We're more than friends

Chapter 15

Hope's POV

Cocooned in my duvet, I was curled up in a ball on my bed. Some wet strands of hair were stuck to my face as I cried. It felt childish, crying. I already knew I was broken, but to hear my Aunt Freya say so was... I wasn't ready for it. Lizzie's attempt at – what was it? – comforting me? was a failure. Honestly, I just wanted to stay in my room and never leave.

My eyelids grew heavier with every minute I lay on my bed. The room was silent, as I had no more tears left to cry. Yet, the pounding in my head stopped me from drifting off to sleep. Instead, my mind would play Freya's words on repeat.

None of them broke you like the Necromancer did!

Broke as in broken. How long had she seen me as broken? Does the rest of my family feel that way? Am I really broken?

A turmoil of emotions was going through me. Anger, frustration, sadness. How was I supposed to face the world if the ones who supposedly loved me saw me as a fragile Chinese doll? I jumped into Malivore and came back to a world where no one remembered me, and when they did, they didn't fucking care! I lived through my parents, Elijah's and Landon's deaths, did I not? I was worse off then than now, and did they do anything? No! So, what in their right minds gave them the right to say I was broken!?

"Hope?" Josie's soft voice asked through the door. "Can I come in?"

I was hesitant. The last thing I wanted was for someone else to see me broken. So, I stayed silent, a part of me wishing she would go away. But Josie was having none of that. After what was only a minute or two of silence, when I thought she had left, the door to my room burst open. The bright light entering my room was partially covered by Josie's silhouette. I squinted at the first ray. As soon as I entered my room, I had closed the curtains and buried my head in my bed. I was bathing in darkness before she barged in.

I groaned and pulled my duvet over my face to hide the light, and maybe my puffy eyes and wet cheeks from Josie. I heard the door close before the sound of shuffling feet reached my bed. The mattress dipped a few centimetres away from my stomach, then the duvet was softly being tugged out of my grasp.

"Hope?" She called out. As my eyes were being uncovered, she added "What happened?"

"Nothin-"

"It's not nothing if you're crying, Hope." Josie said sternly, cutting me off before I could lie.

I tried hiding behind my covers again, but Josie had a tight grip on them and looked at me with so much concern in her eyes, I gave up. My mouth opened and closed a few times before I mustered up the courage to ask.

"Do you think I'm broken?" I asked, my voice wavering at the end, but I swallowed the lump in my throat, waiting for her answer.

"What? Of course not, Hope-" She said frantically.

"The truth, Josie." I said impatiently. I couldn't stand being lied to right now.

Her eyes searched mine for a minute before she spoke again. Her voice was soft, like a whisper when she said "Hope, you've been through a lot. More than others. But you've always come out stronger. Life throws at you only what you can handle, and you can handle a lot. But no, you're not broken, Hope. If anything, you're the fiercest person I know."

By then, she had fully uncovered my face and tucked a strand of my wet hair behind my ear. Her hand cupping my cheek, she leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on my forehead. My heart fluttered at the gesture, and before I knew what I was doing, I lunged forward and connected our lips. I tried to convey all my emotions for her in that one kiss.