There are some moments in life where it seems as if the pause button has been activated at full capacity. It is in this moment that everything stops. Everything. Sound is muted down to the point of absence. Touch is halted along with the stalled movement of everything surrounding it, leaving the fingers time to become amicable with the texture of whatever is in their grasp. Sight is frozen, frosted over and focusing in on the one, sole thing that remains clear.
Cleo was currently experiencing one of those paused moments.
Often, she found that she could predict things. Reading so many stories had fabricated the pieces of her mind, constructing a web of possibilities that left Cleo searching for the story in each person she came into contact with.
Over the years she had composed a number of different tales that made up for Audrey Clark's vile behaviour. It was only now, however, that she was witness to the poison staining Audrey's smile.
Stories could be told in multiple ways.
It was almost as if Cleo had picked up the book of Audrey Clark and opened to a random page. What she saw on this page was an accidental slip of a jacket sleeve after a purposeful slap. An accidental slip of a jacket that revealed the five lines of a broken girl's tragedy.
Five lines of a broken girl's tragedy.
Engraved onto her skin.
It seemed that Time himself had stopped to watch one of the rarest events. Cleopatra Quinn was speechless. Truly and utterly speechless. As much as the red flower of pain slowly blooming on her left cheek cautioned her of Audrey's menace, Cleo could not bring herself to harm a girl who was obviously a master in harming herself.
One slip of the hand.
One impulsive action that caused a jacket sleeve to betray the weakness of the seemingly invincible.
The pause in time materialized just as Cleo forgot to breathe, snapping her eyes up to Audrey's in sudden apprehension of all the hell Audrey must have been through. It took a lot to break a person. It took even more for that person to even consider starting to unravel themselves.
The deliberate cuts sliced into Audrey's wrists told Cleo all that she could possibly need to know. Audrey's expression spoke more than words ever could. In the space of what must have been no more than ten seconds, platinum had been reduced to shattered glass.
Cleo had been the only audience to this sudden revelation. Something told her that Audrey wished to keep it that way.
Cleo quickly pulled down Audrey's jacket sleeve.
Time resumed.
"I'm sorry." Both girls apologized in unison, a wave of understanding passing between them.