FLYBOY_ POE DAMERON IMAGINES

- imagine #31 //

People say that once something is no longer theirs, it becomes more valuable in the holders eye.

It wasn't fair. How could his heart do this to him? Not even a week ago, he was rolling his eyes at how clingy and annoying Audrey was, yet now she looked like a diamond in the rough. Even with messy hair, puffy lips, and some dark rings under her eyes, he couldn't help but see Audrey as he saw her the first day he met her.

Beautiful.

"Let's just go back to the hangar." Her voice was as soft as a flower petal. Austin looked at her, eyes wary. "Please." He frowned deeply and let Audrey lower his hand for him. Austin made eye contract with Poe once more before he grabbed her upper arm and hastily walked away.

♞♞♞

She was broken. He did this, didn't he? Of course he did – who else could have done it? Moore?

No, impossible. Obviously. The way you looked at him... A look like that, no one would ever know she was broken.

Poe held the cloth to his nose. Why was this happening to him, the man whose life was supposed to be perfect and glamourous? He was supposed to be shameless and perfect. He was supposed to get everything he wanted without a second blink.

At least, that's what everyone made his life out to be.

But what did he want now?

Did he want Audrey? Evergreen? Or did he just want answers?

He felt like he should know what he wanted in an instant, and that everything should work out perfectly... and in the end, he should be happy.

But that's simply not how life worked, not how he acknowledged it.

♞♞♞

"Do you still love him?" Kylee asked.

"Of course I do. It was a year." Her voice cracked at the last word and she wiped at her eyes. So many thoughts ran through her head that she couldn't even think of one alone.

On one side, she was ashamed for acting like this. She had never intended to get attached this much, but she did, and now she was paying for it.

Audrey walked with other people to the hangars, or to work now. Normally, she would be with Poe or at least remotely near him, but even the thought of him at this point made her head spin.

Audrey wasn't bubbly, nor cheery, nor was she smiling. Her makeup was visibly less perfected and her overall appearance just looked... off.

It hurt Austin to see her blame herself. She always told him that she must have done something wrong. She asked what she had done to upset Poe. Every time he tried to reassure her that it was anything but her fault, she just shook her head and softly disagreed with him.

However, that wasn't the worst part.

No, the worst part had to be that along the way, Audrey had captured the feelings of Austin Moore.

He knew it was wrong, and he knew it was inappropriate, and he knew it was the wrong time.

But he just couldn't help it. Everything about her to him was just perfection, and she didn't realize how astounding she was. All she saw when she looked in the mirror was someone who made a fatal mistake, and someone who deserved to suffer as she was.

He stood with her in an isolated corner of the hall, listening to her vent. This had become an almost daily occurrence, he stopping to listen to her pour her heart out.

"I just – I just want to go back and change everything. I want to go back and make things right! But I don't even know where it went wrong, I-I just–!" She was rambling, pacing around and holding her head in her hands. She stopped, looking at Moore with the eyes he had grown to admire. The eyes that held so much sorrow and hurt.

"Am I just useless? Am I just... just a mistake?" Her heart felt like it had stopped and shattered. It had never dawned on Audrey, but now the thought of her simply being a bother clouded her mind.

Audrey hugged herself tightly, murmuring repetitive "oh my gosh, oh my God" over and over.

It hurt Austin to see her like this. It hurt him to stand back and watch as the girl he deemed perfect saw herself as anything but. "A mistake, Moore! A mistake! Oh my gosh–" Her voice cracked and wavered. She had cried so much in the last few days to last her a lifetime, yet she still wasn't through.

Fresh and salty droplets dripped onto her robes and made her cheeks cool. She paced back and forth, breathing heavily.

Austin gripped her shoulders, stopping her in her place. Her sobs echoed in the hall and her entire form shook. "Audrey, you are not worthless. You are not worthless."

And suddenly it was silent. The blonde couldn't stop from leaning in, eyes half-lidded.

Poe watched amidst the shadows. Watched as all of his answers and wants were being tugged away from him, in this sick game of Tug of War.