Come in

Chapter Three: Longing for closure

Marco

"Important artefacts keep getting stolen around the Kingdom. It's driving me mad", Star has us seated at her breakfast table as she walks back and forth complaining.

"Are either of you stealing anything?", she asks with creased eyes.

I wave my hands and shake my head in defence, "No of course not. I don't need anything here"

"Yeah me neither", Tom replies.

Star sighs then continues pacing back and forth, "I knew it wouldn't be either of you. It's most likely one of the workers. Eclipsa is doing her best being a queen but I wish she would take this more seriously"

Slowly I can feel Star's rambling blur from my ears. I sigh and slouch back waiting eagerly for it to end. As I sigh a breath of boredom, Tom places his fingers on mine and stares at me. I raise an eyebrow but notice his eyes indicate to the exit door. I nod. We wait for Star's back to be turned to us before we make a quick and quiet exit out of the room and eventually out of the castle.

"So glad we left, I was getting so bored", I say.

Tom ignores my words and walks off a bit far from me. I raise an eyebrow and jog to him. He's standing still with his eyes glued to the ground now.

"Are you okay?", I ask.

He points to the ground on which the tip of his finger is directed to a large footprint but not too large that it'd be the size of a mountain monster.

"I recognise these footprints", Tom whispers, just loud enough for me to make out his words.

I bend down hoping it'll help me get a better view of the footprint. I notice there's no shoe prints so whoever it was most likely wasn't wearing shoes. I choose not to bring it up though-it seems unimportant.

"Tom it's not that serious", I reassure.

Tom's eyes are still wide eyed and glued to the foot print, "No, I remember him. It's Toffee"

My mind shoots back and my mouth falls open as I hear him pronounce that name. He hasn't been mentioned in so long and I regain all my memories of him.

"No, no, no. He died. Star used Eclipsa's spell to kill him. Eclipsa came out of the ice because of the deal. Toffee died. He's long gone", my voice sounds like a mixture of reassurance and slight begging, but my volume is low.

Tom sighs happily and stands up confidently. It's as if he's forgotten about what he was just doing, "You're right, he's dead. No way he could've survived that spell"

I smile brightly, as I'm comforted by these words. I know it wasn't Toffee but I was still relieved by the certainty in Tom's voice when he said that.

Tom stuffs his hand in his jacket pockets and swings his foot the other way.

"Let me buy you some food"

I chase after Tom and demand a hotdog. He laughs and nods his head.

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I can smell the hotdogs just as we walk in. Finally, after waiting for a bit, Tom orders the food and we're sat down gobbling up the hotdogs and lemonade.

"This is a nice break from everything", I say with slurred words from the food I'm still chewing.

"Yeah. After Meteora I'm kind of just hoping we don't run into another problem. Although, I guess we still have to figure out whoever this thief is", Tom replies slowly becoming hesitant toward the ending of his statement.

"Well, I doubt it'd be anyone serious. Probably just a joke on us", I reply quickly.

Tom stares deeply at his food for a few moments until he's finally picked his words-although he still seems hesitant-"Are we ever going to talk about what happened when we were in battle, and when we-"

I cut him off almost immediately after understanding what he wants to talk about. I'm not ready. I'm not ready to discuss it, "-No, no, I don't want to have a conversation about that"

I can see the begging in Tom's eyes but no matter what he knows I'll never give in. He's playing with his chances.

"But why?", Tom pleads softly. I can tell he's hurting from curiosity, but he's still a good guy to understand boundaries and won't force anything. Although, he will still always try his chances-I think.

"It's not important. I don't want to discuss anything I'm uncomfortable with if it's not important", I know Tom's only trying to be nice while still hurting from curiosity, but I will not discuss something that makes me feel horrible.

Tom's face saddens and he walks over to slide the food in the bin. He continues walking out of the store, walking home. I sigh.

My mind and my words speak differently, I'm understanding in my mind but I'm too assertive with my words. I wonder if Tom has picked up on this though, and is only sad because the topic makes me uncomfortable. I wish it wasn't uncomfortable to talk about, I want closure too.