All Over Again

| Chapter Seventeen |

Adonis wasn't who everyone believed him to be.

They envisioned him with skin of milk, hair flowing with streams of honey, and eyes full of the ocean's deepest, darkest depths. His curls of beauty dipped into every person's desires, his elated smile seeking no equivalent as it boasted broadly to all those in sight of it. Sculpted and openly adored, they refused to picture him any other way.

But to Ruth, they got the narrative wrong.

To Ruth, Adonis wasn't pictured this way at all.

No, Adonis was everything opposite of that. He was laying right there in front of her, comfortably sprawled out on a picnic bench, listening to her spew about the story she was entering in her school contest. He didn't have skin paler than the moon, hair made out of the richest of golds, or blue diamonds clinging to his irises in search of a wealthy home. Instead, he was affluent with bronze. Smooth, tawny skin, hickory eyes, and long umber hair that fell flat like a waterfall with a hint of a wave.

But never had a man looked more perfect to Ruth, looked more like an Adonis, than the one in front of her, known as Raffo Leflore.

His shaking hands were laced together over his chest, patiently listening to her storytelling and asking an occasional question. Who was William? What was Ruth changing the male character's name to? Did the love interest want to marry him when he proposed years later? How could they marry each other when they hardly know much of one another as adults? Seeing as how they're no longer children, do they have anything in common?

She answered his questions as best as she could. William was the love interest. She changed his name to Lewis for now. Yes, she wanted to marry him because we only do consent here. They talked for awhile to re-get-to-know each other. They find things in common before they marry.

Raffo was decently satisfied by the end of the conversation.

"Talking has definitely helped with the distracting," he eventually admitted, relieved. "The craving s'not so bad right now."

With her back pressed against her side of the park bench, she turned her head to look at him, but his eyes were closed in concentration. Frowning, she took out her cell phone and google searched withdrawal symptoms and techniques to help curve them. She was eager for anything that could help him handle the cravings, anything to make the process easier for him. Giving up nicotine wasn't easy, and he was really young to be dealing with it by himself. Addiction in any form was hard to handle, and she wanted to make it as easy as she could for him.

Ruth was silent for a moment too long, however, because Raffo caught on to Ruth's silence, his voice cutting through the air. There was a mixture of curiosity and suspicion layered in one, simple question. "What are you doing?"

She looked over to the side and caught his curious gaze that time. She swallowed thickly.

"Well . . . I know you don't want me to pity you," she warned slowly at first. "So, I thought I'd help you instead."

His lips thinned. "Help me?"

"Don't think of it as me helping you, if that's not what you want. Think of it as me doing this with you."

"I told you this wasn't your fault, Ruth-"

"I know it's not my fault," she quickly cut him off. "But I don't want you to have to do it alone. Besides, there's not a whole lot I can do on my side anyway. All I can do is help you make a routine on what to do if the cravings get to be too bad."

Raffo was silent for a moment. "What kind of routine?"

Ruth tried not to show her relief at not getting immediately shot down. She glanced over the steps in her phone on WebMD. "Well, it said if the craving gets to be too bad, you can chew some gum so I guess that's step 1. Step 2 is starting a new routine for the times when you usually smoke like going for a walk, playing basketball, exercise, play your guitar, that kind of thing. Or you can call or text a friend if you don't want to do anything active."