[COMPLETED BUT WONT LET ME PRESS THE COMPLETED BUTTON AHAHHA]
Aurora Lockheart was once the sunshine girl-bright, kind, and full of life. But one night changed everything, leaving her a shadow of who she used to be.
A year later, just as she's be...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I told Gibsie this morning that we needed to talk, and now, here I was, standing on his doorstep at 5:30 PM, mentally preparing myself for what would surely be an eventful conversation. My stomach was in knots, not because I didn't want to see him—I always wanted to see him—but because every interaction with Gibsie was like walking into the unknown. You never knew which version of him you'd be getting.
The door swung open, and Sadhbh, his mother, greeted me warmly with a soft smile that felt like a small oasis in my sea of nerves.
"Oh, Aurora love, how are you, sweetheart?" she asked, her voice warm and maternal, as if she could sense that I was here for more than a casual visit. Her eyes were kind, soft lines crinkling at the corners as she stood aside to let me in.
I smiled back, the familiar comfort of her presence making me relax, if only slightly. "I'm good. How was your week?" I asked, stepping inside and feeling the slight chill of the evening air dissipate behind me as she closed the door.
"It was good, thank you, sweetheart. How about yours?" she replied, her eyes never leaving mine, as though gauging if there was more beneath the surface of my simple words.
"It was... eventful," I said vaguely, knowing full well she could see through my deflection. There was no point in trying to hide the tension humming through me. Not that it was her I was nervous about seeing.
She seemed to sense as much because her knowing smile deepened, and she tilted her head toward the stairs. "I'm guessing you're here to see Gerard?"
"Yeah," I confirmed, giving her a small, appreciative smile. "Is he in?"
Her smile faltered, and she sighed softly. "He's in his room," she said, the weight in her tone adding to the concern that had been gnawing at me all day.
"He didn't come down for dinner?" I asked, my voice catching slightly. If he was skipping meals, that wasn't a good sign.
"Apparently, he's on hunger strike," Keith, his stepdad, added from the doorway of the kitchen, his voice laced with dry humor, though his brow was furrowed. "Which would be fine if he wasn't making such a damn racket up there."
A small, humorless laugh escaped my lips as I kicked off my shoes, bracing myself for whatever chaos awaited me upstairs. "Hm. I'll head up now, see if he's okay, if that's alright?"
Sadhbh waved me off with a warm smile. "Of course, love. Be a good girl and tell him not to break anything, will you?"
"I'll try," I promised, though I had no illusions about the reality of that request. Gibsie was unpredictable on a good day, let alone when he was in one of his moods.
As I reached the upstairs landing, the familiar sound of R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" blaring through his door made me cringe. It was absurdly loud, even for him. How had his neighbors not come knocking yet?
