C h a p t e r 6

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Content Warning: Comment about self harm.

Chapter 6 : MadelynFriday, July 16th, 2021

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Chapter 6 : Madelyn
Friday, July 16th, 2021

"I like to look at nice things. Is that not allowed?"

Nice things?

I had no response to that, so instead, I just looked back down at my lap with a slightly shy smile across my face.

I still wasn't exactly sure who this man was, but I couldn't deny that a very large part of me was curious by him.

Or maybe I just wasn't used to people as attractive as Caleb to be so openly flirtatious with me.

At my slight uncertainty around him and lack of response, the blond tilted his head in an expression that looked a lot like interest, a few strands of his hair brushing against his forehead at the action.

"I'm sorry about your breakup," Comes genuine words, ones that I didn't expect for him to say.

My eyes flicked up to Caleb's at that, and while I saw his usual eased confidence in his body language, I also saw that he wasn't simply using that knowledge as small talk.

"Thanks, but you don't have to be." I say, instinctively making sure to keep the ever so faint bruising across my knuckles hidden from the overhead lights of the cafe, "I'm not."

My response was one that surprised myself a little bit, but it couldn't have been more true.

As much as it hurts now, at least I'll be able to move on to hopefully something better one day.

"You seem nervous nonetheless," Caleb comments, and while I know he can't see me picking at my thumbnail under the table, something still must have given my anxiousness away.

That didn't mean I was going to admit it to a stranger, though, even if he was the one causing me to shift in my chair.

Giving him a small, innocent shrug of my shoulders, I just left things at that.

Caleb, however, didn't.

"Anything I can do to help?" He asked with a calming sort of dominance that told me he didn't buy the attempt of brushing his words off.

Surprisingly, that kind of made me feel a little more at ease.

"I'm just naturally stressed sometimes." I deflect, unsure if there was some sort of hidden meaning behind his question.

I couldn't exactly understand Caleb, though oddly, he seemed a little familiar in a way that didn't make a lot of sense.

"And what has you stressed?"

I was tempted to tell him it was none of his business—to ask why he cared when I'm sure he had much better things to do than talk to someone who interrupted his lunch visit.

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