Dare - Draco Malfoy

Chapter 63: Gone

Maeve:

We apparate on a cliff on which I have been one too many times.

I drop to my knees as soon as I regain my balance.

The truth of the last couple of hours hitting me all at once. With the adrenaline gone, despair drowns me.

Aria kneels next to me. I feel her breathing, my eyes are shut. Tears free falling, hiccuping at intervals. Her hands reaches my shoulder.

I look upwards, I look at her in the eyes. My vision is blurred from my crying.

"They gonna be okay" Her voice is just more than a whisper.

I look around me and see Blaise. His face screwed up in a painful expression. His chest raising and falling and his fists clenched. Isy just next to him. There's a cut on her jaw line. Her expression is cold, distant.

I wipe my cheeks angrily, shifting my eyes back down at the ground. I stand and turn away. I start walking towards the house, not waiting from them, nor looking back.

My heart is throbbing. It's painful. My chest stinging.

It's in my head, making me dizzy, my heavy breathing worsening.

I just feel lost. Feeling sick at the thought of us being safe, and him still there.

The unknown making it hard to breathe or think. He promised we would stay together. He would never have left me.

I need him to be here.

I reach the entrance to the house but the thought of entering it repulses me. I need air.

I walk to the back, where the stairs to the beach below start. I sit and let the wind brush against my skin. I look down at my shirt. Dust and dirt have turned it grey, small tears on its sleeves and front. There's bruises on my legs and I can now feel a tinge of blood in my mouth.

I look at my hands, my fingertips are dark, small patches of dried blood on them. Dirt trapped beneath my fingernails.

I cry.

I sit and cry until footsteps coming closer behind me startle me.

Isy quietly sits next to me.

"Hey" She breathes.

I keep my eyes fixed on my knees.

"I'm sorry" Her voice is calm. There's no pity in it.

I swallow.

Silence falls.

"We never really talk. You and I. But I like you." She smiles.

I turn to her.

"Yes. I mean, as a friend, I think you are actually quite great."

I smile back.

"Hey, umh- I've been meaning to ask you something" I start.

"Mmh?" She nods to show me she's listening.

"Has it ever bothered you?" I am a little hesitant to ask this.

"What do you mean?" She asks perplexed.

"Aria and I, I mean. The fact that we are so close?"

She lets out a loud laugh.

"I take that as a no?"

"Maeve, you guys have been best friends since third grade. Plus I didn't think you were into girls."

"No! I- I'm not." I stutter at the end.

She chuckles.

"Anyways, no. It doesn't bother me." She finishes more seriously.