Shared Demons

CHAPTER 2

~Theo

His heart was almost thundering out of his chest. He had spent almost the whole evening stalking her, staring at her from afar. He thought it would have been easy for him to go to her, hug her, hold her, and tell her everything that had happened after she left but instead, he found himself cowering away, looking at her.

He drank out of her flute and she scoffed. "Still a jerk and less of a gentleman. Some things never change." She folded her arms.

She still got that attitude he liked and craved.

"I'm glad you remember... 'cause it's really hard to forget a girl who broke my nose in sixth grade."

"Ahh...one of the greatest achievements I don't regret."

He drank again. He had to be honest with himself, he was freaking nervous. It's been ten years.

"How's Australia? I see you're growing an accent."

"You like it...?" He teased.

"...better in someone else."

He hissed. "Still fiery..."

"...still annoying." She rolled her eyes.

"In fact, how did you know I was in Australia?"

She must’ve looked for him too, the same way he did with her, he thought. Tracked him the way he did her.

"Where else would you be? You're...mother was from there and the last time I saw you, your aunt was taking custody." She turned to look at him with those big pale grey eyes. Blood shot in his veins like fire. "She was also from there."

Of course.

She again turned to the calm water of the sea and he shifted on his feet. "Does that give you a reason to leave without saying goodbye?"

"I did tell you I was leaving." She turned to look at him, and him, her. "In fact, you also left, all I did was beat you at it." She smiled victoriously at her last statement.

Of course, always competitive. He had missed her competitiveness and how much he would rival her. He did enjoy annoying her and getting her to fume on him. He even missed the arguments that they had.

They disagreed on everything. Even when he said the sun rose from the East, she would look for a reason to disagree with him, just to vex him. And he did the same, just to get on her nerve. Just to see her frown.

"I would've remained if you did. You didn't give me time to talk about what happened..."

She cut him off. "...and you're not going to. You promised...we promised." She was quiet for a split second and he knew better than to talk. "Even my parents have never brought up that topic and I don't think your aunt did as well."

She never did. He never let her. Therapy had been useless, He never cooperated. His mouth was glued to that one promise and he would die than break it.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm not going to keep some other guests from seeing their host. A pleasure seeing you again, Mr. Graham." She turned.

He grinned, "The pleasure is all mine."

She was avoiding this talk.

She walked away. The only guest he wanted to see.

She was more beautiful but still the same.

They've been rivals in everything...even obvious things. They were ever opposites, that's what made him intrigued with her. A person he could constantly argue with, fight with, push and pull with...and the best thing was that she responded to every fight he brought to her...she fought back, argued back, pushed back. How do you think she broke his nose back in sixth grade? They would always get in trouble together and he just loved getting in trouble with her.