Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

46: Brick by Brick

November 2017

It wasn't easy navigating this new relationship with Olivia. To her, I was 'Ben's best friend'. Or 'the one who calls her zappy'. But these days, eyes too swollen with love for the boy with the blue eyes, she could no longer see through the fakeness of my smiles or the facade I had erected in my eyes. She was far gone from the girl I sat next to in gothic literature—the girl who saw past my walls and knocked them down brick by brick.

But time passed, and with each day, it got a little easier to see her in his arms instead of mine. To see them swap smiles. To not intervene when I heard them fighting through the walls about her wanting to take the next step with Ben resisting, saying it's 'too soon'.

Little did Ollie know, when she left in the evenings after things got heated (in the sexual way), I unfortunately heard too much activity come from his room as he fed the desires he seemed to not cave to with her. He certainly wanted to go further with her... but for some reason he was holding back, pleasing himself instead in the safety of the lonesome night.

The day we finally got a picture from Ollie—courtesy of Marli—that contained the activation circle, it was a welcomed distraction to the racing thoughts. Noise-cancelling headphones locked over my ears, I buried myself into trying to find it, focussing on my new mission to guide her in becoming a 'kick-arse fairy'—another promise I was trying to uphold that Ollie didn't remember.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

It didn't take long either. Only a few weeks later, after comparing the image on my phone to the castle ruins on my laptop, I finally thought I found it.

It was late Friday evening, the drizzle was coming down in full force (for London's standards), and I felt my jaw drop in surprise. I was only halfway through Ireland's list of 30,000 castles and ruins.

I ran down a flight of stairs to Erica's room, throwing open the door without knocking and legging it across the room. Sitting on her bed, I turned the laptop screen to face her.

"Um, do you mind?" Erica asked, pulling the sheets up around her chest.

"Not at all," I said, because really? It was nothing I hadn't seen and also I felt nothing for her anymore anyway.

A figure in the bed stirred next to her, his eyes blinking open in the dimness, messy dark hair sticking up in all angles. "Shit," he mumbled. "Did I fall asleep?"

Erica sighed, while I said, "Oran?"

Sitting up, Oran's eyes went wide as he blinked. "Shit, I'm sorry Lukas. I—"

Shaking my head, I held a hand up stopping him. "She's all yours, my dude."

But when I turned back to Erica, wanting to talk about the reason I barged in, her brows were turned down, venom pouring from her glare. "I'm nobody's—"

"Yes, yes. You're your own woman. What I meant is... if you two want to bone, by all means, don't apologise to me. I don't care."

Erica pressed her lips together before hiking up the bedsheets even more.

"Anyway," I stressed, shaking my laptop in front of her to get her attention, "Look!"

Her eyes slowly drifted from my face down to the screen, bulging when it dawned on her. She immediately reached for her phone, opening up the picture and comparing them. "Shit," she then said, meeting my eyes with a smile on her face. "That's it."

I lept off her bed and started running for the door.

"Wait!" Erica called after me, causing me to pause and glance back at her. She clutched at the sheet around her as she bent for her underwear on the ground. "I want to come."