VERONICA.I grind my teeth as I stare at the picture, anger burning through my veins."Are you okay?" Dex’s voice takes my attention back to him, and I turn. Worry clouds his features, and a frown accompanies his soft gaze. "Veronica?""Yeah. It’s just–" I pause and stare back at the phone I have in hand, my eyes going over the picture again. What the hell is she doing with him? "It’s my sister." I finally confess as I lift my head back to Dex, and he stands from the stool. "Is she okay? Something happened?"I turn my phone to him, and he just stares at it with a puzzled expression. "I don’t understand?"I bring down the phone. "It’s Sam’s room. She’s with him.""You can tell that when you barely see the room?" Dex asks, and I nod. "I’ve been in there multiple times."Something crosses his face, but it fades as soon as it comes, and he shakes his head. "Right. Um, so your sister. You think he took her forcefully?""Will you take this kind of picture and upload it to your social if you’

ARABELLA. A soft sigh leaves my lips, my eyes fluttering when I feel a hand on my face. I open them, the morning light hitting my eyes at first, and I resist the urge to groan as I squint, then the blurry image before me slowly becomes clear. Alexander is staring at me. With a smile on his face and my heart starts beating faster in my chest. "Good morning." He chuckles as he looks down at me. My head is out of his chest, and there’s a small space between us. I’m almost rolled to the end of my side, but he has one hand secured around my waist, holding me still while the other is stroking my cheek. I shift forward. "How long have you been awake?" "Long enough to watch you grumble in your sleep." He responds, and heat creeps up my neck as I shyly giggle. "Sorry." "It’s alright. It’s adorable, and that’s not the first time. What or who were you dreaming about?" He asks as he slowly drops his hand to my chin, tipping the skin so he’s staring directly into my eyes, giving me no chance t

ALEXANDER. It clicks when she appears in my view, her jet-black hair bouncing with each step she takes, her heels clicking against the floor and almost making an annoying noise over the jazz music that’s playing. Her lips are pressed into a thin line as she rounds the table and drops her bag gently to the floor before she shifts the chair back and settles on it. She throws her hair over her shoulder with a finger and meets my eyes. “Alexander.” She calls the name like she’s quite fond of it, letting it roll off her tongue casually, and I finally remove my gaze from her to stare at Zack, who’s still standing next to me. "Excuse me." He clears his throat before he takes several steps back and crosses over to the next empty table. I drop my eyes back on her, and they unintentionally roll down her form, taking in the dark blue formal dress she’s in. "Are we going to spend the time with you analyzing me?" She chuckles with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, and I frown when I meet her eyes

ARABELLA.It takes everything in me not to sigh repeatedly as I drag my feet down the stairs with my bag hanging off the hook of my fingers. Going to school is the last thing I want to do, but I also refuse to stay in that bed and continually cry like my heart is telling me to do. I can’t keep crying every single day anytime I think of him. It’s pathetic. It’s not like he went away completely– we’re just miles apart, and it’s hardly been a month. I can’t keep acting like I am. Though, I’d have had an easier time accepting that if I knew what he was doing still. Being away but being in touch is what kept me together for the first two weeks, but being away and out of touch is getting to me. It’s draining me bit by bit, and all I want to do is sit on my bed all day and stare at the screen of my phone, hoping it’d lit up within seconds. But that isn’t an option either. Not a healthy one, at least. I still have a future and a dream to pursue– wasting my time away over waiting for Alexander

ARABELLA. My heart pounds in my chest, and my hands won’t stop shaking, tears filling the corners of my eyes as I continue to gape at the name across my screen. "Stop," I whisper to Dex before he drives out of his place without removing my eyes from the phone. "Did you say something?" I hear him mutter beside me, and I give a small bob of my head, a tear dropping to my screen and rolling across the first two letters of his name. He’s calling me. He’s actually reaching out after weeks of no contact from him, and why am I just glaring at my phone, watching it buzz without hurriedly picking up the way I’ve always practiced? "Arabella?" Dex calls at the same time the ringing ends, and I let out a shaky breath, swiping my hand across my cheek before I drop my phone in my hand and turn my head sideways to him. "I can’t leave with you," I state simply, my heart still racing so fast even after the call ended, and Dex raises his brow. "I thought we—" I push my phone in his face without let