Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 92: Pandora's Box

Chapter Ninety-Two: Pandora's Box

Vrael awoke like he always did.

His consciousness was jerked to awareness for reasons he couldn't place.

And like always, he lay still, long ears flicking this way and that to hear better.

Sure enough, after a good ten seconds of silence broken only by the sound of everyone's sleep-induced breathing, he heard it. A small sniffle and a quiet, muffled sob. His eyes slowly drifted open and he stared at the ceiling, feeling his irritation rising to the surface.

Once again, Amelia was crying her eyes out in secret.

Ever since that night in the woods, he had been trying to stifle his growing frustration with her, since it wasn't exactly his place to question or even advise any of the people around him aside from Xaphile. But he couldn't help it. He didn't know why, but her behavior frustrated him.

He clenched his fists, remembering her attempt to keep a smile on her face.

Her broken glasses dangling off of her cheeks, shaking all over, eyes completely vacant.

But even though she hadn't been all right, not in the slightest, she'd smiled like always.

'I'm fine.'

Those words echoed in his head over and over, drowning out the sound of her tears.

For nearly ten minutes, he lay there on his back, then decided to get up since he needed to use the bathroom. The moment he moved, her sniffles halted in their tracks and a bit of slow shuffling came from her end of the furs.

But he didn't even glance back.

Making his way outside, he ran a disheveled hand through his hair and made his way into the latrine on the opposite end of the island. It was the weirdest outhouse ever created, considering it had been grown out of a rather stumpy looking tree, but it did the job as well as any.

Once finished, he headed back inside.

Not surprisingly, Amelia was already up and braiding her long hair into pigtails.

She greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good morning," she whispered, speaking as quietly as she could. "I'll have breakfast going in a few minutes, but for now, let's keep our voices low so we don't wake the others."

"Sounds good to me," he muttered, coldly averting his eyes and taking a seat by the fire she'd rekindled while he'd been outside. "I'm not really in a talkative mood right now."

Amelia blinked, hands slowing down with the braiding process.

"Is something amiss?" she tentatively asked, looking a little hesitant.

She trailed off when he turned a harsh smile her way.

"Yeah, something is," he exaggeratedly shot back, "but because all of my problems disappear whenever I smile, that's all you'll really see from me, so don't be upset if that's all you get."

When she jerked back and stared at him, startled, he turned and glared at the fire again. It was childish to act like this and he knew it, but he'd finally hit the point where he couldn't help it. For several seconds, Amelia's hands lay frozen on her hair... but then, she dropped them.

The bound strands came undone.

For a long moment, neither one of them said anything.

"I see," she sadly murmured. "So... your problem lies with me. You dislike me, then?"