pillowtalk.

twenty five | one step forward

Heart stared into her coffee cup and blankly stirred the stirrer around. She was completely out of it and to be honest, she had no idea how she was going to get through this. She's been through much more in the past, but having to cut ties with Stephen and be back in this hellhole all at once was unbearable.

"Heart?" Christen lightly knocked on the door to Heart's office space.

"Oh, hey Christen." Heart managed to pull a soft smile as she fixed herself in her seat.

"Hey, how's it going?" Christen shut the door before sitting in front of her.

"Good. I'm just about done with the invites." She patted the pile of envelopes next to her, making Christen chuckle.

"No worries, I don't want to rush you with anything. I've been meaning to come in to talk to you because I just want to check up on you and make sure you're okay." Heart arched her eyebrow, unsure if she knew about her situation. Somehow, she felt like Christen knew, but she didn't want to make her problems anyone else's.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She chuckled nervously as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you want to talk about?"

"I'm sure."  Christen quickly scanned her body language to see if there weren't any obvious signs that said otherwise. 

"I'm just checking. I've noticed you've been a bit exhausted and I'm pretty sure you're still trying to get used to the whole school and work routine. But if anything's stressing you out, you could let me know. I want to help out." She said reassuringly.

"Thank you. But I'm alright. It's just getting used to the routine, like you said." 

"Well, how's Stephen?" The question made Heart's stomach drop, as if she could feel her heart literally breaking into pieces hearing his name.

"Uhm, we're just busy focusing on ourselves right now." Heart lied.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Just have to do what you have to do, right?" Heart shrugged. By the way she was being vague with her answers, Christen knew she wasn't going to get much out of her.

"Well, like I said. I'm here if you need to talk, alright? And don't worry about everything else, why don't you rest and take off early today?" Heart quietly nodded. Truth is, Christen knew about everything going on, thanks to Stephen who just reached out to her not too long ago. Since Heart had to block Stephen on damn near everything, he had to find out if she was doing okay and if anything seemed out of the ordinary. So, he reached out to Christen for that and ended up telling her about everything going on. It was all a part of the plan Klay had mapped out and Christen was quick to accept her invite. 

Because she too, had connections of her own that would greatly do the two some good.

She was surprised to know Heart was going through all of this, especially since Heart was good at keeping her composure. She believed the girl was strong, but there was no way she was going to get out of this situation on her own. If she was, that meant she were to get hurt and nobody wanted that.

Christen quickly made her way to the office to make some calls before calling Stephen once more. She impatiently tapped her fingers against her desk as the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Stephen, it's Christen."

"Oh hey, how's it going? How's Heart?" He wasted no time in asking about the girl.

"She's alright. She's tired and stressed, I could tell. But she won't say much."

"She's not hurt, right?"