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FOURTEEN.
SINCE VIKTOR'S confession, Arabella had not said a single word to him; not even spared him a small glance. Every time he thought about her, his head started racing - questioning what he had done to deserve her absence. It was a punishment in the form of torture, for a crime of which he did not commit.
The worst was when she laughed.
But in truth, the laughter was a mask for Bella. While her face displayed positive emotions of an upturned smile and a warm bellowing in her stomach, it soon turned to burning sadness and a broken smile; the salty taste of her own tears barely touching her pale lips.
She didn't want to be away from Viktor - truly she didn't - but once again, he frightened her.
The first time he scared her was the night of discovering Zoe's phased form. He attacked the werewolf in a way so cruel that even she, for a moment, thought of him as a monster. And he knew she thought that. He even began to think so himself.
The second time he scared her was on the Durmstrang ship, when she was thrown over Viktor's shoulder and into the lake where the ship resided. But this fear was an enjoyable one. One to lie in bed at night smiling in memory of the previous day, anticipation bubbling around her chest of what was going to happen the next morning, where more happiness would be shared.
The third and most recent time he scared her was what caused their current absence from each other; he confessed that he loved her.
It was silly, really - and Bella knew it was. She ran away from both his and her own feelings, in fear that maybe she didn't love him back. There was that word again. Fear. It was becoming a prominent part of the redhead's life at the moment, and she was slowly starting to hate it.
But deep down, Arabella Flannery did love Viktor Krum, just as Viktor Krum loved Arabella Flannery (with all of his heart, in fact).
The Ravenclaw just didn't want to admit it, especially now that she didn't have Fred and George to consult. They were avoiding her too. Not that she could blame them; she hadn't exactly been the most supportive friend, but it was still painful knowing that her only current true friends were Deanna, her sister Eleanor, and her bloody owl Henry.
In Arabella's defence, Henry was more trustworthy than the rest of them; and he didn't talk back. Evidently, she cried to him often about her problems. In fact, she cried to him more often than she did anyone else.
