The Butterfly and The Moth

27

"Dolly?"

I hadn't noticed the silence in the empty garage until Colt said my name. I had been staring down at Sterlings text message, and I know that my mind should have been focused on the last words, the ones that said you need to tell someone, but they weren't.

Instead they were focused on the first ones. I won't, for now.

And relief flooded me. It was a small relief, but it was relief none the less. If Sterling didn't tell Daisy right now, then like I said— I had time.

"Dolly?" Colt said again, when no answer released from my mouth. "Your breathing slowed down."

I looked up from my phone, finding the two boys staring at me. Sterling was still looking at me with the urgency in his eyes, the urgency I didn't understand, even more so now that I had read his text. And Colt, well, there was no such urgency in his eyes. He was looking at me with a sense of curiosity that reminded me of how Sterling had looked at me before he figured it all out.

I nodded, pushing away the bag from where Colt was still holding it loosely to my lips. I tested my lungs as if I needed confirmation of that fact myself, and he was right, my lungs found oxygen again.

"Dahlia," Sterling's voice caught me off guard again. I wasn't quite sure why, considering he was after all, in the garage looking for me. "Are you okay?"

I finally let my eyes meet his urgency filled grey ones, I wasn't quite sure what to say. How could I answer his question? Lie, like I had promised him I wouldn't and say I was okay? Or tell him the truth, and say I wasn't. Either way, it was too much information for him to have.

"Well..." Colt let out, with a slight undercurrent of humor running through his tone. Perhaps, not like the situation was funny. Maybe because he could sense how strong the tension was.

"Clearly you two have some things left unspoken that Silver here wants desperately to become said," Colt said next, turning and winking in my direction.

"Silver?" I muttered, my words still sounding slurred despite my false lack of oxygen.

"Yeah," Colt shrugged. "Sterling silver, ain't that right Silver?"

Sterling didn't answer. I watched as he blinked slowly in Colt's direction, wearing the same look of annoyance he used to use to glare at me.

"Got a thing for nicknames, huh?" I asked, my head starting to feel light headed once again, proving the alcohol was still pumping through my veins.

"Only for the people I like," he smiled at me before turning towards his former friend. "Or, used to like. Before they turned into a popular piece of shit."

"Yeah," Sterling snorted, "you're one to talk about letting things go. What words did you use? It was five years ago."

"Aren't you supposed to be clamouring for your girlfriends forgiveness?" Colt asked with an air of smugness around him.

"I'm not his girlfriend." – "She's not my girlfriend."

Sterling and I spoke at the same time, and while still I found nothing funny at all about this situation, Colt's smile only ticked upward.

"Huh," Colt scoffed out. "Interesting. I guess I just assumed she was since, well, both times I've seen you together, Dolly's been drunk and crying and Silver's been begging her to talk to him."

"Will you just get out all of your sarcastic-loner- talk so I can talk to Dahlia?" Sterling muttered, taking a sharp breath through his nose immediately after he said the words.