Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I don't remember how long I stood out there in the end, feeling the effect of Elodie's kiss throughout my whole body as I watched her leave, get into the car, and drive out of the mansion's gates.
She didn't even look back once.
The worst thing was that I couldn't blame her. Showing me how it felt to be treated the same way I'd been treating her for so long hurt more than anything else she could have done. And maybe that wasn't what she had intended to do with the kiss, but seeing it that way made me realise how she must have felt about the distance I was giving her all this time.
I was barely ever there for weeks and months. Yet, Elodie still took it upon herself to treat me indifferently this entire time. She's so fucking admirably loving, and I took all of that for granted, in a way I never should have showed her I was capable of.
Hurting her this much hurt me more than I'd ever imagined was possible. It was well deserved, but god, it hurt so fucking much.
I've never hurt this much over anyone.
But Elodie isn't just anyone. She's the girl I fell in love with, and stupidly managed to lose in such a short course of time.
After I had stood out there for a time, watching the thin air float around me, with all that was left of Elodie being the taste of her on my lips for one last time, I finally let myself back into the mansion.
But it just didn't feel the same as it always did. She wasn't here, seconds away from my reach anymore.
I walked in alone, suddenly lost as to what to do and where to go.
I decided to take the elevator to my floor. I wasn't heading for either of the offices, I couldn't work after this - there was no space in my mind for concentration. So, I headed for my bedroom instead.
The elevator reached the fourth floor, and I stepped out as the doors opened, turning right to make my way to my bedroom.
But as I look up and set my eyes on the target of my room, instead of a clear path to the doorway, I'm met with my brother, Simon.
I stop in my tracks, feet away from him, as I watch him fold his arms and cross them against his chest, the judgment on his expression undying.
Unfortunately, I already know what he's here to talk to me about, and I don't think there was a way for me to avoid it, either.
I walked up to him and stopped a couple of metres away, before speaking first. "You know what happened." It was a statement, because I already knew that he did.
If he didn't see it himself, he heard it from someone else. Word goes around fast here when it revolves around me, but no one ever has the guts to mention it around me.
He tilts his head, giving me a harsh look, as if to ask if I was stupid - because of course he would know. "The hell I do, Harlow. Are you out of your goddamn fucking mind-"
