PEARL

TWENTY-ONE

TRACK 21
SPACE SONG
BEACH HOUSE

if u do not skim my chapters u are truly pearl gang and ily lots and lots

q & a answers at the bottom!!!!

🕊

"NATE's almost definitely told you," Micah turned to Ida, as the boy in question led Lily to his bedroom with more whispered, shared softness, "but he and Lily are close. Super close. Like, brother and sister close. Always have been, ever since he arrived. Up until then it was just me and Lily."

He grinned fondly at the memory, and Nicole's burning envy surrounded her in a blue lotus sea.

"So don't worry, there's nothing to be suspicious about. Just in case you were wondering."

"He did tell me," Ida replied, as cool as the midnight air would've felt on Nicole's face had the suicide-proof window been as cracked as its sibling in the relatively-nearby bathroom, "and I wasn't wondering. If they were any closer, I wouldn't care."

The bluntness of her statement shocked Micah, and paradoxically sharpened Rowan's stare.

"Of course you wouldn't," he muttered darkly, and Nicole saw a similar (if far more softened) look of disapproval in Micah's gold-glinting eyes that remained when Nate returned, having closed his bedroom door behind him.

"Okay," he said, utterly unaware of the tension between the four that was thicker than the strokes of Nicole's charcoal had become after learning of his and Ida's relationship – if you could call it that. Ida had certainly made it clear that it wasn't on her part. "She's calmed down a little. She'll be safe with me, Nicky."

It took Nicole by surprise that he said that to her directly, and she blushed scarlet.

She also felt guilty for grinding her teeth at his happiness – however misplaced – with Ida, and his heartfelt tenderness towards Lily.

"Thanks," she mumbled, and her guilt grew when Nate – quickly aided by Rowan – helped her to her feet without her having to ask, to take the strain off of her knees. "Thank you."

However, the atmosphere between the two of them soon soured after the five left in the hallway began to discuss whether Lily had just had a manic episode – as Nicole had feared – or whether it was something else.

"Something not as lovely as you, lovely Nicky. Not lovely and pretty at all. Nothing like Ida's pretty lovely eyes. Something bad..."

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Are the lights in here too bright for you, sweetheart?"

As Nicole feared.

"You found her bleeding on Wednesday night and didn't tell us?!" Nate demanded, his eyes no longer twinkling and an even brighter shade of blue with newfound cause for concern. "What the Hell, Nicole? Why not?!"

He kept his voice down to a hushed hiss despite the difficulty, although there wasn't much need. The patients that may or may not have peeked out of their rooms when Lily was screaming to high Heaven hadn't seemed interested enough to poke around like paparazzi armed with their cruel cameras, and the staff sleeping areas were at least a couple of corridors away, back by the storing cupboard.

"I don't know, Nate," Nicole replied, shame deepening the blush on her thinned cheeks. She could feel herself screwing the bottle lid on, as she had done ever since her time in the starlit cradle. "I should've told you."