Starlight | completed

Chapter 33 | new promises

❝I'll come back to you, I promise. This much I promise❞

Chapter 33 | new promises

There are days when your heart either breaks down into a million little smithereens, unfixable, and undistinguishable one from the other. These days at times, are unexpected, and wrenching. Other times they are entirely expected, yet they hurt the same. The same type of gut wrenching pain.

Then there are the days when everything shines, as if the heavens are smiling down unto us, and the sky is beaming. The sun is smiling, and the clouds are like cotton candy in the honey lit haze that surrounds the world. It is a day filled with immense joy, and happiness.

Those are the rare ones.

Luce has yet to experience many of those days, they are infrequent and rare. But the first always haunt him, on lonely nights and dark atmospheres, they fill him up and then crush him. He wonders what is in store for him today, will it be the former of the latter?

"Luce, you know I just broke up with Will?" she asks, and that is the total opposite of what he had expected her to say. But he nods. She looked hesitant, as she searches for the right words. She wrings a hand through her light hair, as she thinks. Her almond eyes scrunch in the corner, and she frowns.

"Don't you think it seems so sudden?" she asks, and Luce's eye brow furrows. "What seems so sudden?" he asks, Aera's only response is a sad sigh. She turns around, her back to him and walks towards his mirror. She grabs a long clip from her bad, and quickly twists her hair into it.

Luce frowns as he notices the beads of sweat on her back, it's a cold day. "I'm sorry for stressing you out" he mumbled softly, and Aera turns to look at him, a surprised look on her face. She smiles softly, her eyes crinkling in the corner once again.

"It's okay Luce" she reassures him, a faint glow around her figure as she settles in next to him. He sallows, she's so close. He could reach a few millimeters, and touch her. He could hold her, but he doesn't. He stuffs his hands into his jacket, and smiles back at her.

"Anyways, isn't it too soon? To like move on? I just got out of a relationship." she questions, and it strikes Luce at that moment. She did just get out of a relationship, and now she's dealing with him and all his bullshit. Aera doesn't like change, she despises it to be honest.

And she hates confrontations even more, how utterly inconsiderate of him. He wonders how it is that she is still holding herself together. He clears his throat, "T-Then what?" he asks, and Aera wrings her hands together. An familiar expression overcoming her face once more, it was unease.

"You're not going to like this" she mumbled, and Luce simply raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. "But I think it would be good for me" she continued, and then she just halted. Not saying any more, Luce resisted the urge to grab onto her hand and nodded.

"Anything good for you starlight, is good for me" he said.

Aera lightly chucked, a bit startled. It was different hearing Luce say sweet words, than it was reading his sweet words. "I—I would like time" she asked her tone soft and sweet, Luce leaned against his desk. His long lithe body leaning, as if trying to hold himself up.

"Uh—time for what?" he asked, and Aera sighed. She went back to the mirror, and pulling the clip off, she let her hair fall down. She paced back and worth, Luce knew she had a habit of repeating motions and patters when she was nervous.

"I-I think I need to pull myself together. W-Will's whole lying thing h-hurt, and I need to recover from that. And then there's this whole me trying to be popular, when I d-don't even want to be." She paused and looked up calculating Luce's expression, he was emotionless.

"I need t-time to feel like myself again" she whispered, and Luce pushed himself off the table. Aera frowned, he was really tall. "Do you need this time away from me?" he softly asked, and Aera swiftly nodded.

She did, if she was with Luce, all that would plague her mind was that he loved her. She couldn't think around him anymore, she felt as if she was going to crumble any moment. And this facade she had up, would crumble to dust right with her.

She needed to find herself again, who it was she wanted to be. Because at the end of the day, if she went to the mirror and looked at herself. The girl blinking back at her, was not who she wanted to be. Her reflection looked too delicate, too soft and pretty.

Her hair was light, she missed her raven locks, her eyes were unfamiliar. An different color due to the contacts she wore, and the glasses that were usually almost falling off the curve of her nose were nonexistent. Her clothes weren't her style either, the tight fitting top, and pants were more suitable for someone like Ana than they were for her.

She missed her old style, the beige clothes, and long sleeves. She wanted to feel like herself again, and she needed a bit of time to do that. And it would help her if that time was away from Luce, she needed some space for simply her. There had been too many people surrounding her for too long.

"Do you feel like it would help if the time was away from me?" Luce suddenly asked again, pulling her away from her thoughts. She nodded once more, "I think it would be better if I was by myself" she asked, and Luce's expression slightly softened.

"Of course you can have time, you don't owe me anything Aera. Please don't feel as if you do, you are your own person." A ghost of a smile flickered across his alluring face and he repeated himself once more. "You don't owe me anything."

Aera gently smiled, "Thank you Luce" she whispered back, and this time when he smiled at her. His smile was full, and captivating. He walked closer to her, and asked one more question. "B-But when you do have enough time, will you make up your mind?"

Aera titled her head to the side as she thought, that was the future and she didn't know. Her emotions were unclear to even herself, but Luce had suffered enough. She had made him suffer enough, "I promise to you that I will have made up my mind by then."

Luce nodded, a tentative smile on his face. He leaned back on to his desk once more, and asked a final question. "How long is time Aera?" he asked, and that she did not have an answer for. She walked closer to him, and clutching his shirt, she pressed a delicate kiss on his cheek.

"I'll come back to you, I promise. This much I promise."

~~~~
school is draining my spirit ☹️