Oublié

"I'm not some disposable toy you can pick up and put down whenever it suits you. I have dreams, and a life of my own. And yet, you've made me put all of that on hold, waiting for you to decide if I'm worth your time"

---

Artemis has always been the girl who waits.

Waits for Luca to call. Waits for him to care. Waits for a version of love that only ever exists when it's convenient for him. She knows what she is to him-a fallback, a familiar comfort when everything else falls apart. Still, when he reaches out, she answers. She always answers. Because a part of her still believes that if she loves him enough, he might choose her for real.

Then, unexpectedly, comes Lucian.

Calm. Patient. Present. He enters Artemis's life like a gentle current against a storm-battered shore-no grand gestures, no demands. He's just there, in all the right moments, with all the right words. Where Luca left chaos in his wake, Lucian brings silence. Where Luca withheld, Lucian gives-his attention, his presence, his time.

And Artemis doesn't know how to handle it.

She's spent so long craving affection that comes with conditions, she no longer recognizes the kind that doesn't. And as Lucian becomes a constant in her life, she finds herself slipping-into comfort, into dependency, into something dangerously close to trust. But the guilt follows close behind. Is she healing... or just transferring her wounds to someone new? Is she leaning on Lucian too much, asking for too much, taking too much?

And worst of all-does she even like him, or does she just hate being alone?

As Artemis begins to untangle herself from a love that never chose her, she's forced to confront a new, unsettling truth:

Sometimes what feels safe can be just as dangerous-Because sometimes, the people who feel like home... are the ones you should've run from all along.

[5/7/25]