Blazing Inferno

39. Snipping off broken ends

The ride back home was not a pleasant one. Elijah snapped every time he was spoken to and avoided me like the plague even though we were heading to my house and we were the only ones in the car aside from Josie.

When we did reach my house, I sent Josie in before finally turning to him.

"Look," I started. "You should head back. I don't know what we are doing but this has to stop. It's toxic and it hurts both of us. I'm tired of hurting."

"So what? I leave and you move on with your life, is that it?" he asked harshly, rounding up on me. His eyes were blazing and behind the defensive wall he had set up again, I could see glimpses of his vulnerability. "We forget that we love each other and give this up?"

"Isn't that what you wanted all along?" I asked, laughing humorlessly. "You told me to move on, you told me to forget you and I guess now I'm actually willing to do that."

When he didn't answer, I wrapped my arms around myself and reached for the door, feeling myself crack the longer I stayed. Nothing could ever go right, could it?

But his hand landed on my wrist and halted my movements.

"Well then I guess this is goodbye, BumbleBee," he said softly and I blinked back the tears prickling my eyes. I was really going to do this.

"I guess it is. Stay safe, Elijah and take care."

With that, I pulled my wrist from his grasp and left the car, nearly running into my house and up the stairs. The tears fell and I furiously brushed them away. No. I wouldn't cry.

But when I felt something twist me around and Elijah's familiar lips fell on mine, I knew my cheeks were wet and I knew he could taste the saltiness of my tears. As he kissed me, I realized that it wasn't only my cheeks that were wet.

And then he was gone.

I could feel the wind caress my closed eyelids and the loss of something that my heart broke for. But before the pain, I felt relief. Relieved to be free of the pain he caused me when I was with him.

Love was a fucking pain in the ass.

Angelina arrived with Olivia later that night with three tubs of ice cream in her hands while the other had loaded her bag with candies. I choked on my laugh and they embraced me tightly, letting me know that they were here for me and would always be.

We watched TVD, drooling over Damon and Stefan and Klaus as we buried our responsibilities and took a day off from everything. It was like a burden being lifted off my shoulders. Neither of my friends asked me what happened, they didn't have to.

The weekend washed away before I could catch up and soon, I found myself dragging myself out of bed in the morning for school. To top it up, I had exams to ace this week and I hadn't done studying in a long ass time. It was a good thing I had my flash cards and notes to prepare me for such an instance. Weirdly, breaking up with Elijah again from our non-existent relationship didn't turn me into a sobbing, ice cream mess. The pain was still there but I had been working with pain my entire life. This was nothing different.

I had a feeling that everything's been so messed up that my mind refused to react anymore. I couldn't be happier about that.

Angelina picked me up and I waved a groggy Dad goodbye; he was certainly not a morning person.

"Hey, guess what?" Olivia asked excitedly as we met at her locker.

"What?" Angelina asked, rolling her eyes at Liv's crazed expression. 

"My cousin's enrolling into school! He's moving back into town. I finally get to have a cousin in the same school. I was always jealous of you," Liv said, sticking her tongue out at Ange playfully.