The Hurt Game

❧ twenty-two

"Care to tell me what's on your mind?" Daniela asked.

I looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. She was packing the dishwasher and didn't turn around to face me or stopped doing so. She asked it like I had wanted ice cream as dessert.

"Why do you think something is on my mind?" I returned a question. She stood up and finally faced me. She wore a little smile.

"Normally you're much more talkative. You've been silent the whole evening, didn't even as much start a conversation with me. Not that I always expect you to, but it is so common I started to think the worst when you didn't," she explained.

I blew a sigh throughout my nose as I ran a hand over my face and through my hair, letting my head rest in it for a moment. My phone landed with a gentle thud on the flat surface of the table.

I had been silent while normally I was talkative after dinner, when my father retracted to his office. Usually I would be talking about my day or asking her about hers, telling something about what sparked my interest or listening to her tell me something that awakened her. Now all I had been doing, was aimlessly scroll through my phone. My photos. My social media, Instagram and Pinterest. Then back through my photos again. And that was all, because I was anxiously waiting for a certain name to appear on the screen.

"It's just..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say or how to form the words. My mind was with one person and one person only, and I realized I needed Royden more than I had let myself believe. I didn't want to rely on anyone. I wanted to be independent, but Royden made it so easy to trust him, to confide in him and to be brutally honest with him. I knew I could always fall back on him, no matter what. And that scared me.

"Waverly, what's going on?" Daniela asked me as she sat down next to me quietly. She took my hand from my head. Her hand was warm and comforting. I looked up at her.

"What do you think of Royden?" I questioned her. My voice was gentle and quiet, almost as if I was scared of the outcome. And maybe I was, but deep down I knew Daniela would never point him the other way of me. She had let him in the house.

She took a moment. The silence lingered on and on, and my heartbeat only increased in beats per minute. Then she finally let a small smile grace her lips and she nodded her head.

"He is polite and a gentleman, at least earlier when I opened the door for him. He introduced himself, explained why he showed up and politely asked if you were home and if he could see you. I've never met a guy like that, not even when I was your age," she explained. A small chuckle fell from her lips at her last sentence.

A smile spread on my own lips. My heart tugged in my chest, pounding and clenching and almost trashing with happiness.

"He is different from every other guy I've ever met," I said.

"That he is," Daniela agreed. "And... let me see... He seemed to care about you and I know he makes you happy. He has this demeanour that shows he knows what he is doing. He doesn't seem like the person to be afraid to make mistakes, owning up to them if needed. Yet he looks like someone to make good decisions."

A small laugh escaped my lips. It was almost ironic how well-put together he seemed, how gentlemanly while not even a week ago I was patching up a big scar, while he can be a complete ass and shows up with bruises all the time.

"What? Is that not right?" Daniela chuckled a little, but the concern in her eyes was all too clear.

I shook my head. "No, you're right. He can make right decisions," I said. I took a deep breath as I thought over what I wanted to tell her, debating how much I wanted to reveal. "But... he can be secretive. He closes himself off, seems tired a lot and he smokes. Yet whenever I ask him about it, he brushes himself off and says it is just stress from running a business. I let it slide, but..."