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...
"the one thing I want is something I know I can't have."
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"You don't remember," I repeated Alastair's words that he had just told me. We both stared at each other in utter silence. Then I said it again, "You don't remember."
Another few seconds of silence went by. All except for the evening chatter around us. Alastair's gaze didn't leave mine.
"You didn't, yes." I slumped back into the cafe booth we were in. "You didn't know you had a twin when I was there in Oak Valley, I know that."
A flicker of confusion passed over his features.
"Not until I showed you that photograph of your family. I already know that, Alas." I said.
He shook his head. "That's not what I meant." He probably would've added something more to it if the waiter hadn't come by with our drinks. While I had gone to use the restroom in this tiny cafe we ended up in (the one near my house that I usually came to), Alastair had ordered coffee for himself and some apple juice for me.
"Well, you clearly remember my favourite drink." I sipped my juice as the waiter left. The entire cafe was almost filled with people by now. Most were familiar faces. Most I could recognise from my college.
"Of course I do." He frowned at me as if I had said something rather irrational. Then he sighed. "It's the...it's the other not so obvious things, Ophelia."
I stared at him, hoping he'd elaborate a little more. Because nothing that he had just told me was making sense to me.
"Do you remember that day...the first time we met in Oak Valley?" Alastair asked me. He was slowly fidgeting with his cup of coffee, and I couldn't help but notice the way he tried averting his gaze from my own. He was anxious. "When I couldn't sleep in that hospital, and you...you seemed in a rush when you came into my room. You asked me why I couldn't sleep."
I nodded, still staring at him. My first day of volunteering at the Sanitarium. "I remember." My voice came out soft. I wanted to slide my hand over the table and hold onto his.
"I don't." He slowly shook his head.
"But you just told me...wait, I don't understand." I didn't.
He leaned forward and pulled out something from his pocket. A tiny notepad, I realised, as he slid it towards me from across our table.
I looked up at him questioningly.
"I wrote it down. That's how I remembered." He told me.
When I still didn't quite get it, I took the notepad and flipped it open. Every page had something entirely different written on it. The first time I met Ophelia, I read the first line. I glanced up at Alastair and he was already staring at me. Waiting. Scared.
