Halo | 18+

chapter sixty three

- AURELIA JONES -

Sneaking back into the house was harder then it seemed.

Shoju waited with me until I was sure I was okay, then we went home.

I was in no position to talk to anyone and to be honest I didn't really want too.

A light was on when I crept through the door, and much to my dismay Gwynn was standing in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" I spoke. She jumped, not expecting anyone to be there.

"I thought you left?" She said with wide eyes, spinning around to face me. Her eyes flicked to Shoju and then to our interlocked hands.

I didn't say anything.

"You can talk to me you know."

"Oh really? Last time I did that you left me for dead."

Her face fell and she looked down at her feet, "It wasn't like that."

"Then what was it like, Gwynn? Because how I see it, is you and Jace were sneaking around behind my back for months before that explosion."

"So what if we were? I'm sorry that he found better comfort in me then you."

My eyebrows shot up, anger coursing through me. "You two deserved each other. You're both conniving-"

"Okay, let's go to bed babe." Shoju jumped in, cutting me off. I let out a shaky breath and nodded my head, "You're lucky my friends are good people. Because if it were me, you'd be gone before the sun came up."

After we were tucked away in bed with my head on his chest, Shoju started to laugh.

"I thought you were gonna rip her a new one." He said.

"I was! Then you interrupted me!"

He shrugged, "Didn't want you waking up the house."

I sighed, "Look, I know it's hard. But give it a day, if she's really as bad as you say she is then your friends will start to realise that."

"I don't know if they will. It was like this before, they always took her side. Especially Rez." I mumbled.

"Give it time. They all thought she was dead, it's probably just a reaction to seeing her after all this time."

He has a point, so I left it. Although I didn't agree, I understood where he was coming from.

"Thank you for being on my side." I said to him, letting myself relax against him.

"I'm always on your side. From the second I saw you in those woods."

I smiled at the memory.

+ + +

When I woke up the next day, I was alone.

Shoju's side of the bed was cold, indicating he'd been gone for a while.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes, a slight chill creeping through the house as I hugged my arms around myself.

My hair fell off my shoulders as I pushed it away, making my way into the living room to see if people were awake.