264 Old Wounds (13)

When Gale woke up, he was surprised to feel a weight on his arm. Still half-asleep, he opened his eyes a crack and looked to the side. Horror struck him and he jumped out of bed like it was on fire, but even as he did that, he recognized the person sleeping by his side.

His sudden action startled Lily, and she woke up, looking up at him in confusion. "Sleep, it's still early," he told her in a hoarse voice and caressed her head in apology. She murmured something incomprehensible under her breath and closed her eyes again.

Gale dressed in a casual shirt and pants, then went into the balcony. The cold morning air hit him with a heavy punch, but he didn't retreat. It was refreshing.

As he leaned against the railing and watched the city that was already filled with people going and leaving, he calmed his heart. Everything was as usual. He hadn't made a mistake and let himself be seduced.

That reminded him of the letter on his desk, and he wondered what could Iris be thinking. They hadn't had that many interactions, and most of them weren't anything good. Since she was always around Kyro, the only person around whom Gale ever lowered his guard, she had seen his worst side rather than the him he sold to the masses or the one meant for the upper class.

So what was with that letter? Had she went out of her mind?

Sometimes, he really wished he smoked. It seemed like a perfect moment to do it. But he still needed his lungs and his looks, so that was out of the question.

Upon returning to the room, he sat down at his desk to go through the emails. His plans had been set aflame by the stunt the couple in the other room had pulled, and he needed to come up with a new way to figure out who was after Iris. It was somewhat annoying that the authorities now knew about his interest in the matter, but it could be useful as well. If he…

In a while, he heard Kyro's alarm go off, and he looked at the time - over an hour had already passed. It was fifteen past six.

As expected, Iris was the first one to leave the room, and Gale came hounding over to her with the letter in hand. "Take it and make sure I don't see it ever again." He didn't plan to sabotage his friendship for a random girl.

"Gale…" She looked at him with her eyes wide and mind empty, clearly just having awoken. After a moment, she seemed to catch up to what was happening. "Did you read it?"

'What for?' He shook his head and pushed the letter in her direction. "No, and I don't plan to. Take it and never mention it again."

"You can't do that! All of what happened yesterday was just for me to get this letter!"

The fury in her expression was as shocking as the content of her words. What was wrong with her? One moment she pushed herself to the limit to help Kyro, but the next says it was all to confess to him in a letter? It made zero sense.

He placed the letter on her head and turned around to leave. There was no way she could convince him to read that damn letter.

As he thought that, the door of Lily's room opened and Kyro pushed through. He looked at the two of them with a dark gaze, his morning mood as good as usual. "Is the coffee ready?" They shook their heads, and he cursed them under his breath.

Iris chose that moment to pull at him and point at Gale. "Make him read the letter!" she ordered. "He can't just ignore it after all we had to go through to get it!"

Gale took a step back, his mind short-circuiting. Who could possibly be that bold? Was that girl seriously out of her mind?

He wanted to refuse it to make sure Kyro had no doubts about his stand on the matter, but he didn't have the time. Kyro picked the letter from Iris' hands and pressed it against Gale's chest with more than a little force. "Read it, you won't die." He then turned around and went in direction of the kitchen. "And now I need my coffee."

The girl ran after him, chattering something in happiness, but Gale didn't move from his place. He stood with the letter in hand, watching the two figures disappear behind a corner. Had both of them went crazy?

His eyes moved back to the letter, and he covered his face with his other hand. Whatever. He was just going to read it and throw it away.

When he entered the room, Lily poked her head out from under the covers. She stared at him for a moment, then asked, "Is everything okay?"

He nodded, presenting her with a pained smile. He was fine, but his friend had clearly lost his mind.

At his desk, Gale opened the envelope and took out a single page along with a dark box for a pen. He wondered about it, but decided to read the letter first; might as well get it over with.

[Gale,

I thought long and hard how to start this letter, but everything seemed too silly or pretentious, so in the end I just decided on the reason I'm doing this in the first place, and that's to apologize. I'm sorry.

I really mean it, too. I was young and prideful back then, thinking that your pity was even worse than disdain. This apology should have come years ago, but Mark got to you before I could ever gather the courage, and after that I couldn't even look you in the eyes.]

'This is not written by Iris.' It was an obvious thing, but Gale leaned against his desk, supporting his head with his left hand. Kyro's girl hadn't written a confession to him, but the end result was still just as bad.

As he reread the first two paragraphs, he recalled those long ago moments and how angry he'd felt back then. It was one thing to know that your childhood sweetheart didn't care about you, but another to know she despised you like a vermin. The reason he refused Mark's words was simply because he didn't want to be rejected by Elise again.

Although his image did not know what shame meant, he still had his pride. First time he approached her she broke his gift and the second time mocked him like he was pure trash, so how could he go and try again? Besides, every time they accidentally met, she would look away and disappear in another direction just so she wouldn't be anywhere near him.

He wasn't a masochist to bother with her after that. She was beautiful, but so were hundreds of other women.

So why was she back now? First it was Kyro and Mark demanding him to go and get rejected again, then she herself wrote a letter to him. It pissed him off that he couldn't just bury all that had happened and be done with it. He had all but forgotten his college years, so why was everyone so intent on bringing them back? It was the time when he was the most vulnerable, trying to get away from his parents for the first time, and mistakes were abound in those days.

Rubbing his eyes, he considered throwing the letter away. It would be so much simpler to just do that, but he could hear voices in the kitchen. If he didn't read the damn letter, what else would they come up with next? Iris didn't seem to understand that some people didn't like to reminisce about the good old days, or anything that was more than two years old for that matter.

With a deep sigh, he returned his eyes to the letter and scanned the rest of it. Elise spoke about learning how he was the boy all those years, which made rage rise within him, for she had no need to know that. She mentioned how she was too young to remember much, just recalling one of Mark's friends stealing a precious gift she'd gotten a day before.

Her tale saved her from any fault, but it didn't matter much. Gale hadn't blamed her for what she'd done; he'd been taught to do much worse by his parents in later years. His reason for not associating with her later on was because he thought she was similar to him and might see through his facade. During college, it was falling apart at the seams, and he didn't want to be found out.

But her letter proved that he'd been thinking too much. She was just another normal girl, someone unaware of what it's like to sometimes forget even who one really is.

As he thought that, Lily came to stand by his side. "Did something bad happen?"

"No, why do you ask that?" He put on a smile as he turned to face her.

She poked his forehead with a finger. "You look unhappy," she stated. There was no doubt in her voice.

"Do I?"

He wondered about that. Was he angry? Sad? No, there was little more than some disappointment within him. He had built up Elise to be something more, a monster just like him, but now he learned that she was just another normal person.

"Well, maybe a bit. But it doesn't matter, let's go have breakfast now, all right?"

Before he could stand up, Lily took a step forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Iris said that a hug is the best medicine for unhappiness."

Gale froze for a moment, then put his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. It lasted but a second before he tickled Lily, teasing her for trying to act so grown up, but his expression softened.

He had almost fallen back into his old mindset, seeing everyone as potential enemies and faulting himself for overestimating one of them. So what if Elise wasn't someone like him? It was only for the better. The world didn't need more messed up people when it already had him.