𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑⁰¹ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ✓

⁷³skies of blue wait always for you

clementine

Silence. Nothing but. It's a symphony played by the largest orchestra surrounding me. Despite the running water flowing from the sink and onto my hands, it remains inferior to the vastness of the bathroom's silence.

If I try hard enough, I can pick out the sounds of street noise, but even then, they're easy to be dampened by the symphony.

I splash the water onto my face and feel its freezing temperature wake me. It's nothing short of refreshing, right until the second I remember the reason as to why I even have to do this.

I grab the towel from my side and pat my face dry, returning to the bedroom as I untie my hair from its bun.

I check on my waiting phone, clicking it open to see if Everett might've sent me something already.

But I'm faced by my lockscreen and the time.

A large sigh escapes from me, closing my phone and looking forward.

Across me is a small balcony, its glass doors open and revealing a small peak of the Eiffel tower, as though miniature under ash-grey skies.

Luke's standing by and leaning on the railing, phone by his ear as he talks things out with the band's manager.

For the nth time today, I want to apologise that I'd asked him to take me here, back to Paris, in this rented apartment. I didn't want to stay with my family and leave him to get his own room, and neither to invite him to stay in a household that might currently hold a lot of tension. He's already in the middle of things with me and I don't want to make it worse.

He's doing all this and it's bringing a furrow to my forehead at the thought of possibly being too much for him.

When he ends the call I approach and lean on the railing across him, his creased face looking down at his phone.

I ask, "Everything alright?"

He sighs and slips his phone into his pocket, pressing on a thin-lipped smile. "Yeah. Since we'll be gone for a little more than a week, I'll be missing some writing sessions in the studio,"

I tilt my head at him, now really feeling the weight of our decision. "Luke, you can go, if you want. I don't want you to miss —"

"Yeah, but I want to be here, Clem," He sharply says, cutting me off.

I take a step forward and wrap my arms around his torso, leaning my head on his chest as I try my best to feel his heartbeat. It was loud a few hours ago, loudest when he decided he would accompany me home.

"You don't have to be here," It comes out of me as a whisper, barely louder than howling wind, and yet he hears me.

He places his hands around my cheek and tilts my face so I'm looking up. I muster a smile as he leans and kisses me. "I'll always be here,"

My hand grips his sweatshirt as I tiptoe for another kiss, only realising how much I miss feeling so close to him — just skin to skin, I've missed him despite how near he always is to me.

My phone gives a light bell tone sound, signalling that a new notification has arrived, and my and Luke's attention are immediately pulled to it.

"Is that Everett?" He asks as we let go of each other.

"Maybe," I go back inside and take my phone, indeed seeing Everett's text at the forefront of my lit screen.

As promised, he had sent the Hospital's address along with "moms there too".