KILL YOUR DARLINGS ✸ Saltburn

𝒙𝒙𝒊𝒊. lie, lie, lie

𖤐 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑻𝑾𝑬𝑵𝑻𝒀-𝑻𝑾𝑶:
╰┈➤ lie, lie, lie ༉‧₊˚.

FELIX HAD TAKEN OLIVER TO HIS MUM'S and now Meredith was all alone at the breakfast table with only Elspeth.

Farleigh, Venetia, and Sir James each gradually excused themselves but Meredith just wanted to sit there. Poking her scrambled eggs with a fork but not eating them.

She'd been deep in thought, eyes barely moving or blinking. Her lips were set in a frown and it didn't take much for Elspeth to notice her sadness.

It also didn't take the woman much to know the cause of said glumness.

"It's okay to love them both." She says, finally, almost as if she could read Meredith's mind.

Meredith's brown doe eyes meet hers, or try to, but she's not looking up from the newspaper in hand.

Meredith didn't quite understand what she meant.

Meredith's confusion was palpable as she furrowed her brow and peered up from the newspaper at Elspeth. The words echoed in her mind, bouncing off the walls of her thoughts. "It's okay to love them both," Elspeth had said. But how could that be? How could she possibly love them both without feeling torn apart?

"Love is not a finite resource, dear. It can be expanded and shared among those who deserve it."

Meredith's heart fluttered, emotions swirling within her like a tempestuous storm. She couldn't deny the truth in Elspeth's words, but accepting them felt like traversing uncharted territory.

"What if I don't know how?" Meredith asked tentatively, her voice barely above a whisper.

It was then that Elspeth placed her newspaper on the table beside her and gave Meredith's warm hand a squeeze. "Darling, you don't have to ever choose."

AS SOON AS OLIVER AND FELIX PASSED THE GATES OF Saltburn, Meredith jolted up from where she'd been sitting at her window and hurriedly went downstairs.

Seemingly, it took her the same amount of time to scurry her way through the hallways and down the stairs and out the front door as it did for Felix and Oliver to walk down the driveway.

Oliver had his jaw clenched and his head lowered, as if he was on the verge of tears and Felix was absolutely fuming.

It didn't take Meredith long at all to put two and two together and come to the conclusion that this trip hadn't gone well at all.

She'd been trying to analyze Felix's features—seeing if she could read a single thing going on in his mind. However, once his eyes landed on Meredith, any anger visible washed away and was replaced with a smile on his face as he went and wrapped his arms around Meredith's small frame, taking her by utter surprise.

Meredith could feel Felix release a sigh of relief against her as he leaned down and held her tight to him, as if she was a breath he'd been unaware he was holding. His cologne was quickly the only thing she could smell and it was everything. As if he'd been drowning in a stormed sea and she was the lifejacket.

Once he finally does pull away, though, he doesn't say anything. He just wraps his arm around her shoulder and began walking her inside.

"What happened?" she asked him, however, due to his height could only make out the sharp cutting of his jaw.

He shakes his head, shrugging. "Don't worry about it."

Meredith couldn't just not worry about it, though--that's not how she was wired. She wouldn't be able to rest until she knew the true cause of Felix's anger. "Is it me?"

Felix's confused brown eyes met her worried ones, unsure of what exactly she'd been implying.

"Are you mad at me?" She asked. "About what happened?"

Meredith looked like a fragile puppy begging for scraps under a table, on the verge of tears--and honestly, Felix found it quite adorable. He moved his arm from around Meredith and stepped in front of her, now facing her. He wasn't mad at all. In fact, he was trying not to laugh at just how adorable his girlfriend was. "No, Mere."

He cupped the brunette's face and met her gaze. Just standing there in the center of their foyer, not caring about whatever footmen may be watching.

"Oliver's dad isn't dead after all." He blows out an exhaled breath, sending Meredith to spiral into confusion. "and his mum isn't a drunk."

Meredith's brows knitted together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He works his jaw back and forth. "We went to his house, and it's a really nice—big—house and his parents are lovely."

Meredith didn't know what to make of what she was being told. It felt like a punch in the gut just off of the betrayal alone, especially as she'd grown up with two deadbeat parents and for him to lie about living that life... whatever explanation the boy could've had was beyond her.

.