"Please, come back to me."
"I never left."
***
Clara Carter, the troublemaker of Aerilon University. Someone who can make you fall for her looks and at the same time can make you reg...
Lighting a cigarette, I dwell about my sleepy gaze outside my bedroom window. The Caelfall city's beautiful and serene nightlife is fascinating. Unreal, sometimes. It's the kind of place I knew I'd never end up in. Yet, here I am.
My thoughts go back to my life in Aerilon as I blow smoke into the air. Everyone, including myself, used to believe I wasn't a naïve and innocent young girl. I wasn't. At least, that's what I thought.
My phone alerts me of a message. A text from my dearest brother.
Christopher: How was your day, sunshine?
I smile. He now has a brilliant job in one of Stefan's company branches. The job he was interviewing for on the day Stefan became the official CEO.
I occasionally bring up Stefan's name in our talk to see if Chris knows anything about him. But he never has anything new to say other than, 'he signed a new deal' or 'he received another award.' I stopped asking him after a few months.
Me: Same old, learned criminal minds. How was yours?
It is an absolute honor for me to have such a protective brother as him. I'm supposed to text him every day-be it just an emoji or a long-ass text about how I got screwed over at Starbucks.
I'm pursuing a degree in Criminology here, in Caelfall. Coincidence? I think not.
My phone begins to ring in my hands. I answer with a shake of my head.
"Missing my annoying shenanigans, brother?"
The soft and delighted laugh from the other side soothes my growing homesickness.
"Not at all, sister. I'm enjoying all of the mom-made cakes to myself."
I pick my whiskey glass off the windowsill to my lips. His statement makes me laugh, but it also adds to my sense of loneliness.
It's not me what's wrong today. It's my friends in my class talking about going home for holiday in a few days. I've lived alone in this city for four years and can confidently say that I feel just as at home here, in my apartment.
But nothing can beat the comfort of Aerilon. Ever.
"I- I didn't mean to- it sounded better in my head." Chris rushes the words, cursing himself in low voice for making it even more difficult for me to stay away from them.
"Hey, don't get too worked up over it. I'm happy that you're happy."
He sighs and chuckles nervously.
"You didn't answer me. How was your day?"
"Oh. . ." he takes a beat to reply. "It was good."
Short replies never suit my brother. Not when he takes so long to respond.
"Tell me. What is it?" I know him too well to allow something like that to go unnoticed. I've spent too many years fighting and flinging sarcastic insults at him - and sharing the same brain cells - to hear the sadness in his voice.
"I. . . I met Stefan today."
My hand grips the phone tighter. I gulp down the entire glass and take a blow on my cigarette. Christopher waits patiently for me to say something.
"What did he say?"
Stefan was seen at Christopher's office just once after the. . . incident with the explosion. Few months after he was gone. Stefan, according to my brother, was unaware of his recruitment and was surprised to see him there.
My ex-boyfriend is apparently my brother's boss.
Christopher speaks before the word ex-boyfriend can trigger any emotion of unsaid things in me.
"Just two words- take care."
The weight of those words prickles my skin with awareness. Take care of her.
Even though he never said it in person, I heard it. Those are the only things I've been thinking about the whole time.
Stay safe. The words I received from him in the form of a birthday note said.
If anyone around me assumed I'd moved on, they were wrong. So wrong.
People around me, especially my parents, kept reminding me that whatever feelings I had for Stefan were just a result of his charm.
The butterflies I used to get were the effect of letting down my guard for the man. The man who never realized how much he shaped my choices.
"That's it?"
"Yeah," he says, "He came there for a quick inspection of our department's new head."
I nod, even though he couldn't see me and I understood very little about why he was there.
There must be dozens of head departments in his so company branches. He won't be welcoming every single one of them, right? Then what was the big deal about who the hell became the head of the Aerilon office?
I never saw him in Caelfall, their company's headquarters and the place where lives.
Everything that happened that day proved that I wasn't upset at him for killing the person inside that car. That explosion was on my mind, sure, though I doubt myself a hundred times a day.
It was him who got under my skin. The one who left me with no answers.
I was losing it because of all the drama going on around me, but leaving me wasn't an option. I was terrified when he disappeared from my life as if he's never existed. Removing all of his records from the University, his apartment, and my life scared me because the only person in my life who loved me without judging me was gone.
"So. . ." Chris drags my mind back to the present, his saddened tone goes away to a playful and silly tone take over. "Tell me you're still kicking someone's ass for doing you wrong."
I burst into laughter. This time, a genuine, happy laugh. The one that only my friends and Chris could bring out.
"You bet."
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