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Chapter 4

I exit the hut looking down at the ground, taking my time to walk over to the fire. When I reach my destination, I step over the log and sit down.

"Glad you could join us." I look up to see a grinning Jayden starring at me from across the fire. I raise a single eyebrow in response. Unknowingly, I rub my eyes with my hoodie sleeves over my hands. I'm interrupted when a plate of spaghetti is placed in front of me. I look around to see that the Lost Boys, too, have their own plates.

"Thank you," I say, furrowing my eyebrows, looking up for the first time to the person who handed me the Italian meal. I half expected to see Peter, half expected to see Jayden, but to my surprise, it's Felix. I give him a tender smile and begin to devour my meal. Felix sits next to me and eats his own dinner.

"So," he starts. "How are you liking the island so far?"

I tuck the loose pieces of hair behind my eyes, preventing them from going into my dinner. I swallow my last bite before answering. "It's nice," He has a look implying that my response wasn't enough. "The boys are nice and the island is gorgeous. I still don't understand the magic part though."

"To be completely honest," he leans in and whispers in ear. "I don't either." He sits back and we laugh together. I continue eating my food until there is only a fourth of it left.

"Finished?" Felix asks and I nod. He takes his and my plate and gets rid of them. He returns to his spot and we make small talk for about 30 minutes.

"Alright boys," the familiar British accent states. "Time for bed."

The Lost Boys scramble to their hut. Just as I was about to go to mine, I'm stopped by Peter. "Not you. I have something to show you." I raise my eyebrows as he grabs my wrist, gently, and pulls me into his chest. He wraps his arms around my waist tightly and pushes off of the ground.

I know exactly what we are doing and I snake my arms around his neck, not wanting to fall, and I press my head against his chest. I can feel the vibration of him chuckling softly.

"Tess?" he says and I look up at him. "You can let go now." He snickers. I let go and look at where he took me. I'm standing on the same beach that I was on when I first got here, only at night, the water was glistening with tints of blue and green. I smile to myself.

"It's so beautiful." I say looking back at him. "Why exactly are we here?"

"As I said before," he starts. "I want to get to know you better. So I brought you here to talk."

"Sounds good," I say.

"I uh, I also brought something," he says revealing the black and white ball that I had missed so dearly. I nearly squeal with excitement, but don't due to the boys sleeping. He hands it to me and I start juggling the ball, starting on my thigh and occasionally going to my feet, where I kick it back up to my thigh.

"Jesus Christ Tess," he says in awe. I feel my cheeks get hot and I kick it one last time then I catch it. "So do you want to maybe kick the ball while we talk?" He says.

I nod as he backs up only a little bit. We kick the soccer ball back and forth between each other while talking about ourselves. I learned that his favorite color is green, he prefers dogs over cats, and that he's only ticklish under his chin.

"Can we sit on the rocks?" I ask suddenly. He smiles, saying yes, and we walk over to the rocks and sit down next to each other.

"So," he starts. "Is it okay to ask about your dad?" He asks nervously while biting his lip. I nod and begin my story.

"When I was around ten to eleven, I got sick. Nothing too bad, just a stomach bug. My mom had made a prescription for me. I remember exactly what flavor it was, cherry. It was the only kind I would actually take without hesitation." I slightly laugh to myself."

"She went to go pick it up for me one day. I can remember the exact outfit as well. She wore this burgundy floral blouse with this long, black pencil skirt and nude heals. She was professional for work, but always made time to kick the soccer ball around with me. Anyways, she went to the store to get my prescription. It just so happens that a robbery was happening the exact same day."

"The robbers broke in, demanding all of the money. While they were there, they shot at least 9 people. One of those people being my mom." I stop and purse my lips, holding back that salty tears threatening to slip from my eyes at any moment. I take a breath and continue my story.

"When my father found out, he was devastated. She was the light of his life. I couldn't believe that she was dead. Every night, I would think that she would come home and just embrace me in one of her famous hugs. But it never happened. I kept praying to anyone who could hear me that she would come back and stay with me."

"After the funeral was when everything took a turn for the worst. My father had this idea planted into his mind that it was my fault that she was dead. That if I hadn't been sick she wouldn't have gone to the store and been shot. He started beating me for no reason. He would come home drunk as hell and say these awful things to me. He took everything that reminded him of my mother away. The rugs, the pictures, even my bed."

"The idea that it was my fault had also been engraved into my mind. I started playing soccer more and more than ever before. I would play it for hours upon hours without resting. I felt like I deserved the punishment. Soccer reminded me of her, she used to play it throughout high school and college. I felt like I deserved everything bad that happened to me."

I stop as a single tear runs down my cheek. I'm engulfed into a warm hug by Peter. Not caring who sees me, I silently sobbed into his chest while he drew shapes on my arm with his thumb. He rests his chin on top of my head.

"It's okay, love." He repeated over and over again. His presence made me feel safe for some odd reason that I can't explain. I look up at him.

"Thank you so much for this. I really appreciate it." I saw wiping away tears.

"No problem," he says with his cute smile. "Are you ready to go home, love?" I nod and he picks my up bridal style. We fly off back to our hut.

When we reach our destination, he doesn't put me down until we get to the hut. He lays me down on the bed and I'm out like a light.

Peter's POV

I lay Tessa down and admire the piece of artwork that is before me. She looks like an actual angel, so peaceful in her sleep. She crinckles her nose up as if she is saying 'no' to something, every once in awhile. I smile to myself as I trace my fingertips down her jawline. When she moves, my heart skips a beat. I cover her up before taking off my shirt and laying down in the chair.

"Goodnight, love." I say lightly, and I fall into a deep slumber.