Bit Into Your Love {SAPPHIC}

🩸Chasing the Dark (pt.64)🩸

‼️TRIGGER WARNING: Chapter 63-74 (the end) of this book will include highly sensitive and emotional topics. Viewer discretion is advised‼️

I sighed happily.

Cleo had gotten up to grab me a water bottle and my phone from home. Which would probably take her forever because she could literally never find anything quickly.

The park was right behind our house, it was close. The birds were out and about, joyfully making chorus. The sun was out, and it was only 12 p.m.

But I was under a tree, sitting on a picnic blanket. A small forest sat behind me, it ran to the very end of the road. Theo was nervously holding my hand, sitting beside me in the shade like she always did when there was the risk of her skin melting off.

The grass was green below us. It had rained the previous day, and now, the sun was filling it with nutrients. Flowers had started poking up out of bushes.

Theo's eyes darted up to the shining blue sky as a bird soared up above us. A small smile etched across their face. They seemed to like birds a lot, seeing as they had always done their animal reports about them when they were in elementary school. And this year, they were enrolled in a nature class, a specific type of science class. They'd told me they had hope for learning more about birds.

Melanie was on the swings. Well, more or less. There was a small child next to her, swinging quickly, while she gloomily dragged her feet through the bark chips.

She didn't look sad, though, she just looked like she was daydreaming, zoning out at the ground. I had no reason to check on her, I would've probably done the same thing at sixteen.

I glanced over to my left as another mother sat a few feet across from us.
She had a small child, plausibly around four, with auburn hair just like hers.

She turned to smile at me and Theo. "Lovely day, isn't it?"

I tried my best not to be socially awkward.

I nodded. "I...don't remember the last time we've had a day so blue." I gave her a small smile.

She continued to smile and turned back to her child, handing him a juice packet.

"Where's yours? You have a younger one?" she asked, glancing over at me and eyeing Theo.

"No, actually..." I said with a small, awkward laugh. "The teenager on the swings."

"Really? How old?"
"Sixteen," I answered.

As if she'd heard us talking about her, Melanie's head immediately shot up.

When the children had been younger, in elementary school, maybe, I'd had to talk to a lot of other parents. Cleo had always been better at it than me. But she wasn't here, so it was giving me a lot of bad déjà vu.

"Why aren't you out there with her?"

I could've sworn I'd seen her smile falter. But I passed it off.

I hoped Cleo would come back soon, so she could talk to this eager parent. She'd probably gotten distracted with an email or something, she always did.

I coughed, "How old is your son?"

"He just turned five." She gave me a prideful smile.

I tried to return the kind expression, but I was sure it came out more pained than I'd wanted.

"I'm Katrina, this is Gabriel," the woman nodded to her son, then held out her hand.

I sat staring at her hand. It took me a few seconds to realize she wanted to shake.
But when I realized I quickly leaned forward and rapidly shook her hand.