She was the girl who was afraid of love. Terrified of it. It isn't permanent, she believed, it leaves you and it leaves you broken.
He was the boy who desperately needed it. Love--the only thing that could've rooted him to this world.
Ophelia and...
"I desire the things which will destroy me in the end."
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"It's not mine." I blurted out, my wide eyes still trained on the box in Luce's hands.
She leaned back against the couch tensely. "Yeah, well, that doesn't really answer my question."
I licked the dryness off my lips and stepped closer into the lounge, walking towards the couch but not really sitting down. I needed to take that box out of her hands. I didn't know why but it just felt like I needed to.
"I..." I trailed off and noticed her gaze on me. She patted the empty space beside her on the couch. I sat down after a little hesitation.
"Back when Alastair was still in the hospital, he asked me to get something from his dorm. A journal. But I...I saw this too. And..." I trailed off again, my throat closing up on itself. "I didn't want to leave it there."
Luce was silent for a while, her fingers trailing across the box. "So it's his."
"Yes."
"And he doesn't know that you have it."
I shrugged. "I don't think so. He must not have noticed its absence." And that was good. Beyond good. "Which is good."
Luce nodded and faced me.
"Why did you take it?" She asked.
I looked at her, merely blinking in response. Wasn't the answer to that obvious enough? But then I realized that no, it wasn't. Not all of it. Luce didn't know where most of my fears came from. Sometimes, I didn't know where they came from either.
"Because I don't trust him with it," I replied, then copied her actions and leaned back against the couch. Perhaps the fact that I wasn't bothering to lie was what made her look surprised. "And I don't want him to do it again."
She exhaled slowly, almost as if she had been holding her breath. That almost made me start fidgeting.
"Okay." She said, "I'm glad you're not making up shitty excuses, Lia."
I relaxed a little, grateful that it wasn't so tense around us anymore. "My excuses aren't shitty."
She rolled her eyes despite the small smile on her face. "So are you going to fill me in on stuff?"
"What stuff?"
"This stuff." She replied, tugging onto my hoodie sleeve. I looked down at it and noticed the Camberley Prep Academy crest at the top.
"I don't know, Luce," I replied honestly. "Things happened. They...they didn't go the way I was expecting."
"In a good way?"
"In a good way," I said. "More than just good. I'm...relieved." Relieved that it hadn't gone sideways like I had been expecting. I looked up at her with a small smile. "So you know, thanks. For not letting me give up."
