Divergent souls || 2

Twenty four

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR ⇆ ANGELINA
A week has passed since Rowan's father was hospitalized, he's now out of the goddamn hospital, I didn't understand if I'm angry that he is or what exactly.

It was just that I didn't want to face what we're about to, so I do what I'm best at, self-distraction, I let my mind wander in another direction but I end up in Nicholas's direction, which is the worst one.

"Rowan." I just utter out of nowhere, he turns in his seat, we're in his private jet, all alone obviously, so it's the perfect timing for my mind to overthink every single detail in my life lately.

"Yes?" He reply, "Let's talk about anything." The words sound weird on my tongue, too unfamiliar, to the point where he blinks a couple of times before arching a questioning brow, "What's this about?" He asks flat out.

I clear my throat, feigning innocence, "Just distract me without asking." I speak with frustration filling my voice, humor flashes across his eyes and he shrugs.

"Discussing lame topics is boring." He starts, i roll my eyes, "Let's not discuss them then." I protest lightly, "A Genius." He deadpans sarcastically and I fight the urge to slap him, "Pick a topic then." I reply dryly.

He stays silent for a beat before offering one, "Your dream guy." He wags his eyebrows and I blink at the 'important' topic he just picked, but I ain't complaining, I'll take any distraction no matter what it is.

"Definitely not you." I let out teasingly and he narrows his eyes, "Careful, I'd take this as a compliment." He adds and i glare at him, which makes his smirk lifts further.

That arrogant—"I mean seriously, it may sound like a lame topic but it's genuinely not, it can give away a lot of your preference, which I need to know." As if not knowing will stop his mission.

"Okay." I agree. Letting out a breath as I try to find a sincere answer, "I wouldn't call it 'dream guy' maybe a relationship that I'm striving for is the right sentence." I explain. Brows furrowed as I try to form the right words.

He nods. Understanding morphing into his sharp features. "I want it to be equal. As in, I don't want someone to have more power than the other, I don't want controlling or stuff like that, you know what I mean?" I've always struggled to explain my preference for some reason.

Confusion fills his features and his brows furrow, "I don't, actually." He says under his breath, studying my features for something I don't know, "I'll give you examples from real life alright." I add and he nods.

"I wouldn't want my relationship to be like Elias and Aurelia's, I don't want the guy to be more overpowering than me, equality sounds great." I explain and his lips part in realization.

"There's a huge difference between controlling and just being dominant." He says, eyes hard as he stares at me, "If you give it a thought, it really seems the same way." I shrug, "No, Aurelia for example, I bet she has more power over him if we're discussing it from that part even though when you're in a relationship you should trust the other person, if there's trust, it won't matter if one is dominant and the other isn't." He lets out in one go and his words settle at the bottom of my stomach.

"I think your past experience is playing a part here." He grimaces as he speaks, and I actually contemplate it, I don't know for how long as I stare ahead of me, thoughts muffled with each other.

"It just always seemed that way to me." I admit, "That's how everything normally looks from the outer view." He explains, I'm slightly surprised by how much Rowan can see in this.

And I also feel bad about thinking of how shallow he is at the beginning of this, but hey, that's what he showed me, "So dominance doesn't equal controlling." I state, he nods, "Exactly." He protests.

My tense muscles ease, but then another question pops up in my mind, one that's off topic but it doesn't seem to shut out in the slightest actually, "Did those friends of yours find anything?" I ask, we still haven't met them since they weren't in New York unfortunately, they're in Las Vegas and will be visiting LA soon so we'll see them there, but currently he'll try to find anything.

"They're probably sleeping right now, I'll call one of them tonight again so that he's awake." He says and I nod, "What's his name?" I find myself asking, mainly to distract myself as well, "He won't be alone, he'll have another two guys for that matter." He raises a brow.

That's new, "Oh, so what's there names too?" He looks weirded out by ongoing question but he doesn't mind, I would be surprised too to be honest.

"This is unlike you, but well, Alexander, Romero and Ezekiel, Ezekiel is the one who'll help us mainly, the others have connections too, but aren't hackers." He points out, "What kind of name is that?" I wonder.

"I think it's mainly Russian since he is." He shrugs, lifting a shoulder, "Have you been to Russia before?" I ramble on, and he nods, "I can take you." He teases and his finger traces my palm.

I watch the motion with comfort itching in my bones, filling them with warmth, I smile, almost weakly, "One day." I say softly, his smile slowly falls after a couple of moments.

But his eyes continue holding mine, saying so many things while not speaking a single word, my stomach grumbles so suddenly I have to stifle a laugh at the embarrassing moment.

He smiles widely before he retrieves something from his pocket and places sour patches in my palm, my heart warms in my chest and I blink up at him.

Seeing so much in his warm brown eyes, memories that I've tried to push away for years, memories where we slept tangled in each other's arms, watching movies and eating snacks, where each of us would dream, so big and unbelievably, where we'd sit in his room, holding our laughs and careful not to make a sound so that no one realizes that we're together.

The days where I'd escape the yelling in the house and run in his arms, or the days where we'd go out in the middle of the night, riding his bike and screaming so loudly, with freedom I've never felt for years now.

I missed those days, and a part of me still hated Rowan for taking them away from me, but we're close, too close to knowing the actual truth behind what happened that lead to him pushing me away and breaking my goddamn heart.

And I have a feeling that this conversation will involve agony and tears, lots of them.

A fucking lot.

Embrace yourselves y'all 😫.
A VOTE IS REALLY NEEDED RN.