And I cry.
I cry for everything I wanted and can never have. For the life I caught a glimpse of only to have it ripped away before I could hold on to it.
Perhaps I should have taken a page out of Hunter’s book.
Love.
Feelings.
They really can kill a person.
Chapter 36
Piper
I sit on the sofa in the living room of my dorm, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea cradled between my hands as a film plays on the television.
I don’t pay any attention to it.
In fact, I have no idea what’s going on.
Eleanor sits curled up in the armchair opposite, also wrapped in a fluffy blanket, but she’s not even pretending to watch. Her eyes remain fixed on the darkness beyond the window, her expression distant.
My heart squeezes.
For her, me.
For all of us, perhaps.
It seems our friendship group is doomed, and everyone is carrying their own burdens.
We’ve only been back from our holiday for a few days.
And to say I was shocked when I saw Eleanor walk out of the dormitory building on our first day back would be an understatement.
We had just started unloading our bags from the car when there she was.
She barely spoke to us then, and not much has changed since.
She keeps her distance.
Then again, so do the rest of us.
Everything has returned to normal. Or rather, our new version of normal.
The truce we formed in the Swiss mountains dissolved the moment we set foot back on Elaris Isle.
Adelaide and Octavia nearly came to blows the other day.
Ophelia has retreated into herself completely. If you asked them, they’d probably say the same about me.
And they wouldn’t be wrong.
I spend my days crying alone in my room. And when I don’t do that, I skate.
I need to prepare because, with Hunter’s father’s help, I managed to secure a place at next season’s Winter Olympics.
My heart gives a painful squeeze, but I swallow back the tears and keep my eyes fixed on the television, refusing to let a single one fall.
