Colourless Skies

21. Black

"You have been zoning out, what's the matter?"
There was his voice again, for the nth time, anchoring her out of the raging ocean of thoughts she was drowning in.

Zach looked at her, concern spiralling in his eyes. She didn't meet his eyes though, and instead, looked ahead at the kids giggling with euphoria as their parents swung them, and aided them at sitting on the see saw. She spotted a little girl running towards her mother, remains of cotton candy smeared across her lips. Everyone seemed to be having quite a wonderful time.

It was long before she answered again.

"It's nothing really."
She finally turned towards him and looked straight in his eyes, giving him a small, forced smile that didn't meet her eyes.

"I know you are lying Leah." She sucked in an sharp, audible breath.
" But I won't push it for now." Zach trailed his eyes to the caterpillar wriggling in the dirt, finding it very amusing all out of a sudden.

Leah felt guilt, something she felt everyday, but somehow this time, it felt more real, made her feel more responsible. Maybe it was the way Zach had averted his eyes, or maybe how he had tried to drop the topic almost instantly, as if it was a habit.

"Y-you are just overthinking, I was just wondering... if I had completed my homework for t-the weekend." Her voice started to die down at the end.

He didn't respond.

After sharing further meaningless words that they pretended would heal their loss and fill the emptiness within them, Leah decided she should head home; it was late and she knew she was already in trouble, but she knew the later she went, the harder it would be on her.

Before she could be on her way, Zach held her arm.
"Listen Leah, I know very well what you are going through..."

'I am pretty sure you haven't met a half-vampire boy who makes you hallucinate and has complete control over your life.'

"I just want to let you know you can always, and I mean it, always talk to me about anything that troubles you. After all, isn't happiness justified for everyone?"

In the fading moonlight, Leah could make out a strange glimmer in his eyes, it wasn't until she took a step further when she realised those were his tears.

Leah embraced him in a tight hug, not letting go until the very last moment of her words, "I know Zach, I know you are always here for me. As am I for you. I won't ever leave you, I-I promise that."

A suppressed sob and a sharp inhale of breath later there he was, smiling his usual smile again and waving her goodbye.
'What have I ever done in my life to deserve him?'

The house was eerily quiet, although it was late, but it was not midnight when the house was customarily completely indulged in dead silence. She ran upstairs, but as soon as her fingers closed around the knob of her bedroom door, her eyes went wide and various images flashed through her mind, at the speed of light making it impossible to decipher even one of them; her hand went still at the knob, knuckles whitened as she gripped it tighter by the second.

And then it ended as jarringly as it had come. Unfortunately for her, she could determine nothing from the brief relapse; maybe it was just to give her a breather in a sense of delaying the inevitable, which Leah realised as she took a step in.

"About time you decided to show up, isn't it?" His voice was calm, but Leah could feel the seething anger hidden behind each and every syllable, race through her own body and ignite her bones.