spend hours of talking and laughing. Sarah has been cracking endless jokes which cheers me up by a whole lot. Jon appears to be the same as Sarah. They both love humour and they don't even act like the cliché couple. They are nothing like I expected. They are better, actually.

Jon keeps on telling me stories where Sarah embarrassed herself a lot in their relationship but Jon also said that he falls for her because she's the way she is. She's not some stuck up bitch and he loves that about her. Jon also loves how Sarah can be the one who controls but she can also be the one being controlled.

We three are laughing our ass off but as we hear the door open, we both turn around to see the nurse standing. A smile appears on her face, ''It's time for your rest.'' She says, softly.

Jon keeps on chuckling before standing up and fist bumping me. ''It's time to leave then. We'll come and visit you again soon!'' Sarah says, before hugging me. As they both walk out, I see Jon winking at me and I just wave him off.

Until they both are no longer heard. I am once more left with the silence surrounding me—not even a single noise. I lay on my back as I turn my head to the other side, closing my eyes. I look down at my wedding ring once more and I take my time to examine it before drifting off to sleep with Alex being on my mind.

The sudden thunder surprise me as I open my eyes. I breathe out, feeling calm as I look around to see no harm. When I feel like someone is holding onto my hand, I look down to see a hand below mine. My eyes wander up to see Alex sleeping on the chair. His head tilt to the side as he sleeps. He looks calm—not like how he looked hours ago.

I move my hand away from his slowly, trying to not wake him up as I put both of my hands on my stomach. Sighing as I close my eyes once more. Just seconds before I can feel myself being consumed by the dark, I feel him lightly brush his thumb on my cheek and peck on my forehead.

My eyes open to see his face inches away from mine.

He doesn't seem surprise that I caught him being affectionate around me as he continues to kiss me on the bridge of my nose and down to my chin—slightly touching my lower lip. I watch as he back away a little and tuck my hair to the back—removing it away from hitting my face. Even in the dark, I can still see his eyes looking directly into mine.

In my surprise, he leans in and lightly press his lips on mine. It's a passionless innocent kiss which lasts more than a few seconds but require less movement. It's more like kissing a baby.

Just like that, he entwine our fingers before soothingly running his thumb on my cheek until I fully fall asleep.

''Athena!'' The loud noise causes me to open my eyes and see my mother pushing the door roughly as she looks straight at me. I look down to see Alex still sleeping soundly with one of his hand still beside my cheek while the other remain entwined with mine.

''You're in big trouble, young lady.'' She says under her breath before marching toward me. Oh boy.