The Butterfly Defect

Chapter 2

Alice rolled over and glanced at the clock which informed her that it was just past 2am. On any normal day, Alice would have fallen asleep long before midnight but the day just passed was far from normal.

Her mind was drowning in thoughts; this was unusual for her. If she ever wanted an answer, she would consult a text book. But in this situation, textbooks wouldn’t help.

‘I know what I saw’, Alice whispered into the darkness. ‘He purposely cut his wrist.’

She stared up at the off-white ceiling which appeared to be spinning. The lack of sleep was beginning to kick in. However, even if she tried to sleep, her mind wouldn’t allow it. It was too alive with electric emotions who so dearly desired to fry her brain.

The thought of self harm alone was enough to send chills down her spine. Self harm was like a nightmare to her; frightening but unreal. She didn’t believe that anybody would do that. Especially not him.  His life couldn’t be too bad after all, even if he was just a pauper. No matter how hard she tried to think of excuses of what it could be, she knew deep down Destery had cut himself intentionally. She  couldn’t figure out how she knew that, but she could feel it.

‘Maybe it was the cat.’ She pleaded with her mind. It was hopeless. No excuse could explain it.

As she drifted off into sleep, she decided to talk to Destery about what she saw and hopefully get some answers.

The next morning Alice woke up with no time to spare. The consequence of her late night was that she couldn’t do her hair or makeup the way she liked it. In fact, she didn’t have time to do anything besides put her school dress on.

She quickly looked at herself in the mirror on her white dresser. Her hair was a mess. Bits of blonde were poking out all over the place, and wouldn’t sit right. She looked beautiful, and she knew it, but not her best. She shrugged and walked out of her large room to get some breakfast and some coffee. Golly, was she dying for a coffee.

The long hallway which led to the hall were covered in a red carpet. Alice felt like she was a famous Hollywood actress when she walked down the hallway. She always felt a boost of confidence when she strutted down the strait. She was quite aware she would never be famous, as she was the next in line to take over her family’s business, but it was nice to dream.

Alice was only slightly distracted by the carpet when she felt something – or someone – bump into her. She stumbled backwards as a hand quickly took hold of her wrist.

“Watch yourself, uh.” Her savior grunted. She looked up and saw a pair of big brown eyes looking down at her. Destery had stopped her from falling.

She must have been smiling to herself because Destery quickly stated “I only stopped you from falling out of instinct. Don’t flatter yourself. I actually despise you. So it would be much appreciated if you let go of my hand so I could go to class.”

Alice blushed. She got butterflies when he spoke. It felt like her stomach was about to start flying, there were that many butterflies in there.

“I-I…er..” She stumbled, unsure of what to say. When she wasn’t around him, he was so easy to hate. But when she was with him, all of that faded away. It felt like her heart was singing as she grasped his cold hand. She looked down at his hand, and remembered.

“I saw your wrist yesterday in class.” She blurted out without thinking. Instantly she regretted it. His face dropped and his lips pursed.

“ I know you did. And if you are referring to the cuts on my arm, it was from my cat. Now can you please let go?” He replied bluntly. He clearly wanted Alice to let go, and shut up.

Alice considered backing away, and running in the opposite direction. Shje could tell she hit a personal spot for him, but she wanted to know more. What if she never got another chance to find out what really happened to him?

She hesistated before she spoke, and when she did, she spoke nervously. “I’ve seen cat scratches before. Those are nothing like them, yours were self inflicted anyway? Why do you do that to yourself?”

Silence filled the hallway. It felt like time itself had stopped completely still. Nothing else mattered to Alice but his answer.

He sighed, knowing he couldn’t make her believe it was a cat.

“So what if I do harm myself intentionally? It’s not like you care. You’re just curious. Try waking up in the middle of winter with no heater turned on because you can’t afford it. Try getting knocked from room to room from your drunken father and having nobody to turn to. You’re here enjoying your superficial lifestyle without even knowing what goes on to the people like me. Go have some caviar and champagne and spread the word. I couldn’t care less.”

Alice was shocked, naturally. Nobody ever confronts her. She is the queen, and she had always been treated like that.

“Destery…” She whispered. She felt a wave of guilt wash over her. Destery looked close to tears and his cheeks were red like roses dancing in the sun. She didn’t want to be the reason the rain washes over the roses, destroying the beauty in its own beautiful way.

Destery just stared at her. He wanted to run away and hide, and never show his face again. This encounter was doing serious damage to his pride.  But somehow, his feet were planted firm on the ground, and their eyes were locked onto each other’s. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He had nothing witty to say back anyway.

“I won’t tell anybody. I promise. I don’t want you to feel any more pain than you already do.” She intertwined her fingers with his and squeezed his hand tightly. This action triggered the tears. She reached her free hand up and wiped away the tears, and kissed his cheek. Yesterday, she hated his sole existence, but today felt like their lives were meant to have clashed. It was almost as if fate was pulling them together, just for that moment to happen. It was then that Alice realized she loved Destery. Their friendship was non-existent and they hadn’t even known eachother for twenty four hours, but it felt right holding his hand.

“Don’t cry” She whispered softly into his ear. The corners of his mouth slightly turned upward, into a small but adorable smile.

“Maybe I was wrong about you. Perhaps you’re different. You know, that was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me..” He finally spoke, wiping away his tears with his sleeve.

“Maybe one day I will be able to love again” He said more quietly, almost a whisper , before walking away slowly to class.