40 Thawed

"Umph!" The world tilted literally this time as Caleb went down, but somehow twisted his body around so I landed on him instead of the floor.

"Ruth!"

"Woah, Careful there—"

Startled shouts rang from across the room, and soon I felt hands onto my arm and back, helping me up as Shy steadied me, while Leo went to check on Caleb.

"Caleb, you okay man?" He gently patted his cheek, but Caleb was too disoriented, frowning and mumbling something sleepily before closing his eyes, and twisting around as if blindly looking for something.

"You okay, Ruthie? Need to sit down?" Shy asked me, and I finally snapped out of my trance and tore my gaze away from Caleb's sprawled form.

"No, its okay. I'm okay," I muttered, unable to look at her in the eyes. The last few minutes came rushing back and I felt my cheeks burn in embarassment at how I had lost control with Caleb again, this time right in front of my best friend and his brother.

"Is he okay?" Shy asked, to which Leo replied with a short, "just dazed by the fall, I think" as he grunted and struggled to get Caleb off the floor.

Caleb protested weakly, but co-operated nonetheless as Leo sat him up, and took the towel off his own shoulders to wrap it around Caleb's.

"I'll get you another one," Shy left my side and went into the room before Leo could protest, leaving me alone to clearly see Caleb for the first time that evening.

The first thing I noticed was that Caleb was trembling. His clothes and hairs were dripping wet, and his slurring felt more out of cold than from alcohol.

Despite the warm air blasting from the thermostat, the front of my dress felt freezing cold after absorbing the water off his clothes. As Leo kept called out Caleb's name to keep him awake, I realised he wasn't just cold or drunk, he was burnt out. Or maybe it was the combination of all three.

"What happened, Leo?" Even though my question was vague, Leo seemed to understand exactly what I was asking. He pulled Caleb upto his feet, holding onto his shoulders to check his balance and sighed.

"Just as I had thought, after I gave you the day off this afternoon, Caleb did come back looking for you after hours. But when he found out that you've left, he sort of ... Lost it. I think."

"We got into a fight outside the office building, thank goodness for after hours, when he found out that I was the one who sent you away. Once he calmed some, he kept mumbling about how you left again, how he wanted peace, even if for a moment or something..." he shook his head like he was completely at loss of what it all meant.

"I tried to tell him that you will be back on Monday, but I don't think he even heard me." Leo frowned, as if trying to solve a complicated puzzle.

"Honestly? It was slightly scary to watch him like that. Punches, I can deal with, but this was just.... It felt like he was lost in his own mind or something. Nothing I said or did seemed to be reaching him, and then without another word, he left."

Leo sighed in exhaustion, and looked back at Caleb who was leaning against the chair now, blinking slowly and looking around as if he didn't recognise his surrounding.

Leo shook his head in disbelief, and continued, "you have no idea how worried I was when I couldn't find him. But still, I had a glimmer of hope that he might have come to you, or contacted you in some way, so I decided to come here."

"Is that when you got that black eye?" I asked watching Caleb shiver. I had no idea how long he had been sitting around in those wet clothes, but apparently the cold was really starting to get to him now.

"Nope," Leo grunted as he helped Caleb onto his feet yet again, this time draping one of his arms around his shoulder for support.

"The black eye is courtesy of that little imp you call friend. Seriously, should she even be allowed to live by herself?"

I frowned. "Shy did that?"

Leo opened his mouth to reply but at that moment, Shy stepped out with another towel and handed it to him. With a glare, he took it, but the action caused him to loosen his grip on Caleb making him to sway where he stood, nearly taking Leo down with him this time.

"Woah, hey, careful there," Shy went on to Caleb's other side to steady him as Leo struggled to hold him upright.

"You're here," Caleb mumbled, reaching for Shy, who startled at his sudden closeness, bringing her hands up to push him away. But the moment Caleb's arm landed on her shoulders, he stiffened and turned his eyes into tiny slits, looking at her intently.

"You... You're not Ruth. You're not.. don't touch... You're not...." His voice held both accusation and confusion as he trailed off, looked around.

Shy relaxed before looking back at me and asked, "wanna switch places?"

Before I could reply, Leo straightened, carrying most of Caleb's weight onto himself as said, "No need. We should get going. He needs a warm bed, maybe even a doctor, and frankly, so do I." Leo said with a glare at Shy.

"What?" Shy asked, noticing Leo glare, but Caleb's teetering distracted everyone and Leo adjusted himself again, holding onto Caleb's waist more securely.

"You're leaving?" I asked watching Caleb sway on his feet as Leo moved towards the door. His head lolled onto Leo's shoulder and he opened his eyes into tiny slits again, mumbling, "Ruth...? Ruth ... don't leave..."

My heart thawed a little as he kept repeating the words in his drunken stupor. But it only seemed to push Leo to leave that much faster.

"Yes, we are," he replied to my question, dragging Caleb carefully towards the door.

"That'd be for the best, don't you think?" He said over his shoulder without pausing.

"But its pouring buckets outside, and neither of you seem equipped for it. You don't even have an umbrella, for God's sake."

"Its not like we're gonna walk all the way home, Ruth." Leo replied, as he reached the door and my desperation grew. I had no idea what I was doing. Or why. I wanted Caleb to leave, didn't I?

Not only had he cost me my job, but also the promotion I had been waiting to get for 2 years. On top of that, he had barged here drunk and out of control, scaring Shy and me, injuring Leo and now stood on the brink of passing out. Of course I wanted him gone.

But as Leo opened the door to leave, I couldn't find a shred of anger within me and fumbled to come up with some way to stop them.

"But... Leo, your car is parked all the way down the block. How will you—?"

"He has already done enough damage for today, Ruth. To you, and to himself." Leo cut me off with a hard edge in his voice. This time he did turn around, looking at me with steely eyes.

"And we both know there's bound to be more if he stays. As much as I care about him, I cannot consciously let him do that to you, or to himself."

Even though I had already known all of this, hearing it from Leo made them inescapable. He was right, of course. Having Caleb leave was for the best. But still, as Leo struggled to turn back to the door, I found myself trying to come up with excuses, any reason to stop them.

But as it turned out, I didn't need to. Caleb chose that moment to wake up from his trance, and looked around wildly as Leo tried to maneuver him out of the door.

"Ruth? Where are ya? Where are we going?" He slurred, blinking his eyes rapidly to make sense of his surroundings.

"Its me, you drunk slob," Leo grunted as he dragged Caleb out to the landing.

"And we are going home."

"Leo? What the heck are you doing? Gerrof me," Caleb's words were not more than a set of broken slurs, but the strength with which he pushed Leo off and away from him was surprisingly strong.

"Hey!" Leo stumbled back, looking just as shocked as I felt, but recovered quickly as I rushed towards the door, unsure of what to do next with Sairey at my side.

"I'm not leaving until I talk to her!"

"For the love of God, Caleb! We need to leave before someone actually calls the cops and your drunken ass gets thrown in the jail. Or worse, if you lose control of yourself and do something you'll regret later. We need to get you home, Caleb."

"But.... She's my home."

The words were another set of slurs, spoken like he was confused as to why Leo couldn't see something so obvious.

But the impact it had on me felt like a physical blow. I stopped dead in the doorway, processing just what he said and what it truly meant. Leo and Caleb continued to argue, but the words stopped making sense as four words kept ringing in my head.

She is my home.

As clichéd as it sounded, as worn out and used as they were, I couldn't stop them from squeezing my heart. The time slowed and every second I had spent with this baffling man flooded my mind. From the moment I ran into him that first day until turning around and finding him in my house today.

She is my home.

I watched him stumble again, and this time snapped into action, grabbing hold of his waist to balance him. I could tell the exact second my face registered in his mind.

His face morphed from confused and angry to soft and adoring, so unlike the Caleb we all knew that it took my breathe away.

"There you are. Where were you all this time?"

"I think I was just waiting for you to find me."