Asunder

Chapter 33 - The First

"It's bigger than I remember."
"Oh, yeah?" he turns to me, a cold breeze flitting through his hair. "Back in September I thought it looked smaller."
"I don't know what you guys are talking about," Emma says, tossing her perfectly curled hair over a shoulder. "It looked exactly the same to me."

I scoff, shaking my head at Liston.

Today came by faster than I anticipated. And it didn't bother me as much as I anticipated. Apparently there was a lot of anticipation, because when another day ended at midnight, I still couldn't sleep.

Luckily for us, Sky couldn't sleep either. Which meant the balcony was the place to go.

"What are you worried about?" he asked me, loose, white shirt blowing in the wind.
"I don't know," I picked at the paint of my railings, revealing the reddish rust underneath. "I guess... grades?"
He nodded, propping his chin onto a palm. "I get that. I'm worried, too." He ran a hand through his newly dyed hair; this time a light shade of brown, to transition back into his natural dark color. "I didn't use to get worried, but then I was..." His voice trailed off.
"Hanging with the wrong people," I finished for him. He nodded, a half-smile appearing under the moonlight.
"I never really tried." His chest fell deeply with a sigh, his breath showing up as a cloud in the chill air. "But now I have to."

He looked at me like I was responsible for it all. I rose my hands, exposing my palms. "Hey, not my fault."
He scoffed, leaning off his hand. "You know how you asked me how many girlfriends I've had?"
I nodded. "You said none."
"Hmm," he hummed in confirmation, eyes boring into mine like they always do. I met them at the challenge. "And remember how you asked because you thought I'm a romantic person?"
"Yes," I breathed it out in a laugh, like it was the most obvious thing anyone could ever point out.
But apparently, he disagreed: "I was not a romantic person, Kingsley." He peered at the heavy clouds ahead, which blocked the moon from view. "I was careless. And stupid. And reckless. And all of the dumb teenage things."
I leaned onto the railings, smiling softly at him.
"I was immature, and a player, and a liar, and so many other things. And then I spoke to you for the first time," his eyes glinted when they met mine again, "and it was like I became more."

I blinked at him, resting my cheek on an arm.
"I try now," he watched something invisible in the air, as if digesting his own words, "and I didn't before I met you. So yes," he leaned back onto his hand, "it is your fault."

I wasn't worried after that. I wasn't worried at all. We spoke until the sun rose, and decided to walk to school together. It didn't change anything to my old routine -besides adding one person along- so I didn't tell my parents. But I think they saw me leaving through the window, with Sky by my side.

Emma joined along the way, and needless to say, it was the most mortifying moment of my life. Event of my life.

The day before, I had gone to visit her, and explained my two-month long disappearance. With a lie, of course. It was something incoherent about getting grounded so thoroughly that I wasn't allowed to have anyone over, or leave the house; which, to her, explained why I never answered the door when she came knocking. Of course, I hadn't even known that she had come. I was in another place.

Sky and I walked by her house just in time to see her step out, bag in hand. I pursed my lips a bit when I saw her, full face of makeup on, like she used to wear. She didn't look like her, anymore.

But she was distinctly her when she turned, saw me, and her eyes sparked with joy.

She was even more distinctly her when she noticed Sky, and that spark turned into one of malicious elation.