Chapter 2

"You see we're thieves, the best in the whole city. We're Staal and Mist, and we rule the city of Aynor hand in hand."

Chapter 2

“Do you want to talk about why you're crying, maybe the bruises?” I ask in a concerned tone. Olivia is sitting on the chair in the center of the room. Her sweatshirt covers the bruises that trail up and down her arms. I'm sitting on top of the counter right next to the coffee maker, easy access. We can't be more than 3 feet apart, but she's uncomfortable, I'm I sitting too close? Too far? Does she need comfort or space? I've never been good at this.

“I nearly lost my friend today...he's like my little brother. And I almost lost him...” she trails off, she shakes her head. As Olivia raises the cup to her lips and takes a large gulp she continues her story. “His parents always told me to take good care of him and keep an extra close eye on him because he gets into trouble easily.” she looks up at the ceiling and laughs. “And damn, it's true! He thinks that he's the king of the world and can't be hurt. He ran ahead of me and this person hurt him...real bad.” she sets the mug on the table.

“Olivia, how bad? Has he gotten the help he needs?” I fly off of the table, picking up the phone from the wall, getting ready to dial 911. I look back at her, waiting. She waves me off and I walk back to my seat on the counter.

“I got him to the hospital, just a mild concussion.” she looks up at me, her dark electric blue eyes look like they belong to someone much older than Olivia. The room feels like it's getting warmer I shed my coat and scarf as I walk to the fridge to get the creamer for another cup of coffee. The world may be bitter, but that doesn't mean that my coffee has to be too. Olivia screams and her hand flies to her mouth.

“Will, what the hell happened to your neck?!” Suddenly the memories course through me like a bolt of electricity. The bruises ringing round my neck from The Vine. My face heats up as I mumble through a petty excuse.

“Um...it's nothing, just ah...” I look down at my shoes my mind is racing. I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “I got attacked in an alley, yeah. It's no big deal I was with um, Eliza!” I shout gleefully at how quickly I was able to come up with something. I manage to look nonchalant as I finish the story. “She was able to get them to leave, but I had blacked out. I reported it to campus and everything so they're already looking into it.” she visibly relaxes when I say that I have the school investigating. But she looks suspicious, but quickly her features shift.

“Oh my god, that's terrible, you poor thing.” she coos as her face softens with pity. The shame burns deep in my gut for lying to her but I quickly swallow it down. It's taken practice, but when you have a career as dangerous as mine and an overprotective roommate, you learn to blatantly lie to their face.

Olivia and I both attend Epplein College in Aynor, the first night away from home neither of us could sleep, we both were just staring at the ceiling, waiting. Until I heard her whisper in the dark.

“Hey, William?” her voice echoed all around the room despite it being no louder than a murmur.“Can you sleep? I can't sleep, I never realized how much I appreciate having my parents in the same town as me. They never tucked me in, we weren't even that close...yet here I am. Whispering to a stranger in the dark about them, reminiscing of days long ago to myself. Do you want to hear about this time they took my sister and I to the zoo? It was a bright sunny afternoon...” at this point I had flung the covers off my bed and just left the room for about 10 minutes. Looking back, I wonder what she had been thinking about in that span of time. But as I rounded the corner, standing in the doorway, I heard her crying. My stone heart in that moment had melted and opened up entirely for the first time, for Olivia. I maneuvered in the dark holding two mugs of hot chocolate setting them on the desk between our beds. I closed the dorm room door and turned on the lamp. I saw a girl huddled into herself and her eyes were red and bleary from crying. Her eyebrows raised as she saw me pass her a mug. Olivia sat there in an old band T-shirt and gym shorts holding the hot chocolate and I knew that we were going to be the best of friends.

“Can I sit here?” I had gestured to her bed. She nodded, but then she looked afraid hoping that I wouldn't hurt her. I did look pretty scary that night, ratty sweatpants and my hair was just one big knot and I don't have the kindest looking face. I sat on the other end of the bed and at that Olivia seemed to have relaxed. “So what about the time your parents took you to the zoo?” I raised the cup to my lips and her face had lit up as she blabbered on the rest of the night and well into the morning.

Author's Note

This is a really short chapter but I'll have the next one out a lot sooner! Honestly, I'm not sure how much I like this chapter but it's supposed to be a breather. I know there are a lot of grammar problems and any and all feedback is much appreciated! :)