“I messed up.”
"Yeah." He chuckled to show that he was not resentful.
"You know," she said, looking at him again, the tension already dissipating. "This is all very funny.”
“What?’
“It's kind of... I thought I almost would not see you. That most of this contest was facade and that when I saw you it would be in the presence of a battalion of security guards.”
"Well, after you broke my nose, Arthur proposed it.”
They laughed.
"And you did not?"
"That was an accident." He shrugged. "I can’t blame you for having a nightmare.”
“Ah, that's good. It was going to be a bag to be watched all the time.”
"That's what I thought, so I did not let Arthur run the whole security service like you are a terrorist. Do not be upset with him... He's kind of paranoid.”
“I understand. He just takes care of you.” Lissa stared at her hands." Sometimes it's good to have someone to take care of us ... It's too bad to have no one to count on when you need it most.”
Gabriel felt a shadow of pain pass over the girl's face and again her chest tightened.
"Have you had someone to take care of you, Mel?"
The girl felt a shiver run through her body as she realized it. At the moment, she only had Angela ... The friend was the only one she could tell, and if Angela left, she would be alone... All alone.
Gabriel's question had momentarily been forgotten as the aircraft began to shake violently. The belt warning was triggered and the pilot asked everyone to tighten it and sit down as they were passing through an area of instability.
"Turbulence," Gabriel explained to the girl, who did not seem to understand what was happening.
"But is everything okay? We're not going to fall, are we?"
“Hope not.”
Gabriel couldn’t stand it without laughing as she widened her eyes.
“What is so funny?” She asked irritably, feeling her body shake against the seat.
“Your expression of dread. It does not look like the same girl who said it would be really cool if the plane exploded in the air...”
“I was kidding ... I do not want to die here...”
“Stay calm. It's just a gust of wind.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolute.”
Lissa nodded and tried to calm down, but the aircraft swayed too much and sometimes it lost altitude suddenly causing a chill that went up by the feet and went to the head, of that part she liked. It felt very good, but remembering how high it was ruining everything. The nervousness was so great that the girl began to gnaw on the remains of nail she still had.
"Could you, please, stop it?" Gabriel asked, grimacing. Lissa frowned and stared at him in confusion.
“What?”
“Root the nails.”
Without understand, the girl removed her finger off her mouth and continued to stare at the singer.
"What's the problem with doing that?"
“Onychophagy is a very serious thing.”
“Oni… what?”
“Onychophagy the technical term for nail biting.”
“OK. Does that bother you?”
“Absolutely! You can’t imagine the amount of germs you carry from the nail to your mouth.”
"Hmm." The girl stared at the little nails. "I think it's all an exaggeration.”
“But it is not. Nail biting can erode tooth enamels and cause tooth decay.”
"That's nothing." She shrugged. "The cigarette is already done by itself.”
“You smoke?”
“Yes.”
And then there he was. The accusing look everyone was always telling her. It was the one she was accustomed. Melissa Bittencourt could handle that kind of look very well, she'd rather have him look at her than the way he looked at her when she asked if she was alone in life. The girl could not bear the idea of being pitied by others.
Gabriel Voss could not stop asking himself what is her problem. Why was she so different from all the others? Why was it so cold and melancholy? And the worst of it all ... Why did she feel an intense desire to protect her? His mother had once told him that he could see the aura of people, perhaps it was true, for ever since Melissa had first seen her, dying in that chair having a nightmare, she could see that she was a tormented person. The question was, why?
♬
Lissa always liked the cold. She had an almost unexplained love affair with the numbness of her limbs from the chill that plagued her skin, her breath visible near her lips. With almost pain, she wears clothes in her extremities. It was one of the few almost healthy ways to push her body to the limit. She was this passion for the low temperatures that made her open the window of the car she was in and put her head out.
With her eyes closed, she enjoyed the sensation of small stakes piercing her face as the wind hit her, the softness of the snowflakes landing on her skin... She had barely reached Alaska and already loved the place.
Gabriel watched the young woman sitting next to him. He felt like he was about to freeze, and for many times he through to ask her to close the window inside the vehicle and almost saw his request being voiced by his assistant that just as he beat his chin and huddled in the hitchhound, giving Lissa a sullen look, but Gabriel could not imagine drawing that smile on the girl's face.
The singer had thought her pretty as soon as he saw her, despite the way she dressed and behaved, but at that moment with her hair being messed up even more by the wind, her eyes closed and smiling faintly, she looked even more beautiful. Almost like an angel, but Gabriel knew, and somehow, he knew, that she was a wounded angel, trying to heal her wounds and apparently he had taken her to the right place for it. Inexplicably, he was glad for the incident that earned a broken nose and delayed shows, after all it had been this incident that had brought them to his house in Alaska and provided that expression of contentment and delivery that he saw on the female face.
"Melissa," Arthur called her, reaching the edge of his patience, but speaking in a friendly tone. "Could you, please, close the window? You'll get sick. “
The girl felt the cold night wind once more for a few seconds before answering Arthur's request and then closed the glass and straightened up on the bench.
"So… do you like the snow so much?" Gabriel asked smiling, watching her rub the little nose that had reached a shade of red.
"I like everything who is cold," The girl replied succinctly, without looking at him and regaining her posture of moodiness and indifference.
“It’s nice! We'll have a few days to enjoy Alaska while I recover.”
“Your fans will be going to be crazy when they hear about the postponement of the tour...”
"Sometimes you talk about the other fans as if you were not one of them," Arthur commented, and Lissa felt the hairs rise. She had to be very careful with that guy, or he'd find out.
"That's not it" The girl tried to fix. "It's because I'm a different fan ... I just can’t be a groupie.”
Gabriel burst out laughing that made his broken nose ache. Really, that girl did not have anything to do with it. Imagine her as a groupie was very funny.
“What is it? Do you really have no pictures of me, glued to your wall?” He asked with amusement.
“No way! Not even!”
The girl responded by reflex and reprimanded herself closely for another bludgeon. Now, Gabriel no longer smiled, but looked at her confused and he had reasons for it, after all. No fan would treat her idol with such disregard.
"Oh." She nudged him and smiled. "I'm kidding. Of course, I have your photos, CDS, DVDS and other things... What kind of fan would I be if I did not have them?”
Gabriel just smiled sympathetically to her and the girl wondered if he really was so understanding or if it was just a typical fake by famous artists.
"You know, Melissa," Arthur commented. "You looked like a groupie when kissed that poster of Gabriel in the photo you s
ent us, or was it all just to win the contest?"
The assistant and the girl exchanged a deadly look that went unnoticed by Gabriel. With no doubt, he would not leave her alone. He was suspicious... He knew something was wrong and she could not let him find out, not at all! She needed to find a way to gain the confidence of Gabriel Voss's nanny.
“Ok, Arthur, you win! She said searching deeply enough for inspiration to set up the theater. Since I was stuck in that to the top, then I had to do everything right. As Angela always said: you've made your bed, now you can lie on it. “I make myself tough to not look like a stupid buffoon, but the truth is that I'm in a trance for being close to Gabriel... I've been a fan of him since the beginning of his career.... When I won the contest as soon as I could believe it, I still can’t believe it! This all sounds like a dream...”
The musician listened attentively to every word spoken by the girl at his side. Surely, he should be flattered by everything she said, but strangely that was not how he felt. Suddenly, Gabriel had been disappointed to learn that she was like so many others who only liked him as Gabriel Voss, the artist, and not Gabriel Voss, the man. Perhaps the illusion of having someone beside him who liked him as a "person" was that Melissa was not a groupie and treated him like any other person.
Since a long Gabriel did not know what it was to relate to others being himself, with his flaws and qualities. Most people only approached him for interest or to appreciate his work, but never for who he was for real. Except for his family, everyone complimented him, made his tastes and never contradicted him, but only out of obligation, afraid of losing their jobs and sometimes depressed him. It was for this reason that for the first time since he'd met her he'd found himself treating her sharply.
“Great!” The musician commented dryly “Now you are realizing your dream ... It must be really exciting. I hope to meet all your expectations.”
Lissa was confused by the sudden change in behavior, but decided to forget it. She was tired, really exhausted, so she just ignored the Rockstar's sudden moodiness. She leaned his head against the window and stared out at the landscape, trying to not look him too much. The rest of the occupants of the car were still in silence, and the faint noise of the engine was all audible. It was not long before the girl's mind began to drift away, carrying her to another dimension, immersing her in the familiar sense of emptiness that had plagued her forever, while Gabriel Voss, in disguise, watched her.
The singer regretted his rudeness in the instant he shut his mouth, when for it took the beautiful smile from her face and brought it back into its invisible cocoon. Once again, her melancholy bothered him, the way her eyes went dead, and the sadness in her countenance was so great that it seemed she felt pain, and again the singer wondered why. He was preparing to apologize to her and try to ease at least some of her discomfort, but was interrupted when the driver stopped the car and warned them that they had arrived.
♬
When Melissa Bittencourt heard the driver's voice announcing her arrival and awakening her thoughts. She barely waited until the vehicle stood still to unbuckle her seatbelt and jump out. The four corners of the car were suffocating her, causing her a terrible sense of claustrophobia. Her treacherous mind had gone too far and had brought her to the most bitter memories she had ever preferred to remember. As soon as she got out of the car and walked to a certain distance her feet sank into a thick layer of snow, but she didn’t care. She leaned down with her hands on her knees, took a deep breath, and shuddered as a rush of icy air poured through her body.
“What's it? Are you feeling sick?” Gabriel asked her, stopping by her side and resting a hand on her back.
"No." The girl replied, taking a deep breath and straightening her body again. "I just needed some air."
"Sorry for being rude to you.”
She shook her head. "I'm not worried about that at all."
“Let’s go in. It's very cold out here and we are not properly wrapped up.”
Lissa nodded and Gabriel held out his hand to help her out of the clump of snow she'd slipped into, but she refused to accept it. She'd had too much contact with him for a single night. Unfortunately the task of taking the feet of that icy thing alone was harder than she imagined, and when she finally managed it, she got off balance and fell flat on the ground, her luck was the fluffy snow that had cushioned the fall, otherwise she would have broken her coccyx.
At first, the singer was startled by the possibility of that grumpy, proud girl hurting herself, but when he realized she is okay, he burst into laughter.
“What are you laughing at, huh?” She asked, wanting to look angry, but also found the situation very funny and began to laugh together.
"You should see the way you fell." He laughed loudly. "Lucky you, the ground is covered in snow.”
Lissa stared at the singer squirming with laughter and felt like punching him... Oh, so he thought it funny that she almost broke her hip? Then he was going to see just one thing. The girl smiled maleficently, picked up a handful of snow and hit him right in the face. The surprise was so big that Gabriel stopped laughing suddenly and was baffled, looking at her.
“And now? “She asked laughing “Was it funny?
The look on his face was so comical that the girl could not contain a laugh. How long had she not been smiling like that? But then she felt a handful of snow hit her face... She stopped laughing and stared at the musician, now his face amused.
"Do you really want to start a war?" She asked frowning. "I can be so cruel..."
“Oh really?” He bent down and picked up some more snow. "You do not know how ruthless I am ..."
They were about to start a new duel when Arthur interrupted them.
"Could the children stop playing and come in?" He shouted to them “Gabriel, your nose is broken and you can’t be carrying snow on the face!”
Just then Lissa remembered the small detail... Had she hurt him... Again?
"Don't be a wet blanket!" Gabriel shouted back, smiled fondly at the girl and again reached out to help her up. This time she accepted.
What she did not expect was that at the urging of her body he would hit her with a physical contact that she always ran away from... But it was not uncomfortable, which was strange. Just like the fact that his panic attack had disappeared when he appeared ... What the hell was going on?
Gabriel cleared his throat and discreetly pushed her away.
“Thanks!” She said looking at him.
The girl didn’t know what exactly she was thanking him for.
"Are you coming or not?" Arthur yelled back at them. "I'm freezing out here!"
Gabriel and Lissa rolled their eyes, then the girl bit her lip and smiled to the singer.
“You're not thinking about...”
"Exactly," she agreed, bending down and picking up some snow.
"He's going to be so pissed," Gabriel laughed.
"It's the intention." She blinked.
"Okay." Gabriel nodded. He bent down and grabbed his handful. "He's going to kill me later, but come on ..."
And together they covered the poor assistant with snow.
♬
Gabriel's house was divinely beautiful. Melissa Bittencourt was delighted. The walls were all dark stone and the wooden floor. In the living room were a pair of sofas with checkered fabric, beautiful pictures on the wall, and a huge fireplace. There was not much decoration, but the little she had was very beautiful.
“Do you like it?” Gabriel asked, watching her walk through the room.
“Is beautiful. So... beautiful.”
"I like it a lot too, although I hardly come here.”
"It's so warm..."
“Arthur turned on the heater. Tomorrow I'll show you the hot tub. You can see the mountains there.”
"It must be beautiful! I would love to see them. It will be the first time I’ll see ... Well, I’ve seen it in pictures, but it's not the same thing. Mountains are beautiful, convey peace and tranquili
ty.”
"You know I've never noticed? So, tomorrow we go in the hot tub and you can watch them all you want.”
The proposal was tempting, but for her, enter the hot tub she would have to wear a bikini or swimsuit... She would have to show her scars. It was sad, but she would have to watch the mountains without experiencing it. She didn’t want to have to make up any excuse at the time, so she just half-hearted smile and nodded.
"Is he still mad at us?" She asked to change the subject.
"Nothing." Gabriel smiled.
"Why is he so serious?"
The singer shrugged.
“Arthur is very reserved and professional.”
“Ok…”
“You are hungry?”
"No," she sighed. "I'm just tired. I wanted to take a shower, change those clothes and sleep for a bit."
"Of course." He scratched his head. "Come on up, I'll show you to your room.”
“Great.”
Lissa did not know why she was so nervous. Suddenly she began to feel uncomfortable in his presence, especially when they were alone... Maybe it was embarrassing to have broken his nose, got hysterical on the plane or had a panic attack out of nothing... You know, the truth is that staying near him made her uneasy.
"Here" He announced, opening a door, she had not even noticed the route during her inner inquiries.
Gabriel switched on the light and Lissa found herself inside a beautiful bedroom that in addition to having a huge bed in the center, also had a small fireplace.
"Very beautiful." she commented.
"Yes." He agreed, smiling at her, putting her suitcase close to the bed. "There are blankets in the wardrobe, there in that door is the bathroom, and I'll leave the fire for you."
"Thank you." She thanked him and sitting on the bed, watching him.
“Done.” He said after lighting the fire. He turned to the girl “Are you sure you do not want to eat anything?”
“No. I'm fine, I'll just rest.”
"Okay." He hesitated a moment, put his hands in his pocket and bit his lip.
Broken Angel (English Edition) Page 6