Fragile Desires (18+)

Seventeen | Childish Challenges

The night always amplified everything. 

Joy became a bittersweet ache, laughter echoed hollowly, and even the happiest memories cast long shadows under the moon's glow.

The dark sky can lure you into the worst and best memories, leaving your heart clawing itself out of your aching chest.

Even the happiest of moments can feel heavy.

It was a different kind of weight, a suffocating numbness that made the heavy memories feel almost comforting in comparison to feeling nothing.

Tonight, under a sky scattered with a million tiny secrets, I revisited the whirlwind of the past three days. 

In a few short days, New York had thrown more at me than my entire life back home.

The good intertwined with the bad, the bad gnawing at the edges of my thoughts like a persistent chill. 

Uncertainty stretched before me, large and unsettling. 

Yet, a curious beauty bloomed within it, a glimmer of possibility like a diamond glinting in the dark.

But diamonds were deceptive. 

Their brilliance could blind you to the sharpness that drew blood.

Appearances were everything here, a carefully curated facade hiding the truth.

There's what you see...

And what they don't show you.

- Azzy

♛Chapter Seventeen: Childish Challenges♛

I closed my familiar white diary, tracing my fingertips along the golden edges of the small notebook.

The glow of the moonlight shed the perfect amount of light to properly write all of my thoughts out, desperately trying to rid my head of them.

But with Seraphina and Marcela at the forefront of my thoughts, my head felt nowhere near lighter.

It was the middle of the night, precisely—

2:17 am

And the last thing I could do was sleep.

I felt too wound up.

Too anxious.

The night air was chilling, like a fresh blanket that felt cool to the touch until your body warmed it up.

My pink silk robe clung to my body and spilled down to my ankles—covering the bare skin that my silky white nightgown exposed.

I suddenly glanced down upon hearing a set of heels click precisely on the first-level patio.

From the heights of the third level, it was hard to make out the figure, but with her jet-black hair shimmering under the moonlight, I knew exactly who it was.