Midnight Encounters

i. fragile

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01

fragile

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RAINDROPS PELTED ON the casement window of Lexington High, encased in a white wooden frame.

The skies were dark and gloomy, adding up to the melancholy that Elle felt. The left temple of her forehead felt cold as she leaned against the glass window — shutting out the voices of everyone around her.

The cold has always calmed her.

But the rain never did.

         Immediately, she pulled the cap of her hoodie up to her head, and rested her forehead against the beige coloured desk — shutting her eyes tightly as memories of the incident flashed before her.

          Tears filled her eyes and she thought. What could've happened if I hadn't forced him to go to school? She couldn't help but blame herself, and Zeke. She wished he hadn't existe —

          "You're okay El. You will be okay."

          Elle looked up — teary eyed, meeting Carter Reed's forest green eyes that somewhat eased her up a bit. He had always been there for her when no one else was, and she was grateful for that.

          Carter sat on the empty seat to her right, wrapping his strong, bulky arms around her frame gently; like how he'd held her grandmother's glass figurines, in fear of breaking it.

          Elle has always been the happy–go–lucky kind of girl, and everyone adored her for that. Seeing her in a vulnerable state wasn't unusual, but it was the first time that she broke down after four months.

          She was fragile.

          "He's back," she croaked out, the grip of her hands on the collar of his shirt was tight, tugging him closer to her subconsciously.

          Carter ran his hands through her hair in a soothing motion, and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. Pain surged through his chest — he had always loved Elle ever since they were kids, and it hurt him to see her like this.

          Zeke broke her, again.

          For years, he had seen Elle shed her tears for someone who did nothing, but caused her pain, for someone who doesn't give the slightest shit about her.  Carter was tired of seeing her shattered into pieces, he was afraid — knowing that Elle had suicidal tendencies, and would try to kill herself again because the voices wouldn't stop, because the memories wouldn't end, but he wasn't going to let that happen.

          Not this time around. Not anymore.

          "He's back."

          "I know Elle," he whispered, "and I'm going to keep you safe."

♡

          THE DAY WENT by uneventfully with so many thoughts thrusting their way onto Elle's mind.

          Upon getting home, Elle immediately scampered her way upstairs and into her gloomy room. It barely had any furnitures — just a queen sized bed, a nightstand with a lampshade on top of it, study table along with a stool, vanity, shoe rack, dresser and a walk in closet; all in black, grey, white, and other neutral colors.

          The walls of her room was painted in jet-black, the ceiling was in a dirty shade of white, all the while, a creme coloured carpet lay on her floor.

          Elle dropped her backpack on the mattress, and head on to sit on her window seat — resting her arms on her knees in which she pulled up closer to her chest.

          Her breathing wasn't slow, calm, and composed like she had been the past months — brisk, erratic and perturbed.

          Theo Fleur — Elle's fifteen year old brother — knew that Elle wasn't fine. Like Carter, it hurt him to see his sister like this — so troubled, so dejected, so broken.

          Because after all, they both lost someone they love.

          The second he went inside Elle's room, and seeing her so troubled on her window seat as if she were about to cry, he knew something was wrong, but he didn't ask and force an answer out of her.

          He knew better than that.

          Instead, Theo asked, "Frozen Time? Just the two of us." Aside for Constellations Cafe, Frozen Time — an ice cream parlor — was Elle and Theo's hang out spot, their ice cream was we by far, the best in town.

          Instantaneously, she snapped her head to the door, hot tears already streaming down her cheeks, in spite of that, she grinned, slid off the window seat and head to her brother. "Sure," she said, then looped her arm around Theo's. "Your treat."

          And with that, the siblings got out of the room, and make their way to a place that would take their problems off their minds.

          Temporarily.

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