Blue Wolf Moon

14. Butterflies

"I think I like Vihaan." said Riya staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah no shit." said Nidhi, her eyes still closed.

"No I mean like, before this I thought I liked both of them - Akul and Vihaan. But after today I'm sure I'm done with Akul. I mean, I can't even stay mad at Vihaan for almost betraying us!? What is wrong with me?" she said unable to believe herself.

Nidhi chuckled. "Yeah, I noticed. You like him!" she teased.

"Yeah...you can have Akul if you want." she said.

"What?" said Nidhi taken aback.

"Just saying. You guys would be great together. Also, you both are actually capable of having a conversation with each other, unlike me." she said.

Nidhi remained silent for a second. "Ehh" she responded with a dismissing voice. "What are you going to do about Vihaan?"

"Nothing. At least not for a while." she said.

"What, why?"

"I just wanna wait until all of this settles down. Anyway, let's sleep now. Goodnight." she said tired of talking.

"Yeah. Goodnight."

Nidhi fell asleep almost instantly but Riya was struggling. She tossed and turned under the bedsheets before finally giving up. She threw her feet off the bed and onto the cold granite floor. Slowly, she made her way towards the bedroom door; but just as she was about to open it something caught her eye.

Something blue was glowing lightly under a pile of books on her table. She went to it and picked it up. It was an envelope with a symbol of a Wolf on it. She immediately assumed it was from Jupiter. She opened it to see a letter inside but couldn't read anything written on it because the lights were still off. 

"Glowing envelope and signature but not glowing words. Great logic." she thought sarcastically as she slowly opened her door to go read it outside so she wouldn't have to disturb Nidhi.

She made her way under the skylight. The moon was directly above it, giving her just enough light to be able to read the letter easily.

She removed the letter again.

"Hey."

She quickly hid it in her pocket. 

"Oh..hey? What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep and then I heard your door open so I came out to see who else was up too." he said coming to join Riya against the balustrade. He hadn't noticed the envelope. "Why are you up?"

"Same reason." she was getting nervous. She couldn't have a conversation to save her life, how was she supposed to talk to her crush!? She was struggling, but so was he.

"How are you?" asked Vihaan turning towards her now. 

"Fine. Why?" she said realising that he was probably the only one who wasn't convinced that she was - which was true. She felt her eyes fill up with tears but she didn't want to cry. She tried blinking them away. 

"Riya?"

"I'm sorry I put all of you in danger." she stammered, still refusing to cry.

"Hey hey hey, it's okay. Come here." he said and pulled her into a hug. He knew she would cry if he asked anything more. Besides, he liked having her head rest on his chest.

And she liked it too. She had always wanted to be buried in someone's arms and wondered what it would feel like. For someone who hadn't been comfortable with physical affection for a while, she liked this. She really did.

"Also, we kinda enjoyed it. I mean, it was SO exciting and thrilling. Imagine almost dying at the hands of an evil sorcerer in an underground world. That's so cool!" he said.

She giggled and pulled away from him.

"Thank you. I-I really needed that." she said looking into his eyes. They didn't break contact for a few seconds-

"Yeah. Anytime Riya." he said with a smirk. Riya felt butterflies in her stomach as she heard him say her name.

"Yeah okay now we have to sleep!" she said coming back to her senses. "Goodnight!" 

"Goodnight!" he said and went back to his room.

Riya smiled to herself; feeling a little better than she did before. She took out the envelope again, this time determined to read what was inside.

She opened it and saw a pretty short letter. She held it out under the moonlight to see the words glisten like diamonds in the sun. 

It said-

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's the shortest one because it's all ending. The next one is the epilogue so I'll see you on the other side!

Ask any questions if you want to and

Don't forget to vote!

Next : Epilogue.