●T W O●
"I want to go." Kara stated. Well, more like requested.
"Stay here for a while with me. Ditch Damon. I will take you wherever you want to go later." James insisted.
Kara pursed her lips in frustration. Why does he even care for what she does or where she is going? He always finds the reasons to throw her away from him in front of everybody else, but comes out to torment her when she is alone.
James furrowed his eyebrows as she did not answer to him. Was she trying to hide something?
"Kara, Speak up." James commanded.
"You will ditch me if I did not go with Damon. I know it." Kara mumbled in an almost inaudible tone.
"I will not. I promise." James replied gently.
Kara's eyes lifted up to meet his. She wished he was not lying this time. Today was special to her and she did not want it to get ruined.
It was Five Thirty am in the winter's cold. Everyone else was sleeping. If she stayed with James then they could spend some time before anyone else wakes up.
"Alright." She said and turned around to walk to the couch in front of the TV. Once there she turned around to face him and whispered with hope in her eyes,
"Please do not forget your promise, James."
"I won't." James gave a small smile and came to sit beside her on the couch.
Picking up the remote from the table he turned it on and started flipping through the channels absentmindedly. They did not need to say any words. The silence was comfortable between them.
"Will you be.." Kara started to speak, hesitation was clear in her words, "Will you be moving next week?"
"Yes." He responded. Stopping at a silly cartoon channel he dropped the remote on the table and turned to face her.
He had brought his own penthouse in the downtown. Staying in the large house of his family was alright and convenient but he needed some space now. Not having Kara in front of his eyes Twenty Four Seven is going to be hell for him, he already knew that. But it was a high time that he distanced himself from her. His control over himself had started to slip with each passing day. He just needed to wait one more year until Kara graduates from college.
Kara was fidgeting with her fingers. Her gaze stuck to the large Tv screen but mind wandering thousands of miles away in sadness.
James watched her closely. Sliding his hand to her cheek he pushed back the tendrils falling on her face and pulled her face closer to his.
Kara's eyes came to rest on him. His green eyes, liquid but somewhat like stones and stars and all the wonders in world mixed in one stared into her blue ones.
Was it going to be the last time they sit together, so close to each other?
"Would you miss me?" James asked while caressing her cheek with his thumb, his eyes following the movement.
"No." Kara responded calmly.
His eyes immediately snapped to hers. But there was nothing he could see except for sweetness.
"I will miss you." He mumbled, dropping his forehead on hers.
Kara gulped down the feelings that started to choke her. She felt like she wanted to throw herself on him and never let go. Even though there was an invisible wall that James had built between them that appeared in front of their family and disappeared when they were alone, she wanted him to be hers forever.
But she did not have the right. He had never given it to her. He never made any promises. He never uttered the words that she silently begged him to say. He knew what was between them. But he never let it grow.
"Come to me." He pulled her closer and engulfed her in his arms, hiding her inside his chest.
He spread his legs long on the couch, and slipped a bit down, keeping the pillows under his shoulders blades to lay comfortably and taking Kara with him in his arms. Kara's head rested upon James's chest, hearing the gentle thump of his heart beating against his chest.
Her eyes dropped close, relishing the rare moment that he had decided to bestow upon both of them.
"I can not do it." Kara whispered with fright clear as day on her face.
Her Eight years self stared down from the seven feet wall in the abandoned home.
"Don't make her do it, James!" Damon shouted from the ground. Angry and frustrated because he could not do anything but shout from the ground. Gathering all his strength he jumped up to climb the wall, but his three feet tall height would not allow him to even touch the ragged edge of the wall.
"You can do it." James whispered in her ear, standing right beside her, "Just see the ground and nothing else."
Kara shivered as she stared down at the ground. The heights always had frightened her. James had lured her and managed to make her climb up the wall. But to get down from there she had to jump.
The task was not as easy for her as it appeared to everyone else.
"Jump!" James commanded.
"I don't want to." Kara turned her eyes towards him, "I am going to get hurt."
"You won't." James assured her.
"Kara, don't jump!" Damon shouted, "I will get someone to help you get down from there. Stay right there."
"Kara. JUMP." James seethed, his eyes got filled with anger. "Do not listen to anybody and do what I say."
"Kara, don't jump!" Damon's eyes sliced between Kara and James in worry.
"I am afraid." Kara whimpered.
James pushed her down.
Kara landed down on the ground with a sickening thud. Her ankle twisted to an awkward angle and she immediately burst out in tears.