Enough | ✔️

+ 27 +

Are you ready?

Don't be too scared, the next new chapters are a lot worse.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

I lie in bed, wide awake.

It's hard to hide that you're thinking about the person who's less than three metres away from you. I try to slow my breathing down but everything sounds like a torrential storm in the dead of the room.

I can tell that Slater is awake too. He constantly shuffles in his cover, trying to find a suitable position but to no avail.

Suddenly, and thankfully, he releases a deep sigh.

"Quorra, are you awake?" he asks in a low voice.

I turn on my side to face his side of the room, searching for his eyes in the darkness, "Yeah," I reply quietly.

Even though I can't see him properly (dammit, where's night vision when you need it?), the uneasy feeling in my stomach tells me that he's watching me.

"Why are you still up?" I question, pulling my duvet up higher and snuggling into its irresistible warmth.

He chuckles, the sound encouraging a shiver to run down my back, "I could ask you the same."

For a while, we soak in the silence, disturbed only by the sound of our breathing and the pounding of our hearts in our chests. I prefer this atmosphere around us; it's somehow more vulnerable. It's dark and quiet and we're ready to fall into the depths of a deep sleep where we leave our bodies and travel to dreamland.

"But to answer your question," he says, voice grainy with the prospect of sleep, "tomorrow I'm taking a day off to visit my parents. They've been... struggling with Addilyn's death recently, ever since her anniversary a while ago. I'm not close with them, for reasons that you understand now, but family is family and they need me right now."

I can't help the bittersweet smile on my face. He clearly loves them even though they've been nothing but demanding, playing him like a puppet as if his life is simply a set.

"You're sweet," I compliment, "Good luck with it."

I can imagine him nodding in gratitude as he murmurs out a distracted, "Thanks. Why are you up so late? It's..." he pauses before the tiny glow of his bedside alarm clock illuminates a radius around itself in a red light, "2:51am."

Exhaling a sigh, I fall backwards onto my back, splaying out like a starfish in resignation, "I guess I can't lie since you told me the truth."

I know he's watching me knowingly from his bed, and his intense gaze amplifies the thumping of my heart in my chest.

"I keep thinking about what you said earlier in the diner."

My words eat away at the silence and sit in bloated. satisfied lump in the middle of the room.

After an age, he agrees with a, "Me too."

A owl hoots outside, forming a melody with the chirping of the crickets and the buzz of the night. I close my eyes and hug my pillow closer, willing sleep to arrive.

"And I'm sorry for my previous blunt attitude towards the matter, Quorra," he apologises.

I smile and shake my head to myself, even though I know he doesn't see it.

"It's alright."

"No," he denies, "It's not. I want you to understand that I said those things, and still stand by those things, because of how Harrow University's system works. But that isn't a reflection of what I really want."