A Wolf's Tear

thirty three: the friend

Feeling like yesterday’s dog slobber, Selena crawled out of her bed. She was drained after speaking with Winston and when she returned to her room, she ended up having zero hours of sleep, not even a minute. She only stared at the ceiling, hating herself.

Admitting to her faults wasn’t easy and after finally doing it, she wasn’t relieved but the weight of her narrow-mindedness seemed to have increased. Ultimately, it fell to her right brain not agreeing with her left brain. This unbalance was the root of her indecisiveness

Even after all of this, being vulnerable isn’t an option. She needed to pull through it all and to appear vulnerable, show a tiny bit of weakness to her resolve would be like walking backward.

That was why no matter how tantalizing it was to feel Nathaniel’s kisses, to run her hand through his hair, and to be in the limelight of his vision, she needed to move on as fast as she could.

She realized that by abnegating her feelings, she felt a little bit just, reminding herself that pointless sacrifices only ended up with the whiplash of emotions bound to wound her at some point.

Incredibly selfish, she knew that.

Her feet touched the wooden floor, standing up only to yelp in pain after putting too much pressure on her wounded leg. She fell back to the bed and groaned.

Maybe this was her punishment? Her hubristic stride hasn’t been that kind to her and it shouldn’t be. She was sure that if Nathaniel learns of her reasons, he wouldn’t think twice before turning her away.

In her pondering, the door opens and Lively appears in the room with a worrisome stare.

“Selena? What happened to you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Lively’s string of questions made her furrow her brows.

This attention and her reaction just didn’t feel right. She hoped it wouldn’t be like this until the duration of her stay.

“Peachy. Just stood on the wrong foot is all.” She raised herself and smiled.

Live crosses her arms and leans on the door frame.

“Did you have sleep last night?”

“No,” Selena answered.

How could she when her willingness to abandon her emotions has finally caught her and now she was basking in its shameful glory?

“Are you hungry?”

Selena’s stomach rumbled at the question.

“Very much, yes.” She flushed.

Lively nodded. Her smile was kind, mischievous and Selena felt nervous at how playful she was.

“Come downstairs, we’ll have breakfast together.”

The wolf disappears from her room and Selena was baffled. She was cheerier than usual and Selena could hear her humming down the hall.

She disregarded her mental strain and calmed herself down. There was no point if she was to just sit around and wonder. She mustered the strength to pull herself from the bed and limped to the corner of the room to fetch her crutches.