Spark / l.h ✔️

24*

~Coralia's POV~

I laid in bed late at night, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness of my room. It was so dark that there really wasn't anything to be seen, but my thoughts were running wild. There was no way I'd be able to fall asleep, not with the thoughts on my mind. All I could think was that Romeo, somehow, had fallen in love with me.

All my emotions had mixed together the second he had said that to me, creating one big mess of disbelief, denial, confusion, shock, and most noticeably, fear. I'd never had my best friend tell me that he was in love with me, nor had I ever thought that'd be something I'd experience. Romeo and I had been very clear with one another since the beginning that this was just sex, with no strings attached aside from our friendship. To be honest, I never really considered whether or not he had strings attached because I knew I didn't. It had never occurred to me that he possibly did. Now, though, it made sense.

Everything made sense. It explained why he'd always wanted to cuddle after sex, why he was becoming so possessive, why he'd been so jealous, and why he'd wanted to be the only one in my bed. We weren't dating, but maybe he felt like friends with benefits was the closest to dating that he and I could get.

It still was hard for me to forget about the way that his face had filled with utter pain earlier today, after I told him that I didn't feel that way about him. I thought he knew that. Still, that look of utter brokenness and pain had hurt to see on his face, but it hurt even more to know that I was the cause of it. Hurting him had never been my intention, ever. He was my closest friend, aside from Quinn, and I hated that I had hurt him. I'd broken his heart, but that wasn't even the worst part of it all. The worst part was how kindly he'd been to me after all that I had just put him through. Even though I'd broken his heart and also slept with one of his best friends, he had just given me this shaky smile when I rejected him and shook his head.

"I-I'm so sorry, Romeo. I never meant to put you in this type of position. I wish I could, but I don't love you that way." I had said to him in a shaky voice, sniffling while I tried to hold back my tears. Instead of being angry or perhaps bitter or something along those lines, all he did was give me a sad smile and then shook his head. "I know you don't." He said softly.

That look on his face, I could still see it. His brown eyes were the saddest I'd ever seen them as he had looked at me, brimmed with tears and slightly bloodshot as he tried to stop himself from crying. However, his attempts were futile. Some of his tears spilled over anyways and his dark brows furrowed together in distress, showing just how much my rejection had actually hurt him. But he wasn't mean. Just defeated. Not wanting him to cry, I'd wiped his tears and lightly hugged him, allowing his muscular arms to slide around my waist to hug me back. I hadn't seen Romeo really cry before and it hurt to see.

"Lia?" He had muttered into my hair after a moment of silence between the two of us, causing me to swallow thickly so I wouldn't burst into tears. "Yes?" I'd barely managed to choke out, hiding the shakiness of my voice from him with my head in his chest. "I think that you and I need to go back to just friends. Nothing more. If we keep this up...I won't be able to stop myself from falling more in love with you." He said softly, sounding a little disappointed in his words, but I knew that we both knew he was right. This couldn't go on between us anymore, nor would it. "Okay." I agreed softly, feeling him place a light kiss on the top of my head before he pulled out of my embrace.

So that was where my brain kept going back to, consistently worrying and fearing that Romeo wouldn't even want to be something as simple as friends with me. After all, I'd rejected him and slept with Luke. I knew it wasn't true—he said himself friends was the best option—but it was in my nature to worry and be paranoid. That was just how I was. I couldn't help it.