Celeste's childhood wasn't something she loved talking about. It was filled with nothing but painful memories. Whether they were the ones from when her father, along with her brothers, left, or the ones from her mother's death and her stepfather's a...
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STEEL-BLUE EYES gazed back into my identical ones. Happiness beamed across their irises. Reassurance coated them. A faint smile played across their owner's face, and it was so full of life, completely contrasting with the one I had last seen more than a year ago.
My phone's screen glowed within the darkness encasing Marco's room, and it was the only source of light—besides the glowing stickers he had stuck on the ceiling. It faintly illuminated the space I had occupied and reflected across my face, making the tears tainting my eyes appear more prominent than I wanted them to do.
My mother's image flickered when I attempted to blink my tears away, and my vision blurred. My throat burned as I swallowed a sob back. My tears grew heavier as they danced across my eyes' edges, and Momma's image faded along with the fading light of my phone. Her image blended into the darkness, just like she had done.
I set my phone aside, not bothering to unlock it the way I had been hopelessly doing for the last minutes. Or hours. I didn't exactly know. Time was passing by slowly, and I had grown tired of staring at my mother's image in silence and wishing for her to come back.
I pulled my knees to my chest, hugging them tightly. My head buried into their safety, and my shoulders slumped.
I drowned within the silence encasing my twin's room, and I didn't make any effort to rise back to the surface, not even when my thoughts grew too loud—not when my conversation with Enzo played like a broken record at the back of my mind.
The guilt from yesterday doubled with every passing moment, and it stung. It hurt so bad that I couldn't do anything about it. It hurt so bad that my brother had gotten hurt because of me and that I had failed to convince him of what Armani had told me.
I had called Enzo after coming to the room, and he had picked up right away. We had spoken so much. He had told me that he had gone to Azalea's place yesterday after school so that he could take a few stuff from her brother, and I had told him that I had spent the entire day catching up with the schoolwork I had missed.
I had lied. I had slept the entire day. Or I had just miserably attempted to. I had woken up so many times. Once because Armani had come to give me my meds, once because of a nightmare, and once because I had heard a door slam shut in the distance. I hadn't bothered to get up but rather pretended to fall asleep once more.
Lorenzo had believed me, and we had repeatedly changed topics for the next hour. His words had come to a halt the moment he had heard Jack call for him, and he had muttered a bye, not giving me the chance to respond.
That had happened around two hours ago. I hadn't moved from my place ever since. I hadn't called Enzo or sent him any messages. I had lost track of time, painfully welcoming the fear that had struck my heart.
I had felt so helpless. I still did. I shut my eyes tightly and failed to stop the tears from falling. My grip tightened around my knees; my head buried further into them. A sob threatened to leave my throat; I swallowed it back like I had always done.
