Steal the Stars [REWRITING]

Nicole - Human

I yanked my hair into a quick ponytail and stared briefly at myself in the large, ornate mirror. My reflection stared back, green eyes watching mine. I looked pale, even more so than usual, and also almost scared. I was terrified, but I didn't like looking it. I forced my expression back to neutral.

I stepped back outside, where Leo waited. The only thing I could do for right now was wait for Annabelle's signal, and hope she didn't run into any trouble. Annabelle, however, was a magnet for trouble, so that was exceedingly unlikely.

I sat with my back to the wall, and Leo slid down to join me. It wasn't exactly the best position to be in if something happened, but, curled with my knees against my chest, I almost felt safer. Leo put his arm around me, and I didn't bother to move away. He was real and he was here, and that was something.

The halls of the palace seemed creepily empty with everyone downstairs. The guards weren't due to pass by here for another twenty minutes, but I couldn't see it making the halls any less empty. I couldn't even hear the noises of the ball going on downstairs from up here, and, in the midst, they'd been overwhelming. But now there was nothing but my own uneven breathing, and Leo's steady breaths.

I chewed on my pinkie nail. The cut was no longer bleeding, and it would scar back over within a day or two. Unless I reopened it by accident. "You're going to be fine," Leo said, catching my hand and pulling it away from my mouth again. "I promise."

"You can't promise something like that," I muttered, staring at the floor. Leo had to bend to hear me.

He paused. "No. I can't. But I can promise that I'll come back for you. And if anything goes wrong, I'll try and be there."

I dug my nails into my skin out of Leo's line of sight. "You shouldn't. He'd kill you. He'd kill you, and he wouldn't even care, and it'd be all my fault. It's my fault already, don't make it worse."

"He's not going to kill me. Or you. And it's not your fault, Nicole. You can't control who your parents are, or how they act. You can only control yourself, and I think the girl sitting in front of me is brave and beautiful and strong, and nothing at all like her father. I want to make sure he never comes near you again, quite honestly, but, right now, I just want you safe. And smiling again."

I half-wondered if there was someone else in the hallway he might be talking to.

I wiped at my eyes, which were filled with tears. I hated crying, and I hated crying in front of people more. It made me feel stupid and weak, but maybe that was a pretty accurate description. After all, I was halfway sobbing in an empty hallway right now, when I should have been doing literally anything else.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. Tears came faster then, and I ignored them, burying my head in my knees. I was shaking, and I could only imagine how Leo felt, being forced to sit in a hallway with someone who couldn't stop crying.

"Nicole. Nicole, look at me." He pulled my head up so I had to look at him, and wiped away tears. "You don't have to be sorry. You can cry, or scream, or whatever you want." My bottom lip trembled. "You don't have to be sorry for being human and having emotions."

"But I'm being stupid!" I burst out. "I'm being stupid and making you pick up the pieces! That's not fair, nothing is fair, and I hate that I'm acting like this and I hate that you have to see that, and I hate that I can't pull it together for one day, and I hate myself! And you should hate me, too!" I pulled away from Leo. "I hate my dad and I hate that I always wanted his approval and I hate that I still do, and I hate that he can just show up like this and make me act like this!" I gestured to myself wildly. "I hate that I'm a mess and I hate that I can't even pull myself together long enough to try and act normal!"