[1] Midnight Lips | Ghost

𝐂𝐇. 40

VAL
༻❁༺

The next morning, I woke up to an empty bed, or the sofa bed in Alejandro's office, whatever fit the term. Although the safe house was big, it wasn't enough to have multiple bedrooms, and thus everyone had to share the only two ones. Except for Simon and me. When we realized Alejandro was a smart guy, putting a sofa bed in his office just in case, we took it.

He did, in fact, have everything we needed in this place. Simon and I had settled in Ale's office with only a blanket, not bothering to put any clothes on. It was hard—trust me—not to get turned on by it, but we managed, talking into the dark about anything that would come into our minds.

He told me a little more about his brother. How he'd married a woman whose name was Beth and how it felt like a miracle when she gave birth to his nephew, Samuel. How his mum was ecstatic to hear this news and how everything felt like a dream at the time. "Everything was just so perfect," he said. "I knew it was too good to be true, but I never thought it would... end the way it did."

I didn't ask him what it was. I didn't think he wanted to talk about it, given his pause at the end of the sentence and his deep breathing. And I didn't mind. It felt wrong to push him when he was finally opening up to me. I wanted to go at his pace, and if it took months, I would wait those months with the patience that I was blessed with. Sadly, we didn't have these months.

I pressed a kiss to his chest and hugged him, trailing my fingers up and down his arm and relishing our silence. I was about to thank him for what he'd told me when he softly raised his wrist to our eyes, the one with the butterflies. I stopped breathing, my heart racing inside my chest, knowing what was coming next. After days of wanting to know exactly the meaning behind it, I didn't know if I was ready yet.

I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, tracing the outlines of the dead butterflies. There were four in different shapes. One was small and somehow seemed harmless in my eyes. The next two looked almost the same if it wasn't because one looked older than the other one. I didn't know if it was me or my eyes or the moonlight through the small window, but the big one was different. It seemed harder, sharper, and stronger than the other ones, like it was meant to protect the rest.

Then I understood. They weren't anyone. They were his family. The little one was his nephew. Next to it Beth, and the old-looking one was his mother. Tommy was the big one, meant to protect all of them but apparently failed. My heart squeezed so hard it hurt. What had happened that they couldn't fly away?

I followed the path that traveled up his arm to his shoulder. Right above his already healed wound was the remaining butterfly. It was hard to make out the outline in the dark, but I figured it had escaped. I wondered if this one was his father, but it didn't feel like it. This butterfly looked just like his brother's, but it seemed even sharper and stronger—tired. It looked tired and lifeless and seemed like it didn't want to keep moving.

My heart stopped.

It was Simon.

"What about your dad?" I asked. When his body tensed under me, I knew it was a hard topic.

"He was a real asshole," he said quietly. I waited for him to go on, but he didn't. He pulled me tight against him and hugged me, pressing his cheek to the top of my head. "Not worth it."

*ೃ༄

I knew it hadn't been long since Simon left the bed because his side was still warm when I pressed my palm on it. I glanced around the room and saw the door to the bathroom open. I knew there weren't any chances that he was in there so I figured he'd just left the room.