BLUE BLOOD

19 | you aren't any different

x

"Are you okay?" he asks.

It's dark. I can't see in the faint. "Y-Yeah."

"Don't cry," he says quietly, and I know he's sitting against the wall blocking these tunnels. "It gets better, you know."

"He's drinking..." I whisper, bundling myself closer. "My father, I mean."

He knows better than to ask if he hit me again. "I have a riddle."

"Don't you always?" I smile faintly, even though the tears are still running down my cheeks.

"What starts with an e, ends with an e, but contains a letter that's not e?"

"An envelope," I say, finding the envelope he slipped through.

"Happy birthday, Azalea."

Suddenly, the tunnels disappear and then I see her face. Her crying face, make up streaming down, and for the first time, I can see her clearly.

"Sorry," Ella mouths.

And then she screams.

x

My eyes flew open, a gasp leaving my lips.

Ella.

The tunnels.

It was three in the morning.

My head pierced with an ache. Memories of my father throwing me to the floor on glass started to overwhelm me. My stomach plummeted. I felt safe for a while in Avery's bed but it never lasted.

I would never feel safe. Not here.

I felt the need to get some air or do something other than lie in bed. Quietly, I slipped out of the thick covers, out of Avery's arms, in his shirt. As I tiptoed around, I paused before Avery's sleeping form, my legs bare.

For the first time in a long time, he was sound asleep. Avery told me he never slept well. He always pushed himself to stay awake until he could not take it anymore. He justified it by adding that he was more productive at night anyway.

Avery would never admit it out loud, but I knew he couldn't rest without nightmares. I wonder what they were about.

Now, though, he didn't look tormented. In the faint moonlight, he looked peaceful asleep. It was only then could I understand why girls stumbled over their heels to see him and had felt lightheaded by a mere smile on his lips.

Avery Dragomir was beautiful. Truly devastating and heartbreaking. Handsome and chiseled like a true aristocrat. And those lips...

I turned away, shutting my eyes to forget that memory. My cheeks blossomed red.

Nothing. That kiss meant nothing. I would make sure it meant nothing.

No one had been in the mood for a long dinner after exams. Avery and I ended up making pasta, which I had to admit I was horrible at. The amount of times I messed up dicing the tomatoes was laughable. Cole had been nowhere to be seen but when he did return, there was was alcohol in his hands. By the time all the blue bloods had shuffled in, I felt their gazes on me. They weren't exactly hostile, more anticipating.