The day Lukas Fuller met Emma Whelan, his bond invitation to Olivia Byrne had broken a week ago. Hauled up in a pub, drinking beer after beer, he tries to forget his past lover while sharing small talk with the equally mopey Emma.
Though many drinks...
By luck, class ended before the professor had even reached us for our viewpoints on the play. But as we packed up our belongings, Olivia turned to me and said, "So when do you want to work on our presentation?"
"Will this weekend work for you?" I replied, still feeling a little deflated from the resurfaced memories of Anja that passed during that class.
She bit her lip. "I was going to go job hunting, but I guess I can come in."
I shook my head and smiled at her. "We can do it in breaks between classes and maybe stay late a couple nights during the week if we must."
"Are you sure? I don't want to interfere with your other assign—"
"Olivia, it's okay. I'm not going to get in the way of your money matters, and we have time." After all her concern and attempts to ease my despair before, all I wanted at this point was to not be a hindrance to her.
"Okay. Great. Should we exchange contact details at all? In case one of us can't make it one day?"
As in... get her number? My heart skipped a beat, but I nodded at her, trying to seem cool about her casual question. We pulled phones out and swapped them to punch in our numbers. As I typed my number in, a frown appeared on my face to see it was saving to her phone instead of her SIM, so I quickly switched it over before punching my number in. Then, when I exited out of her contacts, unable to help myself peering into her private life, the corners of my lips turned up once more at her home screen. "Cute cat."
Handing my phone back, her gleeful gaze met mine as she said, "He's the cutest, isn't he?"
You're cuter, I thought.
My gosh Lukas... you didn't seriously just think that.
It's not wrong...
Maybe so, but you can't be thinking that.
Why?
Because we need to stay away from her.
I thought we decided we could at least be her friend.
Yes, but—
"Where do you go?" she asked, interrupting my internal debate.
"Huh?"
"You rarely seem present. It's like you go somewhere in your mind."
Most people around us had filed out of the room already, but Olivia sat still in her chair, curious gaze fixated on mine in no rush to run. Almost as if she was hesitant to leave me alone right now. "Sorry..."
"It's nothing to apologise for. But don't get lost in there... from experience, it's hard to get back out once you do." Her hand nervously fidgeted with her sleeve. "Just like you said to me the other week... if you ever need anyone to listen, Lukas, I'm here." She smiled all the way to her eyes, and again I fell straight into their depths.
I fumbled for my words for a moment before I spoke. "What I said that first week... about being friends—"
"I know."
"You... do?"
She laughed without humour to her tone. "I've been there, Lukas. I pushed everyone away so much after some things happened back home. When I finally woke up, I realised no one was there anymore when I finally made my way out of my head. I was convinced no one would want to be around someone as messed up as me and that thought dug me deeper into the darkness." She shook her head, eyes glistening a touch as the memories haunted her mind while she spoke. "But I'm going to follow you around and sit by you until you make your way out and realise you need someone."
"Why?"
"I... I don't know. I just feel like there's a part of me that gets you... A part of me who wishes there was someone waiting for me when I climbed out of the hole, and now I have the option to be that for you."
I shook my head. "There are things about me, Olivia, that I can never tell you. So many things you would never understand and things I am so ashamed that I did that I've never voiced them to anyone." Because she didn't know of a world of vampires. She didn't have a world full of death and sacrifice and magic.
She shrugged. "It's not like you have a reputation in my mind to kill. I'm just the stranger who sits next to you every day. All I know is you can't bottle up every single thing that hurts you, Lukas. Because the bottle can only hold so much. Eventually it will break, and you might not recognise the person you've become when it does."
As with everything she did, she had cracked another fissure in my wall and I felt a few more bricks tumble.
I had always held back from my powers, from telling anyone that a person was killed because of me, because I didn't want to turn out like my uncle... or even my father. Growing up and watching them, I knew power was poison in the minds of men, especially caucasian ones. I've lived my life trying to avoid a fate where I became them. But maybe the path I was on was only going to lead me there. Both men had distrusted everyone around them, rarely letting anyone in. What if, in the end, that was their demise?
But then Olivia got to her feet. "I actually have to go now though because I have a doctor's appointment..." She hesitated, biting her lip. "I know you don't owe me anything, but do you think you can do me a favour?"
"Depends on what it is," I said softly, though I wanted to say I'd do anything for her. Even if it was too soon. Even though it was ridiculous. Even though I felt like I was becoming one of the characters from the very play she had ridiculed half an hour ago.
"Now that you have my number, can you text me when you get home? Just so I know you're... safe."
I could feel a strange stinging sensation in my eyes, roused by her concern for me. But I couldn't just break down in front of her. Especially not right now when she had to be somewhere. Yet the lump in my throat prohibited me from talking. So I did all I could in that moment: I nodded.
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