𝗛𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀

【Ｔｈｉｒｔｙ－Ｓｉｘ】

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

» "Well, I'm off for the weekend then." «

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

You woke up slowly to a weight atop you. Clearing your eyes of blurriness you groggily pat the husky which was half-sprawled across you. To your right was Luca, still asleep, hogging a majority of the blankets. The dog made a huff sound, like a deep breath, probably upset you moved. Grumpily the canine repositioned his head to be on your chest rather than your stomach.

Still in a daze you lazily ran your fingers over his fur and between his ears. The dog in response closed his eyes again, satisfied. Letting out a quiet groan and stretching your arms, you reached over to the side of the bed where your charging phone lay. Unplugging it, you squinted at the light and scrolled through it for a bit. On Instagram, an account had requested to follow you, it was familiar. It was that same account from weeks ago, 'Notebooksbestfriend'. It was still framed with a bunch of pink and black heart emojis and bows. Like before, you denied the request.

Turning your phone off you placed it down and went back to rubbing the dog's head. Lizzie and Toby had left soon after the whole talk yesterday. Part of you spaced out during the rest of it, you had started to grow drained after digging up trauma you wanted to ignore. It was hard to recall what happened exactly before they left, you were confident this was more of your brain trying not to get stressed rather than the random lapses in your memory.

Toby had left before Lizzie. He didn't say much. You think he was caught up in the fact you admitted to knowing who he was. He had hesitated in wanting to say something after he stood up, playing with his gloved fingers anxiously. You had stood up to be more face-to-face with him. His hands jolted in your direction, which seemed to embarrass him a bit since red spread on the bridge of his nose. You don't remember any words being said, you just met his eye and waited.

   He wanted to say something, you know it, but he didn't. Instead, he struggled to keep your gaze, his own eyes darting back and forth across your face and away to the floor. What felt like a painfully long time to him, and a short fleeting moment to you, he nodded at you and left through the window(which seemed to become a habit for every masked person you met). For some reason the action made your chest feel heavy. It hurt.

You knew at one point Lizzie held you for a long while. She was warm and radiated comfort, she acted as an anchor keeping you grounded. For the brief moment, your fatigue and stress had left you as she ran her hands through your tangled hair. Apparently you had started to weep silent tears since she had to keep wiping them away. You remember apologizing more to which your friend shook her head against yours as she squeezed you. When the hug did end, you felt empty.

   She was hesitant to leave but you assured her you'd be fine—even if you weren't completely convinced of that yourself. The things you refused to tell them, the things you hid still burned in the back of your throat. Lizzie didn't like that word, "fine". So instead you reworded it and told her you'd rest and tell her if anything happened. That seemed to be good enough. She had lingered for a moment longer, told you to tell Luca she said bye, gave you another tight hug—which seemed tighter and more reassuring than before, and left.

Luca hadn't come out from his room for a while after that. You didn't force him out or bother him knowing he'd want to be alone. A few hours later he had emerged with Smile practically attached to his hip. The three of you ate dinner silently. You hugged him afterwards, his arms were loosely wrapped around your midsection. It was rather different compared to his eager death-grip bear hugs. Once you headed for bed he had followed with his own blanket and claimed your bed as his own for the night. He hadn't done that in a while, a brief memory of when you still lived at your fathers was brought to mind.