1| Ophelia

10

-CHAPTER TEN-
OPHELIA
•

Hours of daydreaming and that was definitely not what I had expected.

Yesterday when I went over to Diana’s, she’d set me down in their huge kitchen and told me her story. Her nostalgic voice dominating Prince Caspian’s faint one as the movie was being played by the four year old, the kid’s eyes shining as Ben Barnes rode the horse.

A new girl, in a big city. Attending the prestigious school her rich but distant grandmother had sent hero. A lonely and depressed freshman paired up with the bad boy who was her RA.

Spending time together with the bad boy. Them opening up to each other and slowly falling in love. Kissing for the very first on the fire escape outside her bedroom window at three in the morning. Their first date at the Metropolitan Museum and their second kiss under the stars in Central Park. 

Their first I love yous in the dark of the night in the middle of them vandalizing a public property in her sophomore year. Him growing distant. Him confessing about the truth about his family.

A father who hadn’t been home for years, a sister forced to spend her life in oblivion to her brothers’ existence. The spiral tightening around him and the air suffocating his soul. 

Him telling her he was no good for her. Her arguing back that it didn’t matter. They loved each other. He left. She understood. The longing looks in the hallways at school and the subtle glances to the lips of the other.

Never talking, just watching each other from afar, wishing they could hold each other in their arms, and fall asleep together and wake up together for the rest of their lives. 

Their kind of love, I thought, was rare. To love someone, but letting them go just so they are not consumed by the other’s darkness. To love someone, and keep loving them even though they hurt you.

I just knew that I could never handle a broken heart. I don’t think I would be able to. I wasn’t as strong as Diana or Lucas, and I just wished whatever it was Lucas and Diana had fallen apart because of, could be solved.

I knew deep down neither of their stubborn asses was going to talk first. I had to come in between. If I somehow was part of the reason why they broke up then it was my responsibility to get them back together.

When I asked Diana about what Lucas had told her about my family, she refused to answer. “It’s something your brothers should talk to you about. It’s not my secret to tell, Lia. I’m sorry,” she said. I understood though. Even I wouldn’t have liked it if my sibling found out stuff about family from someone who was not blood. 

“Why did Sebastian have your number,” I asked, and Diana stilled, like a deer caught in headlights. “When Lucas broke up with me, neither of us was in a good place. My way of coping was burying myself in studies whereas he spent his time someone drinking his liver out.

"One night, about eight months ago, I got a call from a police station. Turns out Lucas had gotten arrested for illegally street fighting and when he was given his one phone call, the dumbass decided to call me instead of one of your brothers."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes at my brother's stupidity.

“What did he say,” I asked. “He was drunk Lia. So drunk, they did the alcohol test on him and it was way past the limit, not to mention he was drinking underage. He was facing charges for the fighting and was on the verge of losing his driver's license for one year and what does he do? He calls me and sobs out about how much he loves me and how foolish he is to let me go.