REINER - WALKING AWAY

He was already walking by my side, but I decided to ignore him and continued walking forward.

Suddenly, he grabbed my arms and pulled me against him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Reiner asked as he stared down at my face.

The grip he had on my arm tightened as his worried expression turned into a scold. He’s getting mad…

like I care.

“Away from here…just like what you’ve always wanted…” I hissed as I tried to shake my arm free of his

grip.

I screamed and Reiner had no choice but to let go of my arm. I continued walking and he followed

close to my side.

“Come back, Natalia. Let’s go back to the car. It’s not safe here…” Reiner continued talking to me.

“Stay away from me…” I muttered.

“Natalia!” Reiner called my name loudly.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his arms. Automatically, I began struggling but his arms

around my body tightened, pulling me even closer against his body. He hugged me tightly as his large

hand pressed my head against his hard chest. I could feel the heat from his body as his heart beat

loudly against my ear. I pushed against his chest and in response, his arms around my body tightened

even further.

“Let go…” I said in frustration, my voice coming out sounding like a broken sob.

“Stop struggling. It’s dark and this place is not safe,” Reiner replied calmly as his hand started stroking

my hair comfortingly.

“I told you to let go!” I cried out loudly against his chest.

“No…” Reiner said firmly followed by a sigh.

Feeling so helpless and so stupid, I started crying and sobbing against his chest as my hands clutched

at the front of his shirt.

“I’m not quitting my job at the bar and I’m not leaving this island!” I cried out determinedly as my fist

beat on his hard chest.

“Ok…Ok…” Reiner murmured as his hand continued to stroke the back of my head comfortingly.

“Stop trying to chase me away!” I wailed.

“Ok…calm down, Natalia. Calm down, let’s head back to the car…” Reiner said softly and calmly.

Without waiting for my response, Reiner carried me into his arms and quickly walked back to the car.

He helped me into the passenger seat before getting into the driver’s seat. I looked out the window so

that I didn’t have to look at him. I turned my face and my body away to the other side.

Thankfully, Reiner didn’t say anything more and soon we arrived back at the mansion. I got out of the

car as soon as it came to a stop. Without turning back, I ran to the door of the mansion with tears in my

eyes. I’ve had more than enough for the day and I’m going to go cry myself to sleep in my room like

some loser. Tomorrow, I’ll figure out what to do with my life.

I felt so relieved when my hand reached the door and began pushing it open. The door opened with a

slightly loud bang, and I rushed inside. A few steps along the hallway, I ran into a very worried-looking

Queen. It was late, did she wait up for us to come back?

“Natalia…oh dear…” she said in a shocked whisper. She must have seen my crying face.

I didn’t want to her to see me crying so I tried to avoid looking at her as I continued running towards the

stairs so that I could escape to my room. It was probably too late; she had probably seen. I closed my

eyes and sighed to myself in disappointment as my legs continued to carry me towards my bedroom.

The silence of my bedroom greeted me with opened arms, and I jumped into my bed and hugged

myself into a small ball. My chest hurt and I’ve never felt a pain this deep before. It felt like it was

coming from deep inside of me. I struggled just to breathe and started coughing through my sobs and

tears. I pulled my pillow over my face and screamed into it.

After crying for a short while in my depression, my mind started to clear. However, that only made me

realize that I was an emotional mess. I didn’t know what I really wanted anymore. On one hand, I really

wanted to be with Reiner. Even if he doesn’t want me, being close to him and seeing him made me feel

better. However, the pain of being close to him was too real. On the other hand, I wanted to distance

myself away from him just like he wanted. If he didn’t want me around, why am I shamelessly sticking

to him?

I removed the pillow from my face and stared through my tears at the ceiling of my bedroom. I should

have done this earlier even if it meant emptying my thinly lined pocket.

It was late and I wasn’t sure if Kat was still up, but I decided to send her a text anyways before I lost all

my courage, or something would cause me to change my mind.

‘Are you free tomorrow? Want to check out some apartments with me? I want to move out ASAP…’

To my surprise, after less than a minute my phone beeped. Reaching for it, I found out that Kat had

sent me a short and sweet reply. This belongs to : ©.

‘Of course! See you!’

…

I woke up super early the next day. To be honest, I didn’t catch a wink of sleep. I just lay on my bed

with my eyes close just to physically rest my eyes. My mind didn’t go to sleep while I waited through the

remaining of last night for morning to arrive. I set the alarm for super early and when it rang, my arm

reached out for my phone and switched the alarm right off. Immediately, I sat up in bed and got ready

to leave the room.

“Good morning, Natalia…” Queen greeted me when I tiptoed past the living room.

Perhaps because of what she witnessed last night; Queen had decided to get up super early too to

catch me. Then again, maybe I was just over thinking things.

--To be continued…