Zoe's only wish is to be able to run barefoot through grass, but she knows it'll never happen. Ever since she was born, she's been unable to touch anything living without it instantly dying. It's a curse she would do anything to get rid of, but that...
I knew now that I had not been out of my mind when I had thought about buying Zoe a phone. A part of me was angry with myself for not having bought one already that morning and forced it upon her.
It had been two days since I had had coffee with Zoe and I had thought about it constantly. It had been so easy to talk to her. Damn, I had even told her about my family. I, of course, could have said more, explained exactly what had been going on during my childhood. But the only other person I ever talked about my family with was Alex. Not even my ex had gotten a better picture than that I had never liked my grandparents and that my relationship with Dad was tense at best. I had even talked about my mother, or lack of rather, with Zoe.
Maybe it had been her complete honesty when talking about her family that had made it easy to open up. It had touched me in a way things usually didn't. I had felt such a powerful anger and sadness when she had said that she thought it was her fault her mom was dead. I had wanted to both wrap my arms around her and comfort her, as well as hunt down and hurt whoever had at some point made her feel that way. And it had been so clear in her eyes that she really did believe that.
But it wasn't only the sad parts that I kept thinking about. I smiled like an idiot every time I thought about how passionate she had been about her defense of witches. It clearly was something she cared deeply about. I knew though that she was wrong in her opinion. From all that I had been taught and read about witches, they were all bad. I did know though that they had burnt very few real witches during the witch trials, so part of her argument had been true. Witches had never been that easy to catch. But even though she had been wrong about a major thing, her passion had been endearing.
But every time I thought about her, I would inevitably think about how it ended, and with that also some of the strangeness about her that I had noticed.
It had been clear that she actually didn't want to leave. Fear and pain had been written all over her face and when she had looked at me. And the final time she had looked up I was sure I had seen tears.
Why though?
I kind of assumes it had something to do with the other strangeness. It had been like she had constantly been on edge and in ridged control. Not so much with what she had said, more with her movements. Something had made her shy away from physical contact.
Did she have an ex- or current boyfriend that abused her? Or was she in some other sort of abusive situation? Was someone controlling her somehow? Like a cult type situation? That would explain the clothing.
I did end up, several times a day, fantasizing that some witch had gotten hold of her and used her. There was a lot of spells that require blood. Virgin blood even in some cases which once again would explain the clothes. But in my fantasy. I would find the witch and kill her, freeing Zoe. It would be a fitting witch for the first time I ever killed.
My phone rang and even though I knew it wouldn't be Zoe I could help but hope and disappointment etched me when I saw that it was Alex.
"Hey, how are you holding up today?" she asked and I just sighed into the phone. "Seriously dude. You gotta get out and do something. Just find someone to make out with a bit and you'll probably feel all better."
My heart tightened at just the thought of that.
"I can't," I stated.
"Then just go out and do something fun. Let's see a movie or something tomorrow?"
"I just don't feel like it."
"What is it really about this girl? You're worse than ever."
"I can't put it into words. It's just this feeling of that we belong together somehow. Like that I won't be complete without her." I had myself tried to desperately understand these feelings. They didn't make sense and it wasn't like anything I had ever experienced before. The best way I had come up with to explain what I felt had been that we were two broken pieces that would never be whole without the other.
"That honestly doesn't sound like a healthy attraction. Maybe it is good in the long run that she took off."
"I gotta go," I snapped and hung up.
I knew that Alex was just trying to help, but every time she said something that was even close to criticism against Zoe, I ended the call before I could say something hurtful in response.
I paced my bedroom. My thoughts in a knot.
Finally, I went to the library and pulled out different books about witches. I knew my fantasy about a witch somehow controlling Zoe was ridiculous. But researching the possibility was at least better than just sitting around wallowing in misery.
Alex did manage to get me to leave the house at least for a little every day though during the coming days. Either to eat lunch with her or just by nagging me enough so I would finally leave the house and walk around in town aimlessly to make her shut up.
I had thought that it would get easier with every day that past. I barely knew Zoe after all. How long could I keep on longing for a person I had only met twice? However, if anything, things kept on getting harder. I wanted to see her and know she was alright.
A week had gone by and I was going to have lunch with Alex. I went to where she worked to pick her up and then we would go to a restaurant nearby. She started talking about something as soon as she met up with me in the lobby. I didn't pay attention though. Whatever she talked about, it felt like it couldn't hold any meaning, any importance.
"Hey! Earth to Felix, earth to Felix," she said and waved a hand in front of my eyes.
I startled and then snapped at her. "What?"
"Are you even trying to pay attention?" she sighed.
"I am," I lied straight away.
She rolled her eyes, obviously not believing me. "Geez, can't you at least try to pretend?"
"Whatever," I mumbled and turned away from her and to the park we walked past. My eyes didn't look at anything in particular. They just swept over the people there, only that they actually didn't. Instead they found something they couldn't stop watching. That green dress and red hair.
I automatically took a couple of steps closer, vaguely aware that Alex said something.
"Zoe?" I asked when I was close enough for her to hear.
She sat up and those beautifully sparkling green eyes were full of shock and fear as they found mine. My inside shored to the sky while also plummeting to hell and three questions echoed in my head.
Why was she here? Had she lied to me? Was she actually not at all interested in me?
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