Three 》Soulmate AU

Ch. 21: Hymns

he cooed soft hymns

and lullabies

and I almost fell for it.

~

After about an hour, we were cuddling in my bed (yes, cuddling, but I was crying, so sue me). I had calmed down, resting my head against Will's chest instead of my pillow which he was promptly using.

My breathing was evened but my heart still pounded. I took deep breaths every couple minutes just to keep calm and now get myself worked up again. I felt like Reyna was laughing at me and Percy was looking down on me with pain. If it's too good to be true, I probably can't trust it.

Yet here I was. Trusting Will, even though this stupid red heart on my arm was so daunting.

There was a comfortable silence we'd fallen into. Without checking in with Will, I pulled up my phone and scrolled to TikTok, holding it at an angle that we could both watch at.

After about thirty minutes of that, I exhaled and set my phone down on the bed besides me. It bounced to the floor, making Will flinch, but I didn't care about it.

"We should talk." I sat up without warning, turning around to look down at Will.

He sat up, looking into my eyes. I hated how he did that. He could see the real me, the me I tried to hide from everyone. The broken me. Yet somehow, my shoulders eased when he did it.

"About what?" he inquired, all ears and tone easy.

I swallowed. Usually, I'd whole back, but just like those first few text messages I sent him, I opened up and let everything pour out of me like slow vomit.

"I'm scared," I exclaimed, keeping my eyes low. "I'm scared of loving you and I'm scared of losing you. I'm scared of losing any chance at real, long-lasting love and I'm scared of being replaced. I'm scared of not being enough and honestly, with how moody I've been, I'm scared of being too much. Too much to handle, too complicated. I'm scared that I'm too young and not ready for this, for us. I'm scared that if I ask to just wait, then I'm giving up on us and you'll move on to your next red heart. But you're my last red heart, Will. I want you. It all seems too stressful and it's too much to think about because I'm still grieving, but I... I like you, Will. I want it all to work out, but I feel like it won't."

TO BE CONTINUED