Miller Spencer knows that it's normal to love your best friend.
Ace has been his best friend since forever. So, of course, it's completely natural to want to kiss him. It is typical to get jealous when you see him with someone else. It is absolutel...
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I stuttered to a stop and plopped on the side pavement after running aimlessly for a few minutes. My legs had given up, each muscle of my body straining. I couldn't breathe.
I was too shaken to realize that I was still in an unknown neighbourhood with scarce lights and a temperature that seemed to have dropped even further. I shivered slightly from the cold, and from the aftershock.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a pair of long legs come and stand in front of me before they disappeared. I felt Ace's familiar warmth as he sat beside me, quietly. I took heaving breaths, still trembling. My stomach knotting as the world around me kept spinning dizzyingly. My throat felt dry as I took in racked breaths, incoherent.
I wasn't sure how much time had elapsed in the stillness.
"Milo?" Ace spoke softly after a timeless infinity. And somehow, the tenderness in his voice unhinged the last sense of rationality left inside me.
Everything that had happened so far came crashing down on me. The stranger groping me, violating me in a way that had never happened before, the guy almost assaulting me, the loud noises which still rang in my head, the way I had been so fucking stupid in thinking I could go to an actual rave party, and most of all, the fact that I was falling for a guy who could never be mine. I wasn't sure if it was the last straw, but the image of Viola and Ace burned into my brain and before I knew it, I was crying.
I didn't care that we had fought. I didn't care that I was embarrassing myself. I didn't care that I had just been humiliated in front of Ace. Once the onslaught of overwhelming emotions began, I had no idea how to stop them.
Ace remained quiet for a few more seconds before I heard the gentle rustle of clothing as he moved closer to me. His arms wrapped around me as he gently stroked my back. I turned and reciprocated almost in a trance, burying my head into his chest as the tears fell. I waited for him to push me away, maybe chide me for being such a baby. But when he pulled me closer and stroked my hair instead, it set my heart asunder till I had no visage of self-control.
I sobbed like a child, snivelling and wetting his t-shirt as my entire body trembled. I tried to be quiet, but somehow, couldn't get myself to. He remained silent, stroking my back gently as he pulled me closer and let me sob. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, a sense of warmth spreading through my chest and thawing the ice in my heart.
"Hey, you're okay," he whispered softly. He placed his cheek against the top of my head. His hand so strangely tender as he held me close. "It's okay, Milo."
Would it ever be? I felt angry. That I couldn't stand up for myself. That I couldn't slap the person who had touched me. That I couldn't fight back Cam who had decided to bully me for no reason. I couldn't understand. Why was the world this way? Why was it so harsh? Just because I would never resort to violence, did that mean I was subjecting myself to all such injustice? Did that mean that anyone could just walk over me like they wanted?
