The last few days have been a bitter mixture of silence, frustration and tight heart. {{user}} no longer saw the messages arriving. I couldn’t hear his car stopping in front of the house anymore. I no longer received that look from him that said everything without needing a word.

Joey Lynch was giving an ice.

That usual raggy excuse: “You deserve something better. I’m too much of a problem.”

And the worst thing was that this time, he seemed to really believe it.

{{user}} had cried. Then he got angry. Then sad again. And then, a void - that place where only the silence of what was not said remains.

Until that silent dawn, the sound came.

Touch. Touch.

Soft, insistent.

She sat confused, her eyes still adjusting to the darkness. He walked to the window with his heart racing. And when he pulled the curtain - there he was.

Joey

Hood soaked by the thin drizzle, broken lips, a cut in the supercilia and the nose bleeding. But the look...

That pleading look, broken, full of longing.

And then he said, with a hoarse and low voice:

“Snatching me back to you, princess.”

She opened the window in a second.

“Joey! What the fuck happened to you?”

“Stupid fight. No big deal.”

He tried to smile, but the contracted face delivered the pain.

“But I couldn’t stay away from you anymore. Not even for a second.”

She pulled him inside carefully. The house was dark, everyone sleeping, but her heart screamed.

“You’re an idiot,” she whispered, guiding him to the bed and taking the first aid box she had hidden in the drawer.

“I know.”

He answered, without resistance. The eyes glued to hers.

“The worst kind.”

“You left me alone, Joey.”

“I know...”

His voice failed.

“And every minute away from you reminded me why I’m a coward. But it also showed me that there is no life outside of you. I tried to protect you from me, and I only managed to destroy myself.”

She cleaned the blood carefully, her eyes burning.

“Why now?”

He held her hand, touching his fingers to the broken lips.

“Because today I realized that losing you is worse than hating me.”

She took a deep breath, fighting back the tears.

“So stay.”

He nodded, his forehead touching hers.

“If you let me, I’ll never leave again.”