SOUR CANDY | P. MAXIMOFF [ DISCONTINUED ]

13 | OF FORLORN FEELINGS AND STOLEN GLANCES

13 | OF FORLORN FEELINGS AND STOLEN GLANCES

Cassie felt a familiar flutter of warmth as soon as she stepped inside the mansion. It has only been six months since she left this place to head to Paris and yet, for her, it felt like years. And now that she's here, she couldn't help but to tear up a little. Cassie missed this place so badly that the idea of parting with it again sounds so ridiculous to her. While she makes her way to the next floor, students greet her as she passes by them and she responds with a warm smile and a simple nod.

Once she reached her destination, she did not think twice nor did she knock, she just pushed the door open. And what welcomed her definitely stunned her. For a moment, Cassie stood frozen by the door, with her hands still clutching the handle and her brows furrowed. Hank was talking to someone – which is surprising since Hank is too socially awkward at times to start a conversation to save his life – and the person in question is a woman. A blonde probably around his age and who's staring at Cassie with her eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and horror, as though she had seen a full-bodied apparition of a ghost.

The three of them stood in deafening silence, no one dared to speak. The two seem to be in a conversation before Cassie decides to barge in without announcing her presence. And with that thought in mind, she cringed. Cassie had nearly forgotten that she's living with two grown adults and who knows what could be happening behind closed doors. If she sometimes catches her students making out, it will not take a very long time until she catches one of them shagging someone. And she would rather get hit by a car and die than add another trauma to her checklist. Clearing her throat, she decides to speak up. "Did I interrupt something?" she asked with enough suggestion on her voice for Hank to look at her scandalously. Cassie pressed her lips, suppressing a smile.

"What? No!" Hank replies abruptly. Cassie raises an eyebrow at him.

"Really?" she teased as she threw a quick glance at the blonde who's still staring at her with disbelief in her eyes. She returns her gaze back at him. "Seems like you have found someone." Cassie watched in delight as the idiot's face turned red as a tomato.

Hank was about to say something when he was interrupted by the blonde lady, "Cassie?" She called her name, rolling the word on her mouth with ease, as if she had muttered it under her breath for a thousand times while practicing for an apology or a eulogy.

Cassie looked at her, eyes filled with caution. How does she know my name? She thought. There are a hundred things in the woman's eyes. Regret, melancholy, anguish, and dabbled with flickers of an ember left to wither, of an extinguished flame that used to melt the frost that clung to the bones. Cassie is uncertain if the woman is haunted at the sight of her or if she's haunted by the look on her eyes. But if there's one thing she's certain, the hollow corner of the woman's heart hurt as it beat itself back to life and it pulsed of something forlorn–something forbidden. And then it hit her. "Raven?"

Raven, for it was her, was taken aback by it. She blinked twice before putting a forced smile on her lips while putting a facade on her face. "Took you long enough?" she quips lightheartedly while her heart sinks deeper than the Titanic.