Two Letters That Change Everything

Serendipity

| The chance occurrence of events in a beneficial way |

➳ ☾ ➳

Long eyelashes that slowly flutter open when the hint of sunlight draws patterns across them. Blue irises as clear as the sky, which fill anyone who lays eyes on them with peace. Soft nose, which scrunches upward with the faintest of touches. Plump lips that--

No, don't go there, Callum.

Callum shook his head fervently, trying to rid himself of these thoughts. It was wrong. He shouldn't think about the way his best friend's lips looked like, or worse, tasted.

Images of Florence's face inches away from his flooded his mind. However, not once did he dare drop his gaze to her lips. But that didn't mean he missed the ways she'd chew her bottom lip in concentration or how her tongue wetted her lips whenever they were slightly chapped.

"God," Callum groaned, his gaze drifting away from his best friend's face. He rested his head on the couch and closed his eyes.

Florence, who was engrossed in a book, felt alarmed. "Is something wrong?"

Everything. Everything is wrong.

"Not at all. Don't worry about it."

Furrowing her eyebrows and putting the book aside, the girl turned her full attention to the boy facing her. "You can talk to me," she smiled, reaching out to take his hand.

He had been acting weird ever since his conversation with Daphne. Florence assumed he was annoyed with her, but he seemed distant and unfocused.

He spent the better half of the hour either staring off into the distance or staring at her before jumping and shaking himself awake from his trance.

Callum absentmindedly flipped his hand and started tracing his thumb against Florence's soft skin. He debated whether or not to tell her about what was troubling him, but could he reveal that his ex-fiancée accused him of being in love with his childhood best friend? Way to make a conversation awkward.

He exhaled deeply, the breath wedged in his lungs, waiting for the confusion to clear out slightly before it escaped. "Why did you let Daphne come here?"

Florence's face fell, and she pried her hand out of his grasp. Fiddling with her fingers, she averted her gaze. At that moment, it dawned on her that she was a coward, too afraid to look at her favorite pair of hazel eyes in fear of catching the hint of pain she was sure she caused.

"I'm sorry." Was she a broken record? Because it seems that she couldn't muster anything beyond an apology these days. "I went to talk to her--"

"You what?" Callum asked incredulously. "You went to talk to her?"

How could she talk to the same woman that kicked her out of the wedding? That left her best friend at the altar? That threw accusations left and right about the nature of Callum and Florence's relationship?

"You were doing better," Florence stated as if this justified her decision. "And I thought that you were ready to hear each other out."

"I was not doing better! What the hell gave you that false impression?"

"You opened up! You don't open up unless you're ready."

He scoffed, jumping to his feet. It took every ounce of self-restraint to not blow up in Florence's face. Because, hate it as he must, the anger he felt wasn't directed towards his best friend. "Just because I let you touch my wounds doesn't mean they hurt any less."