Ashes Of You And I (Completed) | ✔️

- 13: Go away -

After another half an hour, when the other houses lit up in celebration and feast, he heard faint footsteps and he raised his head to the source of the sound.

A small figure, in clothes which were definitely not thick enough to keep the cold out, limped towards the bench that the boy was perched on.

He already knew who it was. He'd fallen in love with her very existence and could recognise her by her footsteps.

The footsteps stopped right in front of him as the only sound they could hear was her ragged breathing.

The smile that always found its way on his face when she was around, didn't come around. For the first time, he couldn't subside his rage. He couldn't help but feel used.

He looked up to meet her eyes.

She was looking at his pillar, his only pillar in fact.

They both stared at each other with red noses, moist eyes and broken hearts.

But this was the first time that he didn't want to see it. He was so blinded by his own pain that he didn't want to see hers.

"Ryder" she whispered as she trembled in the cold.

He looked away shutting his eyes and got up from the bench.

"You shouldn't be here." He said in a harsh tone, that he didn't know he could muster up, before this.

She flinched at that before stifling a sob. "Ryder, I-"

"Go home, Miles." He said before turning to his house. "Connor must be worried about you." He said facing away from her. He knew he shouldn't say this, he knew he should stop. He knew he was hurting her.

"Ryder please," she couldn't hold her sob as she grabbed his shoulder, gasping for breath. "Please, listen to-" she gasped mid-sentence, when Ryder whirled around suddenly with a look on his face that crushed her already broken heart.

"I need y-"

"I said, go home Emily." He gritted out, glaring at her.

Her eyes widened. He never called her Emily. He always called her Miles. She was special to him but now he looked at her with indifference.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as her lips trembled and two lone tears escaped her eyes. She moved forward to grab his hand as he looked away from her.

"Ryder-" she choked in a sob, looking at him with desperation in her eyes. "Please, you need to listen to me, you're my best frie-"

He snatched his hand away from hers. "I'm not your friend, Emily."

Her hands fell limp on her sides as she looked at him with her lips parted as she felt her world slowly come crashing down.

Tears were now freely flowing out of her eyes as she shivered, cold and hurt.

They had said things like this to each other before, being kids, but never in a situation like this. They were always each other's rocks. They knew they could rely on each other, cry on each other's shoulder.

But today, those words cut deep because the girl was holding on to him as her only hope and that was slowly slipping away.

"What?" She whispered, as she struggled to stand there without the support of his hand.

It's like he pulled away the only physical and emotional support she had when he snatched his hand away.

With that the boy turned away from her, leaving her on the sidewalk with a void in her chest.