Dangerously Close (Aris x Reader)

10) Vulnerable

Aris’s P.O.V

Y/N hadn't been back for the rest of the day. I don't know why, and I highly doubt she’d tell anybody else.

For now, I just tried to push her to the back of my mind. After all, there was still a lot to process. Sure. I know I’m in the Safe Haven, but it still doesn't seem real. Plus, everything inside of my head is sort of a mess. I just think about everything that’s happened and wonder why. What was the point?

I miss a lot of people, but I miss Rachel more than anyone. She was all I had at one point. She was my best friend, and now she's not here. She's dead, and I’m not.

I don't know. It's confusing.

“Hi,”a familiar, almost harsh, voice greeted. Looking up, I saw Y/N standing there, her hands in her pockets.

“Hey,”I greeted back, patting the spot beside me. With a blank expression she sat a little ways away from me.

“Are you okay?”She asked hesitantly, as if she wasn't sure those were real words.

“I’m fine,”I shrugged, looking back out at the sunset.

“You look depressed.”

“What?”I asked quickly, snapping my head towards her.

“You look depressed,”She repeated.

“I’m not depressed.”

“Having depressing thoughts then?”

Turning back to the sky, I let my legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. Then, I fixated on the ground. It was a deep drop, probably a few hundred feet. If you fell, you’d most likely hit a few rocks on your ways down. The ground was unforgiving, definitely something that would kill you in impact.

“You thinking of jumping or something?”

“What? No,”I honestly answered, turning back to her.

“Admiring the view then?”

“I guess?”

“If you fell, it’s likely that you’d pass out before hitting the ground. That means you'll get beat by boulders and shrubs, which would probably be more painful since that drop would just take your life. It's a lot worse than it looks.”

“I wasn't thinking of killing myself,”I repeated.

“I didn't say you were. Just figured that may be important.”

“What does that mean?”

She shrugged and went back to silence. I accepted that nothing I said would make her speak and did the same until we were called for dinner.

× ~ × ~ × ~ ×

We laid there again, no words being spoken. She was clutching her knife in her hand, looking at me every other second. Not directly acknowledging her paranoia since I didn't want to make it worse, I just kept my arms over my chest where she could see them and stared at the ceiling.

“Do you think you’ll like it here?”I asked, meeting her gaze. Shrugging, she kept her knife clutched in her grip, close to her stomach. I still pretended not to notice.

“Can I be honest?”She asked slowly.

“Always.”

“I think I’d like it as much as I would have liked the city.”

“Well, would you have liked the city?”

She stayed silent for a little. Letting her gather her thoughts, I just laid there and observed some of her features by the dim lantern. Her hair was pushed out of her face. Her eyes darted around the room as if someone was going to pop out and attack her at any moment. Her lips were firmly pressed together as she still didn't say anything.