The Firefly

20°

When I slowly opened my eyes, all the anguish of the night that had just passed seemed to dissolve, like magic.

A magic that was beginning to make me tired.

I rubbed my eyes and thought back to the previous day.

It had made me happy to see my uncle in a good mood.

Then I had finally met Axel in person, he had not seemed like a bad person and the time we had spent together seemed to have passed very quickly.

I smiled when I remembered the boy's smile, I lay back between the sheets already beginning to fantasise.

-He said he wants to go out with me again- I said softly remembering all of a sudden, I screamed against the pillow in excitement.

In the bathroom in front of the mirror, I looked at myself a couple of times and then grimaced in disappointment.

I shook my head trying to eliminate the image of my face from my mind.

I didn't like myself.

I had never liked myself.

Between me and my brother, although our faces were very similar, he was certainly the better-looking one.

Yeah, Matthew.

I was petrified where I was when I remembered the night before.

How had I only remembered it at that moment?

I ran for the phone, no message from him. I had said some really bad things to him, but I didn't regret it.

Esther was like a sister to me now, I couldn't stand it if someone hurt her like that.

I didn't want to be in my brother's shoes when she found out.

I had to distract myself, I didn't have to think about it.

I quickly fixed my hair and straightened my glasses on my nose as I walked down the stairs, there were already some maids around cleaning every square inch of the villa so it was already late morning.

I had forgotten to set my alarm the night before, I was surprised Jake hadn't set the black device I always kept on his bedside table to go off, but maybe he was still asleep.

I headed to his room only to find the door open and a maid cleaning it from top to bottom.

-Mr Hale?- I asked as she looked from head to toe at a girl in her pajamas barely awake and with a level of nervousness perceptible from miles away.

-He woke up early today, I think he's in the living room now.- She replied looking at me like I was a beggar and then went back to her work.

I huffed as I went to where he had been pointed out to me and, indeed, there he was.

Lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, as if he were asleep, breathing evenly and with a serene expression, he seemed intent on reading his large green-covered book with his index finger.

At the sight of him all the muscles in my body seemed to relax.

I tiptoed closer so as not to be heard.

-Good morning, Mr Hale.- I greeted him and he gasped, almost dropping his book, cursing under his breath.

-You gave me a heart attack, Brat.- He gasped resting a hand on his chest and calmly opening his snow-white eyes.

-I've lost my mark as well.- He said referring to her reading arrogantly as she sat up.

-What are you reading?- I said, watching him as he searched for the page he had reached by quickly running his finger across the rough paper.

-It's a thriller.- He exclaimed nonchalantly.

-I think the murderer is the butler.- He smiled and turned his face towards me, and for a moment I was enchanted by his clear eyes.

He wrinkled his forehead, stopping with his index finger on a word on a completely blank page;

he seemed to have found the sign because he immediately put the same red bookmark on the page and closed the book, which he placed awkwardly on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

-Why didn't you call me when you woke up?- I asked, combing my hair with my fingers as he tied it into a microscopic pigtail.

-Because I thought you needed to rest, if you didn't get up before me you probably needed to sleep.-

I looked at him a couple of times thinking he was joking, he didn't look like it.

He had seriously had a kind thought for me.

And it wasn't even the first one.

He was kind to me and I couldn't deny it.

-Well, actually, yes. Thank you, Mr Hale.- I said, immediately feeling my breath get heavier at the memory of the night before.

I sat down on the soft sofa, keeping my distance.

Seeing the way he looked, it seemed he too needed a few more hours of rest.

The deep, perennial dark circles under his eyes suggested that he suffered from insomnia and his pale complexion begged for a few more rays of sunshine.

-You had a trembling voice last night.- He said suddenly, keeping his gaze fixed on him, although he was sleepy he had noticed.

-Are you all right?-

He asked me cautiously, as if he was afraid of breaking me just with a simple question.