(in)visible

three

It was starting to get dark when Lyanna walked through the back door of the cabin. Taking a blanket out of her bag, she wrapped it around herself and sat down almost at the edge of the wall.

“Hey. Are you there?”

She felt a bit stupid just talking to no one like that, but her doubts were lifted as soon as she heard him answer.

“Yeah, I'm here. What happened?”

His voice was deep and raspy. Somehow just the sound of it calmed her down. She took a deep breath, trying to make sure she wouldn’t start crying as she explained.

“I ran into that asshole again. I have been at the library the entire fucking day, because I have this huge essay coming up that I'm absolutely freaking out over, and when I finally decided I should go home to get some rest, he was there. He is such a douchebag. He kept saying  all this awful stuff and then I yelled at him and I thought maybe I shut him up for just a second  but he has a fucking comeback for everything. I hate him. I hate him I hate him I hate him.”

“Aw man, that sounds awful. Already having a stressful day and then some jerk makes it even worse. You really don’t deserve that, Miss Swan. Ugh.”

She chuckled at that. Simple as that he had made her feel so much better. As if a weight had been lifted from her heart.

“Ugh indeed.”

Her smile died away after a while when she remembered something.

“Hey, uhm, Sparrow?” she asked, shifting around in her blanket.

“Yeah?”

“You said in your text you were already here… Did something happen with you? Or were you just getting away from the world for a bit?”

He let out a deep sigh before he answered her.

“Well, I had a run in with that girl again.”

He didn’t elaborate. It made her curious. She could tell there was more to the story, but she wasn’t going to push him into telling her. She wouldn’t want him to do that either. But on the other hand, he was the one who had started this thing in the first place. Should she ask him more about it? She wasn’t sure.

“You know, staying quiet like that is the perfect way to make me talk.”

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

“No, no, I want to talk about it. But – I don’t know, I guess I always need a bit of time to organize my thoughts, think about how I'm going to say something. Most people just assume that I don’t want to talk, and then they just talk over it.”

This time, she stayed quiet on purpose, knowing that that was what he wanted from her. He needed a listener. 

“Well, it started when I had a talk with my counsellor I guess. I uhmm.. I’m really struggling with money. My parents are dead broke because of their divorce, and I have savings, but they’re dwindling a lot faster than I thought. And with all the stuff I have to do to keep my grades up, I don’t have the time for a job to keep me uni at all. So I was wondering if there was some sort of student loan upgrade stuff that I could maybe do, but it turns out I already have the highest loan possible. Which also means I’ll probably spend my entire life trying to pay that back.”

He took a shaky breath and held it a moment before continuing.

“Long story short, I'm broke, and already in debt. Stressful. And then she walks by. And her family is completely loaded. You can just see it in the way she walks, she grew up rich, never having to worry about money a day in her life.  And that’s not even what bothers me. It’s the way that she looks down on me. She treats me as if I'm a cockroach or something, she wouldn’t even look at me.”

She felt sorry for him. Her family was kind of rich as well, so she couldn’t really relate to his struggles with money. But his struggles with the rich-as-shit girl were incredibly easy to relate to. It sounded a lot like her and Ashton. Both this girl and Ashton fucking Irwin were total assholes who seemed to enjoy making a bad day even worse.

She didn’t know what to tell him. Everything’s going to be alright? She didn’t know that. So instead, she scooted a bit closer to the open wall, and freed an arm from her blanket. She could easily reach around the wall separating her and the boy, so that’s what she did. He seemed to understand what she was doing, because after a moment she felt a hand wrap around hers. It was a large hand, warm and with slightly calloused skin, but it was nice.

She turned her head to the side, and she could see their hands intertwined in the dark. She was sure that if she leaned slightly forward, she would be able to see his arm and maybe more. She didn’t.

“That totally sucks.”

“Yeah. Thanks for listening.”

“Anytime.”

A/N: Oeehh lala, holding hands already! I love it. Let me know how you liked it?