Lethal Obsession

35.

"The scars you can't see are the hardest to heal." ― Astrid Alauda

"A monster
Someone who left me in the dark
Someone who darkened me
A million times over" ― Dorothea Lasky

"I scream for everything that has gone wrong. I scream for everything broken in our lives." ― Marie Lu

"I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me, and I walk alone"

- Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day

Chapter 35

I hated the sound of a default ringtone with a passion. Even that was an understatement. I despised that irritating, deafening, squeaky tone that almost every time caused me a painful headache that lasted for hours, especially if I had previously been in deep slumber, floating through a world of charm and beauty, which was most definitely the case this time. Incredibly rare were the moments when that was not a natural sequence of circumstances. The exception that proves the rule.

"Mateo, answer the phone," I ordered him half-consciously, trying to catch my dream before it was completely gone. He just muttered something incoherent and pulled my body to his.

At that very moment, my struggle with sleep ended which resulted in its victory. Annoyed, I almost pushed Mateo away from me, but I somehow restrained myself. I was afraid of the consequences the move would cause.

I knew that it was his device that kept ringing for two very simple reasons. First, I had at least that much taste to set a song that I liked as a ringtone, and second, my, with an emphasis on the word new, phone was under repair. For some reason, whenever I tried to contact a friend, I couldn't get through which got on my nerves because I had temporarily deactivated all my social media profiles in order to focus on my "mental health". It was Mateo's idea and so far it has not given promising results.

Unable to withstand the constant stabbing of my eardrums, I hit him lightly on the ribs with my elbow to get up and finally answer the call. Of course, it didn't bother him much, considering that he didn't even try to open his eyes for a second.

Finally, after a few minutes of persistent ringing, my relentless attack on his ribs did the impossible, and grumbling how I could "answer the phone on my own" he took the device in his hands and rudely answered.

It was a matter of seconds before his face changed completely. The mildly irritated, sullen expression was replaced by confusion, shock, and concern, in that order. He abruptly got out of bed and looked at me with wide-open eyes, knocking the air from every pore of my body. I looked at him in despair. He was not someone who showed emotions, nor someone who was affected by many things. Knowing that, his reaction was enough to startle me and make me think of the worst.

I put my body in a sitting position and looked at him questioningly to which he just shook his head and continued to listen to the person on the other end of the phone.

"I'll be right there," he said firmly and hung up.

At that moment, he went to the closet and started rummaging through things to find something to wear. I didn't even wait, but immediately ran to him, handed him one of the seventy black shirts he owned, and jeans, and tried once more, in a hurried voice, to get him to tell me what was wrong.

"What is going on?"

"Don't worry, I have to go out for a while," He tried to calm me down and left a gentle kiss on my forehead heading for the exit. However, he should have known me better by now.