GRANITE

033

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
LIAR

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"HEY!"

Freya opened the door with a smile, taking a step back to allow room for Aron to enter her home. He offered her a closed mouth smile in return, stepping in with arms full of snacks and beer as promised.

He looked awful. His cheeks were sunken in as if he'd been losing weight, his eyes dull and surrounded by dark circles. His usual confident swagger was replaced by a meek closed off walk and he'd been swimming in his joggers and hoodie. Freya tried to mask her concern with a smile, hoping that some normalcy of time together would help urge him towards the path of healing and moving on.

"Are you getting shorter?" He asks, breezing past her to set his things down onto her counter. "I know you shrink with age, but I didn't think you were that old yet."

"If that were true, you'd be built like an ant." She teases back. She closes the door, moving to help him unload the bags.

"Only true for humans, that's why I'm forever blessed with my good looks." He adjusts the collar of his hoodie with a smirk. Freya rolls her eyes, as she grabs the box of popcorn.

"Yeah yeah, shithead." There's a couple moments of silence as they move about Freya's kitchen before Aron lands in a seat at her counter. He fidgets with his bottle of beer, seemingly in contemplation.

"How is she?" He murmurs, almost as if he immediately regrets asking the question out loud. Freya stiffens slightly as she continues to put away the dishes she'd forgotten to take care of before he arrived. She pulls her lip between her teeth, in a contemplation of her own on what details to share with her poor cousin.

"She's been alright, busy with work mainly." She tries to skirt around certain details, struggling with continuously withholding information from Aron about things. She desperately wants to keep the peace as best she can, but she hates not being fully honest with him.

"I can tell you aren't telling me everything." He said, looking her dead in the eyes when she glances over to him. Her brow creased and her mouth opened to talk but she couldn't find any words. "I'm sure it's for the better, and I know you have loyalties to us both so you're stuck in the middle and I'm sorry I just-" he pauses, swallowing hard as tears well up in his eyes.

"He's with her, isn't he?" Freya stood still with her back to him. She knew exactly who he was talking about. "The second I left, he made his move, didn't he? And she's been doing just fine because he's fucking Desmond and he knows all the right shit to say and do. She hasn't been busy with work, she's-" he sniffles, choking back a sob. "She's busy with him."

Freya stands there for a moment. She wants to turn around and immediately move to comfort him but the guilt gnawing at her insides keeps her feet planted. She turns around, her gaze pinned to her feet as she begins to fidget with one of her rings. She finally brings herself to look up at him, her face begging him for forgiveness.

"Aron-" A sob rings through the apartment and he buries his face into the sleeves of his hoodie. She immediately makes her way over to him, enveloping him into an embrace.

She wants to say something, anything to take away his heartbreak. She wants to be able to deny the pairing of Desmond and Eve and tell him to go back to her and fix things. But she knows that Eve is happy, and she can see that Desmond had been taking good care of her and Freya couldn't destroy that for her best friend.

Aron moves, wrapping his arms around Freya and burying his face into her shoulder. She instinctively begins to pet the back of his head as she would when comforting Eve, something that seemed to always work in calming her down. "She's gone, isn't she? I lost her.."