Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

43. The Tragic Past Of Eternity Time

Two days had passed, and the two teenagers of the Wibberly household were not doing very well, though for very different reasons. On one hand, there was Lili, who had forgiven everyone for the incident at the family meeting, everyone except herself. She had stopped using magic for menial tasks, afraid of its darkness, and the bags under her eyes had grown as her bouts of nightmares and insomnia increased. She felt like she couldn't close her eyes without seeing her family dying in some horrible way, or worse, returning to the reoccurring dream of a world being torn to part because of her. 

On the other hand, was Eternity. 

Lili had forgiven her family for what they said. Rafe had too, after taking a few days to be angry. He was protective, yes, but he also knew how to recognize when someone felt genuinely guilty over a mistake and give them a chance to make it right. Abby and Jake had heard what happened, but hadn't felt the need to pass any sort of judgement or forgiveness. All of them had moved on.

Eternity had not. 

She would never admit that though. They weren't her family after all, and it was stupid to expect them to be and to apologize for hurting her when they didn't even realize they had. It was her own fault, for daring to get attached and thinking they wouldn't all let her down. It was her own fault that some part of her couldn't move on and accept that people would always let her down and break her heart, and that was the whole reason why having a heart was such a problem in the first place. 

Eternity's perspective on a lot of things, emotions and people specifically, was messed up, but she couldn't be blamed for that. She was only the result of her ruined upbringing, after all.

"Eternity," called a familiar voice. Eternity wiped at her stinging eyes, refusing to cry. She didn't want her emotions getting the better of her, the way they always did, coming back even when she thought she killed them. Lili saw right through though, as soon as she entered the room, taking in the dark circles and miserable expression on her best friend's face.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Eternity tried to grin but it just felt wrong, "I'm fine."

Lili's frown deepened and she took a seat beside the pink haired girl, "you don't look fine and you don't sound fine. What's up?"

"Nothing, don't worry about me."

"It's my job as your friend to worry about you," Lili said lightly, before watching Eternity looking away and becoming solemn, "you do know that right? You know you can ask for help or talk to me or or my dad or anyone here. You know we care about you and love you and are here for you. Right?"

Eternity didn't meet her eyes, playing with the fraying edge of her t-shirt, "I... yeah. But really, it's not a big deal, it's just stupid emotions that don't even make sense. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow."

Lili's brow creased and she reached for Eternity, "hey!" She lightly touched the other girl's chin and guided her face so that they were eye to eye, "hey! Don't say that, okay. You are a big deal. You are important and you have a place in this family. No matter what else is going on, we only have time for you. No matter how trivial the problem seems, we're here. I'm here."

Eternity felt her eyes start to sting and blinked back the tears. When was the last time someone had said that to her? When was the last time someone had meant it? She couldn't remember. And gosh, she wanted to believe that it was true, that it was real, that Lili wouldn't let her down like everyone else did. But how could it be true? Eternity knew how this story went, and either someday Lili would fail her... or more likely, she would fail Lili, who was good and kind and kept her promises and loved with all her heart and all those things Eternity had vowed never to do a long time ago.