The Imperishable Flame⎪✓

❨36❩

♀︎

"It's me, Dakota," Lucy spoke from the other side of the door, I didn't know if I should be relieved or not. "Please open the door."

"You have your own key," I stated indifferently before opening the door anyway, no need to be rude about it. She was standing on the other side with a sad smile on her lips. Apparently, Travis had yelled at her for being a bitch to me, so she decided to come here and apologize. Unfortunately, she forgot her key in her jacket, hence her knocking. That didn't explain the rough round of knocking, but I assumed she was pissed at me still.  

"Look, I'm sorry for being offensive earlier. You say Elijah makes you happy and I should be supportive about it, no matter how much I dislike the guy," Her half-apology didn't really help my anger, she has nothing to say in the matter at all. I didn't need her opinion on him, he is my guy. 

"What do you want me to say, Lucy?" I asked her, honestly curious about what she was aiming for here. 

"I don't know, shit, Travis wanted me to apologize so here I am," The shrug of shoulders made it very fucking obvious, clearly she didn't care about my response. The two of us have always been good friends, it makes no sense why we're acting like this all of a sudden. She raised an eyebrow at me, "Are you going to say something?"

"I don't know what to say. You left in a rage because of who I'm seeing, that's toxic."

"Now you're calling me toxic? Fucking amazing," The scoff left her lips and I frowned at her. 

"Do you think I wanted any of this to happen? You don't see me out here trying to ruin things between you and Travis, because I can respect the fact that you want to be with him. That's friendship," Trying to convince her was useless when she shook her head at me. 

"Yeah, because you're all that great, aren't you?" The sarcasm lacing her tone was so obvious it shocked me. 

"Are the two of us ever going to get past this? I don't feel like throwing my energy into something one-sided."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, the look on her face was filled with pure hatred. It dawned on me that I didn't know her at all, she took me to an underground fighting ring, she got together with Travis and rarely spoke to me again, and now here she was, blaming me and Elijah for ruining the friendship. That's not true, if anything, Lucy and I were both guilty. 

"You don't think we can be good after this?" She asked and I hated how she was placing the decision on me. Both of us were in this. 

"I think we can do anything we want, but I don't want you to meddle in my personal life like this," The honesty angered her slightly.

"Not even when you're being an absolute idiot and not seeing shit?" 

Of course, she had to go there.

"You know what, no. I don't think we can be good after this, clearly, both of us have changed and that's fine. None of us should push a friendship to work."

A long and heavy silence followed my words, no part of me regretted uttering them and it was then I knew I made the right choice. She has been a horrible friend recently, both of us have, but she was placing the entire blame on me and that's not appropriate. 

A joyful feeling struck her face and a tiny smile tugged at the corner of her lips, "I'm gonna go then, Travis didn't want to wait too long for me."

"Fine," I stated, no point in trying to get her to stay. 

She shrugged her shoulders again and left, I closed and locked the door behind her. What even was that?

***********

Sitting in my room right now, I think back to everything that has happened lately. From me wanting to drop out, to getting an internship with that weird Mr. Franco, to meeting Elijah again, now the fight with Lucy. Elijah has without a doubt been the best part of all of this, seeing him and finally allowing myself to be with him. I'm slowly but surely starting to fall for him, the thought hits me like a ton of bricks and my eyes widen. 

Did I just confess to loving him before even acknowledging it myself? 

It makes sense though.

He has been there for me since high school, he took his time to laugh and talk with my dad, making dad the happiest I'd seen him in a while. After that, he kissed me and confused my feelings even more, back then I had no idea what was going on. Now I know more, I've matured and grown, I know that Elijah is the person I want to be with. Never without. He is the one for me. 

Relly and Dani are right, they told me that fate was working its mysterious ways in getting the two of us together again. There must be something about it. He suddenly appeared during a time where I was struggling with myself, never going out and being a dorm rat. He lovingly challenged parts of myself I never would dare touch. He made me his the first time we kissed. 

The revelation of my feelings for him shocks me, and at the same time makes me feel at such deep peace. Memories start flooding my mind, from meeting him in the cafeteria of our high school, to having that conversation outside Relly's house at a party, to the time when he found me picking up shards of glass and helped me clean my wound afterward. He has been there through it all, even when I lost my dad. 

The hug we shared in the hallway will forever be engraved in me, he held me with such delicacy, allowing me to release some weight off my shoulders. That alone was enough for me to hate the fact that we split up, I hate that none of us pulled through and ensured our future together. Even if that meant having a long-distance relationship. I would do it. 

After realizing this, I throw myself onto the bed with a smile on my lips. Hopefully, I can see him tomorrow and tell him what is running through my mind, he deserves to know either way and I need to get it off my chest.