I flutter my eyes open slowly, my eyelids feel so heavy. Thoughts of what happened earlier start crashing through my head. What happened?

I remember Rocco tried to kill me, I remember Stone beating Rocco up. But where am I?

I look around, vision all blurry, and start taking in my surroundings. I'm in Stone's bedroom. He must have took me to his house after I fainted.

I gather all my energy to get up and realize that there is something stopping me. I look over to my left and I see him. He's sleeping. He's sitting on a chair, he has his head resting on the bed, facing me, and he's holding my hand. There's a sun ray hitting his face, making him look absolutely beautiful.

Even though he had a bad day, he's sleepy and tired, yet Stone can't leave my side. Instead of fixing the bad day of work he had today, he's right here, waiting for me to wake up.

I stare at him for a few seconds, studying his face, his beautiful face.

The second I start pulling my fingers away from his, he wakes up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." I softly say.

He straightens his shoulders and starts rubbing his eyes. "No, no, are you okay? How are you feeling?" he says, which makes me smile, due to the fact that if I'm okay or not is the first thing he needs to know when he wakes up.

"I'm fine, Stone-"

"That fucker, what the fuck was he thinking? He was touching you, Alice. No one fucking touches you! No one." he says before getting up.

He places his hand on my cheek, "Can I get you anything?" he asks.

"No, but can you please calm down? I'm fine."

He nods slowly before grabbing a cloth from the bedside table, dipping it in a bowl of water and places it on my neck. "Marks. He marked you, with his fingers." Stone tells me, I can see the annoyance and fury on his face and through his voice.

"Where is he?" I ask. "Rocco, where is he?"

"Rotting in hell by now, I hope."

"W-What do you mean?" I hope he doesn't mean what I think he does.

"I killed that fucker."

"W-What? Y-You killed him?" I cannot believe this.

"Of course I killed him. He tried to kill you, Alice. I beat that motherfucker to death." and he says with complete neutrality.

"Stone, are you out of your mind? Didn't you think how that would make me feel?" I shout as I throw the cloth he put on me away and get up on my feet.

I almost fall over, I feel so out of balance. Stone runs over to me and grabs me, one hand grabbing my elbow and the other on my lower back.

I yank myself away from him, I cannot believe what he did. "Don't touch me."

"Alice, I know you're not in the best state, but that doesn't mean you get to talk to me like that. You got it?" he glares at me. "I killed Rocco because he fucking tried to kill YOU. You can be a little thankful."

"Thankful? You want me to be thankful? I feel like I'm the one to blame!"

"Of course you're not! He was chocking you! Now shut the fuck up and sit down so I can be here for you!" he shouts.

"I don't want you here for me!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE! SIT DOWN!" he screams making me flinch. I turn around to face the mirror behind me, damn, my neck looks horrible.

I sigh and sit down on the bed, he sits down beside me, our legs touching, our faces inches apart, and starts patting my neck with the ice-cold cloth. How can he tolerate this? How can he keep wanting someone who wants nothing to do with him and tells him that to his face?

"Thank you." I mumble.

"What was that?"

"Thank you, Stone." I mumble again.

"I can't hear you."

"I said THANK YOU." I tell him before crossing my arms, he's just laughing.

"I know, I heard you the first time." he chuckles.

I can't think straight, the blurry image of Stone above Rocco's dead body is stuck in my head. What if he had a family? They lost him.

My warm tears roll down to my neck, mixing themselves with the cold water. I place both my hands over my eyes and just... cry.

"Alice-" before he could finish I quickly throw my head onto his lap and let it all out. His hand finds it way to my hair and starts caressing it, the other rubs my shoulder up and down.

"I was about to die!" I cry.

"I won't let anything bad ever happen to you." he says.

—

"Oh, hi there." Steph says all smiley as she opens the door for Stone and I. Stone insists he spends the night with me, saying I 'shouldn't be left alone.'

"Hey, Steph." I say before we both walk inside.

"Are you okay? What happened?" she asks as she looks over from me to Stone.

"We both had a bad day. I'm staying here today." he tells her.

"Oh, well thats something." Steph grins as she looks at me.

"I need a shower." I softly say and go up to my room. Its two hours before midnight and I need to get ready before bed. I hear Stone saying 'she's not going to school tomorrow' and thank god, because I really don't have an explanation for the bruises on my neck.

I finish my shower and wrap myself with a towel before brushing my wet hair. As I head out of my bathroom I jump as I see Stone sitting on my bed, looking right at me.

"Oh, god." I say as I start looking around for my clothes.

"Looking for these?" he says as he hold my pink lace bra and panties set.

I rush over to him to grab them but he only pulls them away farther. What does he have in mind now?

He stands up and I'm just looking up at him. He starts looking into my eyes so deeply, I'm sure he notices how red and puffy they are. I was crying in the shower the whole time.

He softly grabs my chin and raises my head a bit. "My angel, I'm sorry." he says. "But I can't control myself when someone's touching you. Let alone hurting you at the same time." he tells me and my eyes start to water as I remember how I was struggling for air so bad.

Stone brings his face closer to mine and gently places his lips over mine.

He pulls away and places my under garments on the bed before grabbing my towel, the only thing covering my skin, and starts to take it off. I quickly place my hands above his to stop him, but he gives me a stare that clearly says 'don't even try.'

He takes the towel off and throws it on the ground. I'm fully naked in front of him. But he's not looking at me. He grabs my panties and kneels to the floor. I place both my legs inside each whole before he grabs my bra and puts it on for me as well. Then he helps me wear my PJs and places me on the bed, tucking me in.

"Do you need anything?" he asks.

"No, thank you." I say and give him a sad smile.

He starts taking off his clothes, leaving himself with only the sweatpants he came in, and gets into bed, turning off all the lights. The only way I can see him is because of the moonlight spread inside my room.

We're lying face to face, our legs touching, but nothing else.

"Can I ask you a question?" I quietly say.

"Anything."

"Do you know everything about me?" I ask.

"No." he says, "I do not know everything about you. This requires knowing your soul, your past, your future... I only know the basics, which are very minor by importance in a relationship." he says. His words make complete sense and they are very wise, I must say.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Anything." he says again.

"Will you ever let me go?" I ask. He goes quiet for a few seconds.

"Alice, you're mine forever. The only thing that will make me let you go is if you die. And I'd only be letting you go physically, not mentally."

"Okay, okay, that was just a question, don't get mad." I say and he sighs. "Lets make a deal." I say and he narrows his eyes at me. "I want to know the basics too. And then we both know each other's souls." I say.

Today made me think about my life a lot. If I'm stuck with Stone for the rest of my life, I shouldn't be seeing Collin. Even is this is a forced relationship, and even if I don't want to be with Stone, I shouldn't lead Collin on, no matter how much I like him. I can't drag him into this mess. If Stone finds out about us he will literally end Collin's life. And thats not another life I want to be held responsible for ending.

I like Collin a lot, but this shouldn't happen. I can see Stone really cares for me, for unknown reasons, so why should I waste this? Why should I waste his feelings? He's trying as hard as he can to make this work, and maybe I should too. Today my view of Stone changed a lot. A lot.

I'm breaking up with Collin tomorrow.

As I finish my words, Stone's face lights up, a wide grin forms on his face. "Alright, the basics, what do you need to know?" he asks.
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