prompt / accepting / @helhime
➜ ❝ i ... i love you . call me , okay ? ❞
LIKE A HURT ANIMAL , SHE NEEDED TO LICK HER WOUNDS. vaggie never wanted to see the shock , the betrayal ( or was it horror ... perhaps all three ? ) in charlie's eyes. the moment adam revealed the truth , her heart had sunk past the rings of hell. but she couldn't , she wouldn't undermine all that charlie had worked for to bury her own skeletons. her own disgusting faults , how many hellizens had died by her hands ? hadn't she known better even then ?
vaggie had meant to admit it before a thousand different times. the excuse that it was never the right opportunity replayed again & again. then it was simply too late , too late to potentially lose her. worst of all , she might forgive her , she might look at her with such love & genuine belief that it would tear the angel apart entirely. believe in her & the ugly gnawing thing in her chest. SELFISH EXCUSES , EXCUSES , EXCUSES.
& she'd done just that , charlie hadn't shied from her touch , no , she'd stayed. she saw her , all of her & loved her still.
the lights of her room are turned off , splayed across her bed with an arm thrown over her singular eye. god damn it , she didn't have time for this --- but packing those emotions back into the little box she'd had them stored in seemed impossible now. the overwhelming tides that threatened to drag her under into the murky depths a feat to control.
she's drawn from the haze by a familiar ringtone , fumbling to grab the device in the darkness. vaggie pushes herself up , swiping on the screen only to be a moment too late to answer. the lump in her throat's too difficult to swallow , but then she gets the notification of a voicemail. her finger hovers over the play button , seconds that drag on like an eternity , until finally ...
❝ i ... i love you . call me , okay ? ❞
she blinks past the burning in her eye , curling in round the phone & hugging it close to her chest. the snippet of audio's replayed again & again until finally , she calls back. the greetings enough to soften the hard line of her shoulders , " hey .. babe , yeah , sorry i missed your call. i , uh , didn't get to the phone in time. what's up , did you talk to your dad ? "