Violet didn't know that I came to talk to Summer a lot. I made myself known when she would come home from school, acting as if her father had let me in or the back door was open. She never seemed to mind.
"Tell me about your family," she said to me one day as she rinsed strawberries off in the sink. I hesitated to tell her the truth or not. I hadn't told Violet, and look where that got me.
"My father ran away." Not entirely untrue. That was what Constance had tried to get me to believe. "My mother died a long time ago." Not entirely untrue, either. The woman I came to know and love as my mother wasn't the same woman Constance was today. "As for siblings, I have none." Again, half true.
Summer set the bowl of strawberries on the counter, drying her hands on a towel. "Oh, my, that's awful. So, you live with your girlfriend now?" She innocently ate a berry, staring up at me through her eyelashes.
"Girlfriend? Violet's not my girlfriend." Wow. Speaking Violet and girlfriend aloud in the same sentence made my heart beat a little bit faster and my smile a little bit bigger. I had to remind myself that I liked Summer. Violet and I were just friends.
Summer smiled. "Single, eh? That's not so bad..." I tried to ignore the fact that her inexperienced attempt at flirting didn't stir anything inside me - it was the thoughts of Violet doing it that did.
I watched her eat another strawberry, longing to be able to taste one. "Now tell me about your family." Just then, there was a knock at the back door. As Summer opened it, Violet stepped in, looking angry. (Of course, she hadn't really come in from outside; the farthest we could travel was to the gazebo).
"Tate! I'm so glad I found you! Can we talk?" Her words were anything but cheery, but she did her best to paste a smile on her face.
"Yeah, um, usual spot...?" I discreetly motioned to the basement.
"Yes." She turned to Summer and nodded curtly. "Hello." Violet left through the back door, but I knew she was sneaking off to the basement. I said goodbye to Summer and tried to sneak off as well.
"Tate?" she called out before I left. I stopped and turned back around, indicating I was listening. "Don't let her bully you around, okay?" I smiled and nodded, hurriedly scurrying away to meet my doom in the basement.
Violet was sitting on the cracked cement floor, her legs crossed, rolling the rubber ball into the shadows. "Glad you could join me, Tate." I sat down next to her, watching the ball roll back to her. "I need to speak to you about Summer."
"What about her?" Shit. I had a feeling this would take a bad turn.
"Why are you... why do you like her, Tate? What do you see in her?" The words got stuck in my throat. I didn't know how to answer her.
"I don't know, Vi. I just do." She clutched the ball in her hand, her knuckles turning white. "She's nice, and funny, and beautiful." I didn't know it was possible for her knuckles to turn whiter.
"I'm sick of everything being built on lies and being fake, Tate." she whispered, rolling the ball into the darkness and standing up, signalling we were done here. "I'm so sick of it." I could see the pain written across her face like an open book. "I love you. Too much for you to be unhappy, but too much for you to be with her."
And it sent a knife through my heart that I had fallen so out of love for her that I couldn't truthfully say it back.
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this is short and probably lame but im happy w it idk
YOU ARE READING
Maniac (American Horror Story)
Fanfiction"If love was enough, I'd be here with you now."
