Unravel Me | Arrow [ COMPLETED ]

chapter twelve

Cali was trying to grab onto that hand, but Oliver just kept letting her go. He didn't want her help. He wasn't choosing her. He would never choose her, not for something like this. He claimed that her name had kept him going, but her name hadn't made him come home again. Her name hadn't cleared those ghosts from his eyes and her name hadn't stopped that ever tightening spiral of doom he found himself trapped in.

Cali understood why - she was a reminder of everything that had once been, just like Tommy and Laurel and Thea and Moira - but that didn't make it hurt any less.

She breathed in deeply, holding the air in her chest for a moment before letting it out again. Her lungs thundered with discomfort and she cringed, settling a hand on her abdomen. Her entire body ached slightly, as though her muscles had been pulled in all the wrong directions to release tension. Her eyes were awash with grains of sand, and her chapped lips burned something fierce.

She felt...displaced. Unsettled. Like her skin had been stretched over her bones wrong, and everything was simultaneously too tight and too loose. She could feel her pulse drag by under her skin, could hear the thump thump thump of her heartbeat in her ears.

The sour taste of syrupy lemonade stained her tongue and a horrified sense of knowing splashed across her thoughts.

If she was right about this, then she needed to break into her father's private files and find out what the hell he'd been spiking her drinks with, and why.

Uneasy now, Cali crammed her phone back in her jacket pocket, wrinkling her nose at the awkward creases in the fabric; results of sleeping in it. They'd be a bitch to get out. Shaking her head slightly, she determined that she hadn't taken anything off before going to sleep, not even her shoes, thus allowing her to simply straighten up and walk out of the room.

The best part of the Queen mansion was that it was very well looked after and therefore she didn't have to worry about the floor or the stairs creaking under her feet as she moved downstairs. The lack of noise regarding her movements also allowed her to pick up on the hushed sounds of the TV and the muted murmurs of conversation.

Shit, people were still awake. That made sneaking out of the house without anyone hearing her infinitely harder.

Mouth tightening in frustration, Cali eased up, slowing her walk to a sneak as the sounds gradually got louder. She recognised Oliver's raspy growl, and Thea's lazy consonants. So it was a sibling conversation. She figured that those two were overdue. Hell, Tommy and Cali had already had one-million-and-one angst ridden chats.

If anything, Ollie and Thea were late to the party.

"I know that it might not seem like it sometimes, but..." Oliver let out a measured breath. "I'm not the same person I used to be."

The confession seemed...raw, somehow, like Oliver was speaking from the place of hurt deep inside his chest and not from the cunning storm in his brain that demanded he play a part. The dark had tugged on some of his threads, and a tight knot inside him was starting to unravel.

Thea said something that was masked by the TV, and Cali gingerly crept round the bottom of the stairs and headed for the door. That conversation was not meant for her, and damn her if she was going to prevent Oliver from opening up to someone.

God knew that he needed it.

Cali swallowed back her small, bitter laugh. She didn't know why it bothered her so much that Oliver was talking to everyone but her. Oh sure, he spoke to her. They'd had afternoon together and he'd babbled over hot chocolates until her ears had rung, but he'd never said anything to her. He'd talked to Laurel, and now he was talking to Thea. Hell, Raisa has broken through all his barriers with nothing but a smile.