| Girl on Fire |

86

TIME JUMP: 2 WEEKS

VERONICA MALFOY

"Ronnie," I heard Draco call out as he knocked on my door. I've been in my room for the past 2 weeks. My friends take turns coming in and trying to talk to me but I don't care. I don't want to talk to them. As fucked up as it is, I want to talk to Mattheo. I want him to come back. I want him to come back and explain it all. Tell me what his father said to him. I want him to tell me his father threatened him or did something to make him do what he did. I want it to make sense. Son of a bitch, I need it to make sense.

Or maybe this is just my blind loyalty again. My unhealthy, toxic, destructive love for him. That love that allows me to believe, even after everything, that he cares about me. It's fucked, I know. He killed my mom, ruined my friends lives and manipulated me into believing in him and still, I want to believe he was protecting me. I want to trust him. I'm terrified to think this was all a lie. I just want him to tell me he loves me. I need to know if it was real, any of it.

"Ronnie," Draco said as he opened the door. I sat up on my bed and looked at him. "What?" I asked. "You haven't left your room in days. You won't talk to anyone and you won't eat anything. You look like a skeleton." he said. I shrugged. "Please, just say something. Talk to me." he pleaded. "I'm fine." I said quietly. "You're not. You're not fine, You're avoiding it. Whatever you're feeling you're avoiding feeling it." he said. I stood up as my head whipped to face him. "Really!" I yelled. I stormed over to him. "I'm avoiding it?! You haven't said one word about any of this. You don't talk to me, you don't talk to our friends, or Sev, hell, you won't even talk to Allison." I yelled. He glared at me. "Don't talk to me about her." he snapped. "Why not? Are you avoiding that too? What happened, Draco? Huh?" I asked. "We aren't talking about me, we are-" he started. "No, no, no. Let me guess, you fucked up. You fucked up with Allison, didn't you? Did she get too close? Did you start to feel something? Did you sleep with her? Did you sleep with her and then run off like a coward? Huh? Leave them before they can leave you, right?" I yelled. "Shut up!" he yelled. "No, tell me. You want to talk to me about avoiding my feelings? She actually cared about you. She was willing to look past how fucked up you are and she was willing to try. But you couldn't do it. You probably ran straight back to Astoria or Pansy. All fuck, no feelings." I said. "You really want to go there Veronica? Huh? You don't get it, do you?" he said. "Get what?" I spat. "You think you don't need anyone but you do. You are terrified of being alone. You bounce from guy to guy. Marcus beat the shit out of you for 2 fucking years. You were so emotionally anorexic, you really believed he loved you. Then he raped you." he said. "Shut up." I said. "And he got 2 of his friends to rape you too. Then he kidnapped you." he said. "Enough!" I yelled. "Part of you still had this sick, twisted attachment." he said. "That's not true, I hate him." I said, the defense in my voice evident. "I saw it, Ronnie." he said, his voice softened. I stared at him. "I saw it. When you wanted to see them. When we went downstairs. He talked to you. I saw it." he repeated. "Saw what?" I asked. "You paused. For a moment, I thought he had you again. I thought I was going to have to dig his claws out of you, again!" he said. "You don't know shit! You are just projecting your fucked up life onto mine. I have a boyfriend, remember? Matteo Riddle. The future king." I snapped. Draco scoffed. "All the wandless magic and legilimency tricks in the world don't change the fact that he's just another death eater. Another flying monkey for Voldemort to order around. Although, I suppose he's lucky enough to not get pimped out to Harry Potter. Like you!" he yelled. "At least I succeeded in my task. You failed. Just like father. You look like him and soon enough, you're going to be another loveless drunk still serving Voldemort and most likely still failing. Over and over." I said. "And what will you be doing Veronica? Falling for yet another abusive psychopath?" he asked. "He's not abusive." I defended myself. "He might not leave bruises and break your bones, Ronnie, but he fucked you up. In the head. Worse than I've ever seen." he said. "Mattheo and I may be a toxic time bomb but at least I try to love someone. At least I'm not a coward." I snapped. "Veronica. He left you! Don't you get that! He murdered our mother in cold blood and left you locked in a cellar. He doesn't love you. If he loved you, he wouldn' have killed our mom and abandoned you." he spat back. "At least you finally said it." I spat. "What the hell does that mean?" he asked. "Do you realize that ever since we buried her, you haven't said a word about it. You haven't talked, you haven't cried, you shut down." I said. "You are the most broken down, emotionally numb, stone cold person I know!" he screamed in my face. I laughed. "Are you kidding me? Where do you think I learned all this shit from?" I yelled back. "I guess you and father are more alike than you care to see!" he yelled. "Shut up!" I screamed. I launched forward and tackled him to the floor. I hit him, pounding my small hands into his chest. "Get off me!" he yelled. Suddenly, the door burst open and Blaise, Theo and Enzo ran in. "That's enough you guys!" Theo yelled. "Get off him V!" Blaise yelled. I felt Theo wrap his arms around my waist and pull me off him as I kicked and fought. Blaise helped Draco up and Enzo stood between us. "What the hell is the matter with you two?" Enzo yelled. "He started it, trying to tell me-" I started. "She's being a bitch. Someone needs to-" Draco also began to talk over me. Blaise and Theo had to keep their grip on us to keep us from tearing each other apart. "Enough!" Enzo yelled. We both went quiet as he rubbed his temples.

"Bloody hell. Listen, I know you two are grieving. Ok? I don't know how the fuck to help you, none of us do. Cissy was something special. She is irreplaceable. But that doesn't mean we are going to let you rip each other to shreds. What would she say if she saw this?" he asked. "She would say something about your bond," Blaise said quietly. "Yeah, your bond. The thing only you two have. So cut this bullshit out. You'll always have us as friends but what you two share, that's another level." he said. "Yeah, so don't fuck it up by taking your anger for Mattheo out on him" Blaise said looking at me. "And don't take your anger at yourself and Allison out on her." he said, turning to face Draco. We just nodded. "Now cool off, both of you." he said as he and Blaise left. Draco stopped at the door and looked at me.
Tears fell down his cheeks and he sighed...

"I don't have time to fall apart when I'm too busy putting you back together." he said quietly. Then he walked out and shut the door.

I let myself collapse into Theo's arms and he silently let it happen.