Freefall ✓

26 | drama

We're only haunted by the things we refuse to accept

—bridgett devoue

▬▬▬ ♫ : ▬▬▬

Butterfly - Sody

▬▬▬ ✦ ▬▬▬

AUDREY

"Ca - Calum?" I stuttered, feeling transported back to two years ago, in a flash.

"Well, I'm glad you haven't forgotten my name," he joked casually, flashing me his impeccably white-teeth smile, "although, with a memory like yours, that's hardly a surprise."

I didn't answer. I just stared at him — taking note of how his features had changed. How his shoulders had broadened. How his jawline had defined. His voice had deepened. His hair had grown. The new hairstyle made it look sleek, almost glassy.

Perhaps the only characteristic of his that remained unchanged were his two bottomless onyx-black voids of eyes — slightly monolid, because of his Asian roots, as I remembered.

"Wow. It's been way too long," he took over, not sounding half as stunned as I was. Why should he be, after all?

There was nothing other-worldly about this encounter. Right? Just two ex-dance partners, two former friends, having run into each other in a public place of a small town they both lived in. 

Nothing to act weird about, at all.

That is, of course, if you omit the details of what happened the last time they saw each other. The reason why I'd disappeared, not keeping in contact with him nor anyone from Aurelia Dance Academy for that matter.

It was not only the two years that stood in the distance between us then, separating us, but a profusion of unspoken words, unuttered apologies and unresolved affairs. Did he not feel it too?

Had he forgotten? Or was he simply choosing to turn his back on it? Were we really just going to pretend that nothing happened? 

"It has," I managed to vocalize.

All of a sudden, a girl appeared by his side. She was carrying two sodas. After pecking his cheek, she handed him one.

"Sorry, babe. The queue was just too long." Her gaze instantly fell on me and Cameron, whose hand was still in mine. Although I would have easily forgotten about it if it weren't for his sudden metallic grip.

Her straight black hair flowed all the way down to her waist. She was wearing black leather treggings,—that shimmered like glitter in the illumination of the theater—a camouflage tube top and nothing but a black jacket over it. Was she not. . .cold?

"Danni, meet Audrey—remember Audrey, from dance? She used to be my partner before—"

"Oh yes. I remember," she cut him off. Her blue eyes pierced right through me. It was a cold tone of blue, a hostile blue. "Nice to meet you, Audrey," her voice had that same icy coldness. Or was I just imagining things? "I'm Danielle, Calum's girlfriend." She clung to his arm, possessively.

"It's nice to meet you too," I brought myself to say. Something about her stare was making me feel uneasy. "This is Cameron. My boyfriend," I told them, lifting my hand up, Cameron's solidified fingers glued to it. I looked up at him, hoping to be met by the jauntiness he was totally immersed in just a few minutes ago — the jauntiness that was so characteristic of him. Instead, I was met by a sheet of blank.