𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 87 | Detonation

                             June 15th: 00:34am.

                                        REID

I knew I didn't deserve the people in my life, and that I was never the greatest at reading people's emotions.

I was the Labrador, the person people kept around to keep them in hysterics, often at times bringing them to their knees in laughter.

I could just never figure out whether they were laughing with me or at me.

When I was at University, I found that it was really difficult to connect to the people I surrounded myself with. They all held big emotions, and were able to express them in such eloquent ways that at times I had nothing to say.

I couldn't say anything, no matter how much I tried.
It was like something was lodged in my throat, the discomfort others poured into me made me squirm in a way that made me confront the world in an entirely different way to the one I'd grown up in.

My childhood was full of smiles and sunshine, and to see others crack threatened that. I didn't want to break myself to fix others around me.

That was what I told myself each time someone confided in me, until eventually, it all stopped.

People no longer emotionally rely on me.
They haven't in a while.

And I couldn't say I was sad about it. Curious? Sure.

Morbid curiosity manifests from time to time.

But then the secret whispers remained, and eventually it all became white noise.

I'm standing on the edge of Rosehill, with Sophia, the girl I've loved since I was a kid. She's been at the forefront of my mind for as long as I can remember.

So when she showed up at my apartment, answering to Renny and Oliver, wanting to know where I was, I left the hotel room I was at with Carla without a second thought.

A similar look came into Carla's eyes that I remembered seeing so many times before.

It didn't feel good to be the cause of that.
But what also didn't feel good was the gut-wrenching feeling that punched me every time I saw that the face of the girl besides me wasn't her.

So I ran with my heart, knowing I was returning to a cycle that could never really be broken.

She was the catalyst for my undoing, and I would happily oblige to being nothing but hers.

I was nothing but hers.

She's now here, in front of me, twirling around at the edge of the hill. She's got a bottle in one hand, and her dog's leash in another, where she alternates between which to prioritise.

"Come on stupid, join me." Those brown curls would be the end of me. I got on my feet, balancing myself against the small pebbles of the hill which showed all of Cornwall.

"This is our spot.
Whenever we want to smile, we come here.
And we're not allowed to bring strangers. Reid."

Technically, I wasn't breaking Theo's rules.
Sophia was no stranger.

This hill was a symbol for us, a meet spot for whenever we wanted to discuss things that were better left unspoken.