NEVER MINE ✧ enoch o'connor

𝟎𝟖. Around

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NIKI - Around
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SUJI

What started off as a great week ended with emotional turmoil and I hadn't left my bed since the news came to me that evening.

The next few days became a sort of blur. It felt like hours before I would move from my bed, and I only ever stood up to use the bathroom. Even sitting at the window to watch the children at play seemed as if it could backfire miserably.

It didn't hit me until a week later that he was gone. Griffin and I were never going to finish our reading of The Glass Menagerie, or have our last dinner in the old Loop together. He was missing, and every time I woke up was a constant reminder of it.

༻❁༺

I heard somebody enter my room, then came a child's voice. "Will you play with us, Suji? They're at it in the parlour... again."

When two lumps planted themselves behind me on the bed I emerged from my duvet and tried to smile at the happy faces, staring.

Claire and Bronwyn.

"A bit jet lagged," I groaned. "But I promise to play tomorrow."

"Have you been crying?" asked Claire, her dewy eyes right up to mine.

"How can you tell?" I teased, trying to make light of the situation.

The two girls frowned.

"Still hung up on your friend's death, are you?" Bronwyn asked softly.

Such questions had the effect of making me tear up in just milliseconds and my head dropped into my hands not even a moment after. It was the most godawful feeling.

"Wyn?" whimpered Claire. I could just picture the distress on her face.

"Not to worry. I'll get Emma," Bronwyn assured her. "She'll know what to do."

Then it was just Claire and I.

༻❁༺

Moments later, I saw a line of people in the hallway trailing behind Bronwyn as she came back from getting 'Emma'. I nearly took cover at Enoch's entrance.

Jacob urgently crossed the floor and sat on the bed with Claire. "Well, how is she?" he asked.

"She's alright," the little girl who had been comforting me replied.

"Then she ought to look more cheerful," stated Enoch.

Olive walked past him, heavy footsteps on her way to the bedside. "Those Hollows are just awful," she groaned.

"Don't tell me you just figured that out now," he mocked.

Olive stuck out her tongue at Enoch which I assumed was equivalent to The Finger because he took quite the offence.

Then Emma inserted herself between Jacob and Claire in front of me. "It's destroying you, isn't it?" she asked.

I tried to avoid the obvious answer by telling her that I was fine, however, there was a strain in my voice that convinced her I wasn't.

"I think she's overwhelmed," Emma whispered to Jacob. She turned to the rest of the group and firmly stated, "To be standing around is completely unnecessary. Jake and I'll take it from here."

The children obliged, and soon they were filing out of the room, leaving me with a subgroup.

"You too, Claire," she added.

Claire let my hand go before hopping off the bed and skipping out into the hallway, fairy dust trailing behind her. The door remained open after her departure as we waited for Enoch's turn.

"Forcing someone out into this heat is a crime," he asserted. "I'm staying inside."

We gazed at him in wonder while he remained near the foot of the bed. In that moment he was definitely out of place, though something passed between Emma, Jacob, and I to which we subconsciously agreed that Enoch belonged in the room just as much.

"Well, sit down, you lunatic," Emma broke the silence. "There's no reason to be guarding the bed."

Enoch climbed onto the mattress and added to the formation of a semicircle in front of me. Just seeing him made me cry; and after my eighth fit of tears that day, Emma whispered carefully, "He was important to you, wasn't he? Griffin."

The answer was obvious, which made me upset, and just when I thought I was through with emotions I felt more tears welling in my eyes.

"At least he died for a good reason," Jacob added, an attempt to buoy me from my lake of tears. "I remember saying, 'Get rid of the Hollows or die trying' during our fight against them last summer, and I think Griffin did just that."

Within our moments of solitude, I began to feel slightly better. Which is to say-I still felt nauseous about everything, but I no longer felt like I was on the verge of passing out.

It only took a week.

_____