Power ▸ Ron Weasley [1]

XXI. INK YOUR SKIN

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

INK YOUR SKIN

   ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪  

      "Don't hate me, but I'm not going to be able to hang out on Valentine's Day."

      Nova stared at the redhead sitting across from her in the kitchens as she took a bite of the peanut butter cookie Winky had prepared for her earlier when Nova had asked for it. She had paired it with chamomile tea instead of her usual pumpkin tea (which always made Ron smile to himself whenever he saw her drinking it) so she could have help sleeping that night. When his words fully processed, she raised her brow and brought her mug up to her lips, sipping lightly on the drink.

      "Do I seem like the kind of person that would hate you for not spending Valentine's Day with me?" she questioned.

      "Is this a trick question? If I answer one way you'll be mad, but if I answer the other way you'll be even more angry?"

      Nova bit her lip to keep a chuckle from escaping. "Sorry to say but Valentine's Day isn't all that important to me. Especially with everything going on with..."

      She felt her words trail off before she could fully process what she was saying. In the past two weeks she had made extra care to not discuss Theo. Especially not around Weasley. One, he couldn't handle the emotional stress talking about her brother put her under and two, she didn't want to burden him with listening to Theo. Theo was evil now. He was on the opposite side of everything that Weasley stood for and Nova needed to understand that. She was trying to understand it.

      There was a clear line of good and evil and Theo had crossed it. 

      Still, avoiding him for so long meant that everything was bottled up inside and it was taking an emotional toll, which Weasley luckily didn't mention. She wasn't stupid. She knew he could see it in the way she would randomly squeeze his hand tighter whenever an absentminded thought about Theo crossed her path or whenever the sadness in her eyes when outwardly Theo hadn't changed (he still sat next to her in all of their classes) but inside was a mess of emotion and a broken relationship Nova wasn't sure would ever mend. 

      "You can talk about him, you know," Weasley mentioned as he bit into one of the peanut butter cookies. His hand, stretched out on the table, gently tapped her fingers. The mindless gesture was calming. "You're allowed to."

      "Wasn't aware I needed your permission," Nova replied, trying to make her voice sound cheeky and playful but there was something missing. They both noticed.

      "You don't need permission. But you also don't need to worry about not being able to tell me what you're feeling." She lifted her gaze to look at him, surprised he had noticed so much in the past two weeks. "C'mon, Nova, I know you. You think I don't want to listen, so you don't talk. But the whole point of us being... something is that you can talk to me about these things."