#18 in TeenFic
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❝Don't,❞ he pleaded softly, offering her a tiny smile, ❝please don't make me a promise you will never be able to keep.❞ He released a quiet but deep breath, leaning forward even more, tilting his body towards her, until thei...
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| Chapter 55 |
| foreverdoesn'tlast |
"What are you afraid of, exactly?" Bree had asked Nick once, while they had sat on the rooftop of the O'Connell house during their first date night.
The weather had been kind to them, whilst they lounged out there in the open. Nick remembered the sky being starless -- just a blanket of dark, almost-black blue.
"That maybe whatever life I've left behind will end up being the thing you're afraid of" Nick had responded to her query, "that you will no longer want this. . .no longer want me."
Nick had had his chest pressed to her back, his chin tucked into her shoulder. They'd been huddled close together on that makeshift bed he'd made, one full of extra quilts and throw pillows.
And Bree -- she had said to him, "I wish I could stay here like this forever."
"Forever is a long time, Blondie" he'd told her in return.
And now, standing in the middle of his room, with the newspaper Bree'd held just moments ago lying on the floor like the remnants of their relationship, Nick found himself realising that forever wasn't that long, not really.
Not when you'd created it with one person and it was beginning to slip away right in front of your eyes and you eventually understood that no time is ever long enough.
Not even forever.
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What have I got myself into? The thought slammed into Bree's hurting head for the tenth time and she tightened her grip on the cool ceramic as her stomach heaved, throwing up anything she'd consumed ealier that morning.
He's the son of one of the most wanted men, not just in the city of New York, but the entire United States. The sickening realisation, no matter how many times it hit her, left Bree's shoulders shaking violently as shudder after shudder of terror ripped through her bones.
Feeling the bile rise up her throat again, Bree leant forward and retched pitifully into the bowl of the sink. Sweat had broken out on the inside of her palms and the back of her neck.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt such terror. The shock of it all seemed to have effected her on an immensely physical level -- she'd been shaking and shivering for hours now, with her body temperature slowly rising rather than going down.
Taking in large gulps of air, Bree lifted a lifeless hand and turned the tap of the sink, letting the cool water run and wash away all the evidence of her panic. Her eyes met her reflection, and she just stood there, staring at herself for a long moment.
