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...
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By the time I reached my house, it was way past midnight. And Mum was still awake.
"Ophelia."
I didn't mean to flinch so violently at that, I really didn't. And Mum didn't miss it. She frowned, got up from the stool she was sitting on and walked towards me. I stayed frozen in the hallway.
"I'm sorry." My voice came out hoarse, unsure. "Mum, I can...I can explain why it took me so long to get back here."
But could I really? Wasn't I just going to lie to her?
She was shaking her head when I looked up at her. She was worried, I realised. She must've been worried for a while now. I had seen her missed calls on my phone, the ones that I hadn't answered. Everyone else was asleep. I didn't know if I was relieved about that or not.
"You're drunk." I saw her scrunching up her nose. "Lia, why--okay, I'm not doing this right now. It's way too late to wrap my head around this."
She was angry. And worried too.
"Go up to your room. I'll speak with you in the morning." She seemed to be shaking her head again, almost as if she couldn't believe this.
I nodded quietly.
"And you're grounded." She added sternly. "You're grounded until you finally tell me what the hell is going on with you."
I nodded again, feeling too exhausted to even say anything. Mum waited before I started making my way upstairs to my room until she retreated to her room too.
It didn't take me long to fall asleep. Probably one of the few nights I had any decent sleep. Maybe that was because my mind had already worked up too much during the night and all that it brought me.
I didn't want to think anymore. I wanted to sleep and I wanted to be pulled away from this, from all of this.
That was all I could think about at that moment. As I lay down on my bed, with the thought of sleeping pills all around me. Thousands of those.
I wanted to fall asleep for a long long time.
******
By the time I stepped into the lounge the next morning, everyone was awake. Mostly because it was almost noon by now and everyone in my family woke up way before noon on Sundays.
"Lia!" Mason exclaimed and I held back a wince. My head was pounding. This is what real hangovers were like."Mum made blueberry pancakes!"
"Mason, stop shouting," Mum told him before ruffling his extremely unruly bedhead. I saw her gaze shifting towards me and she nodded, silently gesturing me to follow her inside the kitchen.
