Fall Into You

23

we got a love that is hopeless

She hadn't talked to Matthias in a while. And honestly, it wrecked her. 

Nicollette found herself feeling worse than she had before the dinner, much to her dismay. She thought maybe she'd feel better. She thought perhaps she would begin to feel excited once they announced it to everyone, because announcing it made it seem almost permanent. And then... Matthias stormed out. And that changed everything.

She wasn't happy. In fact, she was even more confused and hurt. She was confused because... why did it even matter if Matthias was hurt over her being engaged to Tobias? Why did it matter that Nicollette and Tobias were officially together when Matthias was already engaged to Candice anyway? He was a taken man before she even said yes to Tobias, so what claim did she have over him?

Since that night, she'd been heartbroken. She put on a fake smile, ignoring the fact that between losing Charles and now Matthias, she had to act like she was fine. She had to show everyone that she was head over heels over a boy who didn't even make her heart flutter for more than two seconds.

Tobias was nice. He was cute, polite, and charming. He was your golden boy Prince, who had lots of friends and family, and someone that anyone like Nicollette would want. 

But Nicollette didn't want Tobias. 

She sighed as she twirled the diamond ring around her ring finger. It glittered in the small bedside lamp by her bed, the rock almost comical with how large it was.

Shaking her head, she slid from her bed and walked over to her closet, shoving on some tennis shoes and a cardigan before slipping out of her bedroom.

It was silent and dark as she walked through her house, her parents having gone to bed hours prior, and Malia probably back in her own room since it was the middle of the night. It was nice, because the last thing she wanted was to have to explain to anyone that she was up this late because of her struggles. She didn't want to have to open up to anyone - especially when she was putting on this show that she was perfectly happy.

Nicollette didn't know where she was going. She didn't know what her plan was. All she knew was that she needed a breath of fresh air, and the idea of going up to her roof made her feel sick to her stomach.

The last time she was on her roof was the night Matthias had snuck up on her, and he'd stayed up there with her until sunrise. The idea of going up there again, knowing where they stood - the look on his face as he stormed out of her dining room - it killed her.

She silently left her house, her arms hugging her chest as the night air breezed past her. It was just after one am, the moon and stars so bright in the night sky that the ground was pretty illuminated by them. She loved it, though it was hard for her to appreciate such beauty when it felt as if everything around her was falling apart.

Nicollette stood there for a long minute, just staring at the stars. The air was nice, yet it did nothing to the ache in her chest. She knew that ultimately nothing could fix it, but the air did ease a little bit of her pain. It was completely silent, minus the sound of a cricket here and there, and the beautiful sound of a guitar strumming coming from the stables.

It took about ten seconds for her brain to process that the guitar sound coming from the stables was not a normal sound to hear at one in the morning on the Sutcliffe estate.

Without thinking, Nicollette took a step forward. Then another, and another, until she was silently making her way away from her house and toward the stables. She hadn't been in the stables since her horrible fight with Charles, simply because, as much as she loved visiting the horses, she wanted to be as far away from Charles as possible. And considering he was the stable boy and spent 60% of his time in there when he wasn't doing other odd jobs, she knew that running into him was too much of a risk to go say hi to the beautiful animals.