No matter how much she runs, Laura is stuck in an endless loop of her past. With a transfer of school and a curly-haired boy who seems to be wherever she goes, it's a matter of time she realizes that her universe ceases at the sight of him-and runni...
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IN ACTUALITY, THERE EXISTED NO SERAPHS IN THIS REALM. I was surrounded by rodents. And not the type I had speculated to be our travel partner, but rather six, human-sized fools who were a lot harder to get along with, and even more so to get rid of. I knew that was a dramatic way of calling my own friends a major headache, but two cups of coffee with no food in my system had turned me into this—humanity-hating, tired, simply done.
Brunch was going to be a pain, much like anything we managed to do, because the peak of our struggles was picking a place to eat at.
Evan was gone. He'd left in the early hours of dawn, and I had noticed when the bed felt vacant to my side. I wanted to say I had no recollection of how I ended up on the bed after deciding to sleep on the floor. I wanted to wipe that memory off my mind, last night under moonlight and all the conversation we'd shared. I wondered how many more times it would take for me to be at ease with playing the moment: his hold as he carried me, the warmth, the laughter which permeated air molecules and cut through the smoothness of the duvets like melted butter.
It had been replayed over a thousand times, yet my mind deflected from reality.
"Pizza?" Sean prompted, but everyone's attention was haywire. "Can someone contribute something useful so we can speed this up? We still have a good distance to travel."
Raymond was the most capable of that, but he had left to get the rest of us something to drink. Xavier and Leo sat on plastic chairs a little far from us, whilst Chloe bobbed her head to the music that she played on her phone.
Stella's eyes glued to mine, lips twisted in a smirk. "How was last night, babe?"
"Don't babe me, you menace," I scowled, but the mention was enough for my chest to squeeze. "I haven't forgiven you."
She rolled her eyes. "Still doing this? Laura," she drawled her words, and then winked at Chloe. "Just because you enjoy the chase doesn't mean others will. If someone snatches what's yours, don't come home crying."
Chloe nodded.
My mouth almost, almost, dropped. To the fucking floor. She was loud. Xavier was seated a couple feet across, browsing his phone, and he glanced up and laughed, too.
"I won't be grinning at this if I were you," accusing Xavier was second-nature in an unnatural conversation. "You are endorsing mistreatment." And public humiliation of a dear friend.
"Just because I'm grinning doesn't mean I endorse shit," he shrugged, in his eyes a miraculous glint. "I like chaos, darling. You must know this by now."
And that could've been fine, if that was all. Leo, who lacked knowledge of this, was deep in thought. I didn't even want to know how a person with no context took in this disastrous conversation. I didn't want to do anything with this. I wanted to go home, for God's sake.
