Sidney held her close, feeling the anger well up inside him. He couldn’t keep from feeling responsible. Her whole world was destroyed because of him. Her tears were too much for him. He’d never felt so much rage, not on the ice, not ever. Somehow, he was going to fix this. Somehow, he was going to find this guy and make him pay. He lifted her chin and wiped a tear off her cheek.
“I will fix this. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she sniffed.
“But it is. I brought this into your life. You don’t know how sorry I am.”
“Sidney,” she smiled weakly. “You have brought me the greatest joy I’ve ever known.”
He looked away from her, but she drew his face back and gently kissed his lips. He pulled away from her and stood up, clenching his hands into a fist.
“I don’t know how you can still feel that way. Look at this place. Everything you own, everything you love, everything you are is trashed all over!”
“Not everything I love. You are what I love. You are the most important thing to me,” she gazed up at him and reached for his hand. He let her pull him back down next to her.
She wrapped her arms around him and lay her head against his chest. “I wouldn’t be able to get through this without you.”
He held her close again doing his best to make her feel safe. He looked over the chaos that her room had become and closed his eyes against the sight.
“We don’t have to do this now. Let’s go to my place. We can do this tomorrow.”
“No, I … I want to see clean it up. I … I want to see if anything is missing. I don’t want to leave it this way,” she said looking around at all her destroyed possessions.
“Okay then, I’ll get some boxes. Will you be fine?”
She smiled weakly at him and nodded. She took a deep breath, moved toward the bookcase and knelt on the floor. They’re just books, she told herself. She picked up her copy of Treasure Island and thumb through the torn pages. She pulled the book close to her. It still had that old book smell. It was a comforting scent, reminding her of the time she spent with this book, quiet happy times, safe and secure times. She pulled the book into her chest and took another deep breath.
“Payton?” Max appeared in the doorway. “Oh man.”
She looked back at him and smiled at the look of concern on his face.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she offered a weak laugh. “You’ll just make me cry again.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that. Really, it’s not a good look for you.”
Payton giggled. Max joined her on the floor, picking up the scattered books.
“Thank you, Max. I’m glad you were here. I don’t know I would have done if we’d come home to this unprepared.”
Max shrugged at her. Sid reappeared in the doorway and they set about cleaning up the wreckage. She kept her emotions under control, even with the sideways glances from Sid and Max every once in a while. She knew they were worried about her, but she had to concentrate on one thing at time. By the time, she made it to Sidney’s home that night, she felt like she’d spent the whole day on the worst rollercoaster of her life. It was so nice to slip in between his soft sheets and curl up in his arms and put the whole day behind her.
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