In which she falls victim for his exorbitant desires, his iniquitous tongue and his immoral ways. And him for the constellation in her eyes but the provocation in her lips.
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A SINGLE NAME CAN lay so much destruction in its wake. It violently drags Lavinia Summers away from her make belief world; Elias Montgomery is no longer a pretty ill-fated boy who offered her sweet peaches and gave her toothaches from his even sweeter lips. His demeanor shifts, his gaze is unrelenting and grim. She is not used to this. There is a glint that promises a cataclysmic finale in his myraid pools of blue.
The air is thick, she shouldn't have asked about Holly.
There is a slight buzzing in her ear, a rapid beat of her heart out of fear that she might lose her lover and her creeping anxiety that she tries to shake off with the heat. She sits on theirbed, the hot summer air wafting into the room. They met on a hot day like this, it seems too long ago.
She can't lose him, she thinks.
"She doesn't matter to me." He is thinking. Elias Montgomery has this mischievous glimmer in his eyes; like the universe whispers every conspiracy in his ear, like he knows every malicious thing you ever did—like he knows everything. Right now, he doesn't know.
"You said her name yesterday." Twice. Her words are barely a whisper. She cannot recognise her voice anymore.
Regret flashes in his eyes. She watches him and she realises that it's finally happening — you're going to leave me.
"Who is she?"
Stop.
She doesn't know why she presses on, but her name weighs heavier than her heart at the moment. She waits for him to come up with an excuse, any words of assurance and she would believe him. He doesn't need to say it because she can see it in his eyes—you're like the rest. He says nothing the entire time, tears build up in her glazed eyes while she swallows the painful bile in her throat.
"Who is she to you?"
Stop.
Stop.
"Lavinia," he warns. Drop it.
You're going to lose him.
The hurt is evident in her face, he can see it too. He wears a pained expression, like seeing her hurt is a double edged sword—it hurts him too. But he nurtures his silence, the words on the tip of his tongue are not meant to assure. They carry the weight of his past, the remorse and torment of his decisions. He stares at her and he almost breaks his silence. Almost. But his feet is rooted to the ground, his past is catching up with a fiery pace.
He cannot say a word.
Her vision is blurry, her quiet sobs fill the dreadful silence — she realises it has never been her. Her thoughts drift to Holly and she is filled with envy. She shakes her head at herself, she tries to bite down the sudden self pity that grows inside her. Her fingers tremble, her lips wobble slightly — "You are hard to love." Her mother's words ring in her head suddenly and she chokes on her sobs; he has never told her he loved her back.
