For the damned | ✓

14

DESPITE THE INITIAL CHAOS, her first two weeks at college went well. James was completely convinced of the fact that she was actively being recruited into a cult, but honestly, even if she was, she wouldn't have minded. It sounded like a fun time for a short while, so why not? It wasn't like she thought that was what was going on though. With Niccolo intending on dying, she doubted he had made any long term plans to pull her into his group of believers. Honestly, he didn't even seem to like his believers.

The first weekend she had spent with Theresa doing a sleepover and watching very bad yet somehow kind of good movies, so she could get to know the girl better. She had done a tarot reading for her and they had talked until the sun came up. Now however she was going home to see her mother again. It had been a month since she had last sat down with her, her mother's job often keeping her so busy she had no time at all. Delilah didn't mind, she knew the woman loved her.

"So catch me up," Roshan said as he drove towards their home, James having stayed behind this weekend to do his homework," I hear you went on two dates."

"I ran around town with Jonathan and briefly went to the planetarium with James, you mean," Delilah chuckled.

"Scandalous," Roshan smirked, the wind blowing through his hair," who knew you'd become a heartbreaker in college, Delilah."

"For that I'd have to have hearts to break," Delilah said, tilting her head back to relish in the feeling of flying. She looked back at Roshan then. "Is it too much to ask for someone to touch my soul? To name stars after me and praise me fairer than the moon?"

"Girl, yes," Roshan said," have you seen the college guys nowadays? I had to remind one of them that he should give his girlfriend something on her birthday and that his presence alone would not suffice."

"Devansh is truly lucky with you," she smiled," you're always thinking of others, Rosh."

He was, even if he never wanted to show it. Where she liked to romanticize every part of life, Roshan looked at it all with a certain dry realism. She didn't blame him for it at all, not when he was abandoned by his parents at birth. His aunt had raised him, a lovely woman with freckles and flower-patterned dresses. Six months ago he had met Devansh while painting outside and after meeting him again and again in the same place, Devansh had eventually asked him out.

Delilah hadn't met him yet, but she was really excited to. Roshan had promised her he would organize a meeting between them soon enough, but for now he liked the idea of it being something just for him and Devansh. She understood that, the way privacy felt more intimate than anything else. It had been years since she had been truly alone after all, a ghost always around the corner.

Mateo had gone to visit his family this weekend, but her neighborhood always had been more crowded with ghosts than the most. Probably because rumor of her had gotten around, but she didn't mind that much. They always smiled so bright when she helped them, the joy almost seeped through.

"If you want to know on whose team I am," Roshan said," I will have you know it's neither Jonathan nor James. I find both of them too straightforward for you, Delilah. Hell, if I'm imagining you with someone it's like this mystical guy who's murmuring about the afterlife above a cauldron with you."

He pulled up to her house not much later, Delilah pecking him on the cheek in goodbye as she got out of the car.

"See you back on Sunday, Rosh," she said, waving at him.

With a smile he drove off and she walked up the steps of her house. She had barely set one foot inside when her mother pulled her into a hug, apparently having waited for her by the door. Delilah smiled as the scent of apple pies enveloped her, her mother always baking something when she got home. When the woman pulled back, a wide smile was on her face, her dark hair pinned up in a messy bun on her head and her face devoid of any wrinkles, despite the fact that she was in her forties. With how young she looked people had always told them they looked like sisters.