“Tiff, why wouldn’t you break up with Her if you don’t love her?” Jessica tilted her head to look at me. She was incredibly pretty, like a doll. The kind that you felt had to be protected from this cold, hard world.

And she was as dear to me, like a sister.

But what she said caused me to falter, “Why would you say that?”

Jessica sighed and closed her thick textbook, “You look so….miserable when you’re with Her. But it’s not like that when you’re with that new friend of yours. You actually smile.”

I smiled prettily at Jessica, “Isn’t this a smile?”

Jessica barely looked at me and shook her head, “It’s different. I know you love me.”

“I don’t hate Her.”

“Neither, do you love Her,” Jessica pointed that out, and I closed my eyes, placing the open book on top of my face. Silence filled the air, as if it was a kind of poison that threatened the life out of everyone in its enclosed space and tenacious claws. Asphyxiated, I felt asphyxiated, almost as if I was out of breath, and no one could do anything to save me from this sense of dread.

Jessica shook my shoulders hard.

I looked at her, and she hugged me, her eyes were teary and red, “Please don’t do that, ever again.”

Patting her shoulders, I asked gently, “Do what, Jess?”

“You’re the closest person I have to a family, so don’t look as if you’re the loneliest person in the entire world. You’re not, T. You still have me.”

I nodded my head thinly, “I know.”

-

With Her out of town, it was as though the entire school had just lifted a heavy weight off their shoulders. The students looked more relaxed, even the teachers were chattier. They still bowed to me though, which was an act that I didn’t loathe, nor love. I just found it…. Troublesome. I loved my peace, more than anything.

Closing the piano’s cover quietly, I was about to step out of the school’s exclusive music room when a figure pulled me from behind the door and placed her hands over my eyes.

There was silence in the air, and I sighed.

“Yuri.”

The silence was prolonged, before a smile appeared from the side of her lips, “That’s no fun. How did you know it was me?”

I pulled her hands off my eyes slowly and turned around to face her, my face was itself, unreadable, “You really want to know?”

Yuri studied me for a long while, her eyes narrowed slightly before she smiled, “No, I don’t. Keep that a secret from me then. How romantic, it’s a secret between us.”

She joked in a lackadaisical manner, and I looked at her, “You’re the only one.”

“What?” Her smile was caught.

“You’re the only one who would actually dare to come in here.”

“Right, so does that make me a brave soul?”

“No, only a suicidal one.”

She placed an arm around my shoulders, almost as if we were close friends, “Doesn’t that sound even more romantic? I’m willing to die for you.”

I smiled thinly, like one treading on thin ice. “Yes, and I’m impossibly moved to tears.”

Yuri sighed, defeated, and fell to the floor. I looked at her like a mother would to a kid who was squatting on the floor, “Alright, fine. You got me.” She confessed.

I remained silent and she looked at me, almost tragically, “Isn’t it obvious?”

My brow was raised and she looked to the floor again and sighed loudly, “I’m in love with the person you love the most.”

I studied her longer this time, my head was tilted slightly, caught between looking puzzled and pensively thoughtful. I couldn’t decide.

The air felt cold, like a heavy weight that was on my shoulders. I could feel the claws reaching in. Clenching my fists tightly, I took a deep breath. Finally, she glanced up.

“I’m in love with your sister, Jessica, so please say you’ll help fulfill my little wish.”

Right. The ice was broken, a hole was in placed.

“In your dreams.” I said slowly, before walking away. My steps heavy, my heart, heavier.

-