Starlight | completed

Chapter 21 | rivalry

❝No matter what her story may be, they both seem to feel the same pain.❞

Chapter 21 | rivalry

When Aera sees Luce once again, he doesn't look like himself. The color in his cheeks are gone, he's a milky white, pale and unlike himself. His black hair hangs messily from his head rumpled, and looking as if he just got out of bed. He has a black hoodie pulled on over his head, and eyes bags litter his face.

Dark eyes bags. She searches for any sign of physical abuse but there isn't any, he looks unharmed. But he doesn't look like himself either, he looks dark, sad. With his black jeans, rips along the length and black hoodie he attracts the eyes of a few girls. He looks beautiful, like a fallen angel. He doesn't pay them any mind, Aera frowns. Luce could really use someone.

She turns to Will, he's at her side and talking to one of his friends. "She's hot man" his friend says, and Will groans. Will's friend is referring to Ana, and she is hot. With her golden skin, bright amber eyes, and locks of black hair cascading down her back. She's gorgeous, Aera waits for Will's reply. Carefully eavesdropping.

Will rolls his eyes "Ana is not hot" he mutters, shoving his friend carelessly. His friend laughs and mutters something Aera cannot hear, Aera frowns. That's a lie, you would have to be blind to not see how gorgeous Ana is. She's stunning and she knows it. She glows in everyone's eyes. She's popular for a good reason. She looks away from Will at Luce.

"Luce?" she calls out, and he slumps at her side. His hair brushes her skin as he backs up a bit, and she shivers. Will shoots him a unreadable look, but quickly averts his eyes. His smiling face, has a frown, it's so unnatural. She wonders what Will seems to have against Luce, they were fine the last time she saw them.

She looks over at Luce, he doesn't look happy to see Will either. He's shooting him a subtle glare, that isn't unlike Luce though. He never did get along with anyone. She had hoped he would have tried for her. But she guessed not. She reaches over and places a arm on Luce's shoulder, he flinches. As if disgusted.

Aera lowers her hand, that had hurt. "Are you alright?" she asks instead, and Luce nods his head. As if he doesn't wish to talk to her, but why? She hasn't done anything to him. She frowns, he'd been avoiding her for a few days too. Carefully and calculatingly, it was so unlike Luce. She wondered what she had done.

"Don't you feel like we're drifting?" she mumbled, not noticing how she seems to be uttering her thoughts out, and Luce's head jerks up to stare at her. She blinks a bit unnerved, as he stares at her with those vivid chocolate eyes of his. He frowns, "I guess so." he finally mumbles.

They hadn't hung out in a while, they had used to hang out everyday. Before this whole thing of course, they would have done everything together. Aera would be mumbling about some random thing in the world that she didn't agree with, and Luce would just sit and her side and carefully listen. Other times he would write in that book of his, the one he never let her read and she would hum a soft song to herself. They used to be content in each other's presence.

Now they barely even talked, it seemed as if Will and his friend group filled every crevice of her life. As if reminding her of that, Ana came to stand next to her, and Aera resisted the urge to frown. She didn't like not liking people, but Ana was just so unnecessarily rude. As if sensing Aera's eyes on her, she winked. Aera looked away, a frown set onto her face.

Brushing back her thick wavy hair, she turned to Luce. "Hey, wanna go that party today?" she asked, more like crooned. Her voice a pitch lower than usual, there was something just so sensual about it. Everything about her was sensual and alluring, she reminded Aera of gold. And Aera despised her.

"He was actually going with me" Aera muttered out and Ana stared at her, her eyelashes blinking against her cheek as she regarded Aera. She seemed to deem whatever it was that she found, not to her liking. She rolled her eyes, "You have a boyfriend, go with him." she muttered instead, and Luce smiled at her.

"You can Will with if you like" Aera said, and Will sought her a confused look. Ana blinked, her eyes twinkling. She looked as if she'd gotten exactly what she wanted, she then turned around to Luce and winked. And Luce smiled back softly, her expression mirrored on his face. Aera resisted the urge to reach over and strangle her.

"I don't want to go with her" Will whined in the corner, Ana just blinked at him. A expression flashed so fast across her face it looked almost like pain but Aera was too late in reading it. Because in a split second her face was back to having that sly smile it always had, her golden eyes twinkled again. Aera regarded her, there was just something so golden about her, she was lustrous.

"Too bad" Ana mumbled, and Will groaned again. He turned to Aera, and leaned down, his breath brushing against her ears as he whispered into them. "You don't want me to go with her." he mumbled. Aera whirled around to face him a bit confused to what was going on. Will caught her hands and frowned.

"We used to date" Will mumbled, and behind her Ana coughed in delight, all smug. Luce's eyes widened, and he shot Ana a confused look. Ana seemed to sense his eyes on her, and walked over to him. Her golden eyes twinkling brightly in the sunlight. Luce regarded her, it seemed he'd gotten her all wrong again.

"What happened?" he whispered to Ana as she neared him. She rested her hand on his shoulder as she talked, her fingers strumming against them softly. Luce resisted the urge to flinch away. She regarded him with a conflicting look, as if deciding wether or not he was worth her precious time. It seemed she liked what she saw this time.

"Left him" she mumbled finally , and Luce regarded her a confused expression on his face. "He left you?" he questioned and Ana shook her head, her dark hair shaking softly as it cascaded down her back. If he was anyone else he wouldn't be able to take his eyes off her, she was utterly stunning. But he was Luce Nova. And Luce Nova has only ever had eyes for one girl.

Plus Ana wasn't his type.

"I left him" she confirmed and before Luce could open his mouth and ask her more questions, she walks away. Luce stared after her a look of bewilderment evident in his face.  Will was still complaining to Aera about how he didn't want to go with Ana. Ana, a frown on her face, walked towards them.

Even the way she walked was enchanting, Ana was undeniably enchanting. "Will you're going with Aera, I'll go with Lucey" she says, a teasing lit to her tone. But underneath that teasing lit, Luce can hear the pain that he feels in his own voice sometimes. Ana is Ana, and her and Luce are the same. No matter what her story may be, they both seem to feel the same pain. And Luce involuntarily smiles, he decides he likes her.

It's nice to have another friend.

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more of a light chapter, cus sadness is overrated.