those years between us

[BONUS CHAPTER 1]

This chapter happens during the events of [11] I'm Unhappy. In summary, Salome has a fever and Orion comes over to help take care of her. This chapter is written from Orion's perspective.

IT WAS ONE o'clock and I should probably sleep.

But every time slumber tried to take hold of me, I'd remember Salome, a single wall away, shivering as the fever battled within her. Damn. I should have reminded her, to be careful in this weather. It was always easy to get sick at these times of year, when the weather shifted from warm to cold within a single evening.

But then again, she'd told me to stop caring about her life so much, hadn't she?

Yeah, but this wasn't meddling with her life. This was just a nice, friendly reminder.

Everything about Salome had gotten more confusing in the past while. From the day she moved in, how different she looked from the Salome that lived in my head, her cool attitude, our argument at the club and how shocked I'd been when I saw her there in the first place...

And the fucking hoodie.

Did that even mean anything? Or was I making things up out of nowhere?

But she was right about one thing, though. She wan't the Salome I'd known back in Hong Kong anymore. Or even the one back at Arrington College. This new Salome was part stranger, part old friend. And she was constantly jumping between them.

I sat up from the couch, growling. There was no way I was going to get any good sleep tonight. But tomorrow was a Monday. Which meant I had class. I could skip, but...

I'll see how Salome fares. If she gets better by next morning I'd go to class. Some coffee would help me stay awake. If not, I'd skip and stay here to take care of her. Maybe I'll bring her to the doctor's. I should probably do that. That's what her parents would do if they were here, right?

And then it just felt like I was doing what she'd told me not to do again. Parenting her.

But what was I, then, if not her older brother? That was the role we'd always been given back home. I was the older brother next door, she was my neighbourhood little sister. Taking care of her was my duty. But for some reason, she was ardently against it and I wasn't sure what to do.

I'd been keeping my own distance too, these past days. Ever since she told me she'd been avoiding me. Even after our little talk that night coming back. But then she knocked on my door, her face the colour of a white sheet looking as if she might faint at any moment, and how could I stay away from that?

She wasn't fragile. She'd survived very well on her own for the past few years. Despite what my parents had told me to, I hadn't particularly kept an eye out for her back at Arrington College. It had seemed awkward, with me two years older. Our friend groups were completely different, completely separate. And I'd been young and scared of losing face.

But something had changed in these few years. Or maybe I'd started noticing some things that I hadn't before. And I wasn't sure what. The way Salome acted around me, it was almost as if I'd hurt her somehow. But no matter how hard I thought about it, nothing came through. I'd barely had any major interactions with her in the past few years. The biggest one that came to mind was that night I gave her my hoodie. That was one of the last times we'd properly interacted at Arrington.

She'd kept it. All these years, she'd kept it.

I'd been thinking about it again and again over the past while.