. . • ☆ . ° TWILIGHT.• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
❝Your feelings and mine are all lonely
And dawn comes, you're there lying
with me And you reach out to touch
me. But I am in the twilight❞
✧ ˚ · .
FEMOCXPAULLAHOTE
☆。*...
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★
The days that followed were long and loud, Lita's only sense of peace became that bedroom—a place to hide. She didn't care that they all knew she would go there to get away from them, from the noise. It didn't bother her. Let them know. Let them think and gossip.
Lita just wanted to be alone.
Livina continued to try to include her, to show Lita they cared, but her efforts bounced off a wall Lita didn't know how to lower.
It was her father who finally knocked.
Not like the others did, not with the half-guilt of someone intruding, but with the kind of knock that said: If you're in there, I'm still out here. I'm not going anywhere.
He didn't wait for a reply. He stepped in, closing the door quietly behind him.
Lita was sitting on the floor beside Mateo's bed, her back against the frame, hugging the bear to her chest. She didn't look up.
Victor sat down slowly on the edge of her bed, letting the silence settle between them.
"You know," he said after a while, his voice low, "your aunt made chilaquiles this morning. With too much salsa, like always."
Lita didn't respond.
He rubbed his hands over his knees, exhaling. "I know you're tired. Of the noise. Of everyone being in your space. I'm tired too."
Lita glanced up then. Her dad looked smaller lately. Grayer.
"I just don't want to be around them," she said softly.
"I know," he nodded. "They're here for us, but that doesn't mean it's easy."
Another pause.
"You've been in here a lot."
Lita shrugged. "It's quiet."
Victor looked down at the floor, then back at her. "I miss him too, mija."
That was all it took. Her throat tightened. She blinked quickly.
Victor leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "I keep thinking I'm going to hear his laugh. That little laugh he did when he knew he was being too loud."
Lita smiled a little through the ache in her chest.
"I didn't know it would feel like this," she admitted.
"No one does," he said, his voice nearly breaking. "But I don't want to lose you too. Not while I still have you."
