Hearts We Mend To Break (Book I)

.62.

💫ANGEL💫

Thanksgiving turned out to be the beautiful disaster it always panned out to. I avoided the drama and misery of my own family to be tied into the drama and misery of Giselle's. Being back on campus had never felt so refreshing, falling back into the routines of class, café, and Loki's place. The first day back was like a family reunion, everyone met up in the café, hugging and greeting one another. Then, as we ate lunch, we all shared stories about the last week of absurdness.

"I missed you, dweeb." V whined, taking a voluntary seat onto my lap.

Without hesitation, I picked her up and shook my head no, hoping she'd understand and not take offense. Looking up into her eyes, I could tell that wishful thinking wasn't my strong suit. There was an ounce of disgust and liter of full-fledged fury.

"I can't—we can't anymore." I mouthed, hoping the rest of the crew didn't witness my rejection.

"What?" She laughed a half-confused chuckle. By the look on her face, I could tell she didn't want to accept it.

"Come on, V. You can always sit on my lap." Zack joked, seemingly attempting to help diffuse the situation.

"Angel's being a bitch!" Rolling her eyes, she mumbled underneath her breath. I knew that she knew I could hear her.

The tension around us festered a moment. A few side-eyes, throat clearing rumbles, and change of conversation should have done the trick. But then, in comes little miss sunshine, happy and jolly as she made her way to her usual spot across from me.

"Hey baby." I smiled, leaning back in my seat and winking her way.

"Hey." Ever since we'd gotten back from break, a lot had changed about the way Giselle carried herself. She was always carefully happy on the outside, which made me assume she was the complete opposite on the inside. I couldn't fathom the feelings she felt, finding out her entire life was a lie. Finding out all of the sadness and loneliness; the abandonment and distance were all a cover-up. I tried talking about it with her a time or two, but she always shot me down with a grueling gaze that made me run in the opposite direction. She needed time. I understood that.

"So, lets talk about this Biology final!" Sevyn randomly yelled. "I need help."

"Sevyn, you know I'll help you. We can have study sessions at the room."

"Or, we can all just go to my place and cram in all in." Loki barged in, taking his usual seat next to me.

"What's up, man." I dapped him up, as he sat down.

"Nothing much. It's pretty damn good seeing all these lovely faces again." Stretching his arms out, Loki leaned back into his seat.

"We missed you too, dude." V smiled. Once her eyes wandered in my direction, that same friendly smile disappeared.

"V, how was your break? All of the festivals and traditional things on your island?" Giselle asked, popping a few fries into her mouth.

"Cool." V answered without even looking up at her.

Fuck. This is about to become a complete nightmare.

Giselle glanced over at me, shrugging her shoulders as she turned her face upward, acknowledging V's sour mood. I tried to pretend I didn't notice anything. I didn't want to know anything, to be honest. Loki warned me about V. He tried to open my eyes and force me to face things that I'd seemed to have ignored for far too long. Blinded by my own selfish desires to avoid feeling anything while feeling everything during our moments of pleasure, blocking out the echoes of nature's call to desire more than physical needs, and so on and so forth. It was me that I blamed for whatever was to come between V and myself. Or even between V and Giselle. Avoiding the inevitable was naïve. I had to do the right thing.