7 ∞ Where Hello Meets Goodbye

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CHAPTER 7

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CHAPTER 7

I lightly tapped my pen on the armchair's table, stuck at the paragraph that I was working on. As much as I could help it, I avoided taking up responsibilities like this one.

But Stephen had other plans. I'd heard about it from Ariel, and it had become even more obvious as the days went by. He wanted me to face challenges, like some kind of a leap of faith. As he said, we should make memories while we were at it or try to see more of the world.

What he didn't know was that many had done that. Ariel was definitely one of them, probably the same one who had exerted so much effort. But I always let the ones who were trying in, but still shutting the rest of the world out.

It was easier this way.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Blake interrupted me, mostly from my thoughts. I knew he wasn't the most encouraging person in the room, but I also hoped that he wouldn't be this much of a letdown. "Let me have a look again."

For someone who had taken over as our leader without our consent, Blake was dutifully perfecting the skill of irritating people around him. In fact, Chace and Lily both hadn't said a word to him ever since we got up here.

I looked up from what I was writing and met Blake's judgmental eyes. Blake took the notebook from me, reading the script out loud. Every time he would encounter a word or sentence that he didn't like, he would pause and make a remark.

Even if our audience was small, it made me uncomfortable. The script was barely anything, surely not even worth showing to anyone yet. Playing with the pen in my hand, I anxiously waited, for it was the only thing I could do at the moment.

"Blake, check out what Chace brought here. Man, you'll like it. And the king's robe? It's a killer," Stephen said, with a subtle wink in my direction. Blake was the king. He was the evil king who oppressed the people. But whenever Blake was pressing me to change his role from ruthless to loveable so that he would rightfully have more lines, Stephen always had the perfect method to drag him away.

"I have some things to discuss with Micaela," Blake said to him, uninterested. He tried taking away Stephen's hand from his shoulder. "Maybe later."

"Come on, you don't want to miss this." Stephen handed me my notebook, before he dragged Blake to the other side of the room, where the costumes were located.

"And here we thought no one could ever contain Blake." Lily sat in the empty chair beside me. "That's really clever of Stephen."

I nodded in agreement.

Blake tried to get back to me, but Stephen held him back by making him try on the costumes. Chace was with them, amused at how Stephen made it so easy to be with Blake.

After a while, Stephen picked up a sword and gave another one to Blake. Then he asked him to have a friendly sword fight. I laughed to myself, thinking how he could be such a kid.

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