Duskwood Oneshots Collections Volume 1.

Photography

Au in which Jake and MC knew each other before the events of Duskwood and were a couple. MC is my character. Events based on chapter 4

    He took out his phone after being told that what they were doing was dangerous. He needed to calm down.

    It hurt because it was true. And also, because he couldn't drag her with him. That's why he left that night. To protect her from him.

     He looked at the photo he had with her on his phone. It was one month before he had to flee. When everything was much calmer. Happier. He didn't even know why he hadn't deleted it like the others, he had even forgotten that it was the only one he had left on his phone. That photo had never come to light. They both took the photo to joke with each other wearing those headbands with rabbit ears that a friend of hers had bought for a group costume with her friends for Halloween. He remembered putting it on his head, laughing. Joking with each other. Remembering why he fell in love with her.

     A smile appeared on his lips. A sad one.

     He ran his thumb through his girlfriend's hair? Was she still? According to her, she no longer had a boyfriend. Or perhaps she had told him this as a joke because she knew it was him? Maybe Macie knew he was the same Jake she'd dated from the conversations they'd shared on the phone. Many of the things they had talked about were things she knew about him: His hobbies, his taste in movies, his favorite animal... He must have had at least one suspicion.
     Jake hadn't even broken up with her, he just left one night, without saying anything. Disappearing in everyone's lives. Of her life. Without a farewell. He abandoned her. He wondered if she hated him for doing it. She was the only person who truly trusted everyone he had ever had around him, and yet, he couldn't risk her in the danger that he alone had put himself in.

    When she wanted to speak in their second conversation, he saw that he had a chance to do it again, wanting to give her a little clue about that night when he decided to break that barrier that he had put up to not want to fall in love with her because he saw it in a bad way.

   "If you had to take something to a desert island, what would you take?" He remembered her voice and her smile, a contagious one.

    Macie had approached Jake while they were both waiting for each other's friends. He had always avoided talking to her and Macie at least wanted to have a good friendship with him if he didn't want to date her.

   "I do not know," he shrugged, not knowing what to answer. No one had ever asked him that question. "I guess I would take my computer with a flash drive to connect to the WiFi network remotely."

   "Can I go to that island? Surely you will need someone to comment on all the series and movies you watch."

    He rolled his eyes at her self-invitation.

   "I did not tell you that you were invited," he replied while leaning on the bar table with a malicious smile.

   "So you were going to reject me?"

     No. He didn't reject her. Not that night and not the next.
     It was strange that someone he had met five years ago, his way of seeing her had changed. He saw her with different eyes. He no longer saw Hannah in her. He saw a different person.

    It was a curious thing how they had gotten along so well. Together they had been a team. Macie cared about his opinion and had listened to him when he had a problem and if it was about computers, something she didn't understand, but she always looked for a way to help, perhaps her methods were crazy, but it made him laugh. And he did the same. He listened to her problems and complaints about her part-time job and helped her how to do his university work better and, at the same time, listen to her fanaticism for her series and movies. He didn't understand it either, but he liked to see how her eyes sparkled when she talked about them.