Grace's POV

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I looked down at my untouched tray of food, the cafeteria already filled up with the usual chatter around me.

However, it was quite silent at the table I was sitting at since it was just me.

The silence left almost immediately when someone slammed their lunch tray on the space in front of me and sat down.

"All right, spill." It was Alice.

I looked up at her in surprise. "What?"

"Spill, Grace. Whatever that I saw last night." She raised her brows at me, urging me to start elaborating.

I didn't want to think about last night. And that wasn't even because Fraser had kissed me. No. It was mainly because of what Luca had told me.

He must be lying.

I felt my face heating up once again when I thought back to his words.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stated, looking away from her towards the people around the vending machine.

My life was already a mess. I didn't want to fuck it up even more, but lately it seemed like the universe really wanted to do that.

"Oh, come on. I deserve some explanation, don't I?" She asked, crossing her arms on the table and looking at me with her pleading eyes. "I sure as hell did sense the tense atmosphere around you three when I came there to call Fraser."

I regarded her with a blank expression.

She laughed at that. "Did Fraser do something? Geez, I can't even wipe off the look from my head."

"What look?"

"The look Lucius was giving him." She laughed again.

I gritted my teeth and looked down at my hands. Anything but her. "Whatever, Alice."

She picked up the apple from her tray and took a bite. "All right. Since you aren't telling me, I might as well just make something up."

I just ignored her, running my fingers through my hair, pressing them against my scalp. So many thoughts were fighting against my head. It felt like they would suffocate me.

"What I feel like, is that Fraser kissed you." She started, waving the apple in the air as she talked. "Or maybe you kissed him."

I inhaled deeply, still not looking at her.

"And Lucius must've seen it. That may explain why he was glaring at Fraser." She added.

"This is not funny, Alice." I snapped at her with a glare.

Her eyes widened a little in surprise but she overcame it quickly, taking another large bite of her apple. "Why don't you like, apologize to him?"

I just inhaled deeply and closed my eyes, knowing clearly well how she won't stop.

"He clearly holds a grudge against you for not telling him that you were leaving off to Manhattan." She added.

"And you think that'll work?" I opened up my eyes and glared at her. I sounded way too harsh. "It's not that easy, Alice."

She shrugged at that. "It can't be that hard either. You both were best friends for so long. He can't just hate you."

I fell silent at that, not knowing what to say.

It was that hard.

And I hadn't even known.

•••••

Frost seemed to love Alice more than anything. That was the exact reason why I was sitting at my porch right now as Frost barked loudly, nudging Alice's arm so that she'd play with him.

Alice laughed and picked up the chew-toy she'd just brought for him from her house. Which Frost seemed to love a lot.

Frost barked and pounced at her, making her stumble back and fall down on the grass.

"Oh my God, he's so—" She was cut off when Frost yapped at her and licked her face. "Okay, no—ew! Don't do that. I just did my makeup."

A small involuntary laugh escaped my lips.

"Gracie, help me out!" She spoke up loudly, dissolving into a fit of giggles as Frost kept on licking her face.

I stood up and went towards them before picking Frost up in my hands. He barked loudly, nudging my chin with his small black nose.

"Oh dear Lord, dog drool is so gross." Alice scrunched up her nose before wiping her face carefully with her sleeve.

I rolled my eyes before looking down at Frost. He barked loudly before struggling out of my grasp. I tried –really– to not let go of him but I swear to God, this pup was so darn energetic.

He jumped out of my hands and ran over towards the opened wooden fence. Without waiting for another second, I rushed after him, not surprised when I found him running over to the driveway beside mine.

I stopped when I saw Marleen, looking like she had just come from somewhere. Frost roamed around her feet before giving out a loud bark.

Marleen jumped a little in surprise, looking down at Frost. "Oh God, you scared me."

Ever since Marleen had helped him with the deep gash on his little paw, Frost always ran over to her whenever she was near.

I walked over towards them before picking Frost up. He yapped excitedly, trying to break free again. Marleen laughed at that and ruffled his fur. "Aren't you a sweet pup?"

I watched her turn back around towards her car before taking out two huge pots of yellow colored flowers.

"Hello, Mrs Jackson!" Alice spoke up before coming up beside me. She was still wiping her face, her sunglasses clutched in the other hand.

Marleen smiled at her. "Hello, Alice. How are you doing?"

I looked down at Frost and saw his bright blue eyes trailing over towards Alice. I would've warned her but I really didn't get the chance.

Frost slipped out of my hands once again and ran towards Alice. "I'm great—Frost, no!"

Frost snatched the sunglasses from her hands before running for the closest way out, which was Marleen's house, the front door left wide open.

"Aw, for fuck's sake!" Alice cursed before running after him. I frowned at both of them, hearing Marleen laugh behind me.

"Why is he like that?" I asked before going towards her. "He doesn't tire off at all. I don't think that's normal."

She laughed again and passed me a pot. I held it, feeling it's rough surface against my fingertips.

"He's normal. Some pups love playing. He might just be one of them." She said, closing the car's door and walking towards her yard. I followed behind her.

"Just my luck." I murmured.

She shook her head with a grin. "He's affectionate towards you. I suppose that's quite hard among huskies."

I found myself thinking back to Fraser's words. What if Frost had been trained exactly for this? To be affectionate towards me?

"These are some nice flowers." I looked down at the small patch of the garden which was completely filled up with colorful flowers. "I never knew you loved gardening."

She placed down the pots and took the last one from my hands. "I recently found out how nice it feels to plant flowers."

I smiled at that.

"Can you bring the gardening gloves from in there?" She asked, nudging her head towards her house. "They must be up in the attic. The trowel too."

I nodded slowly before backing off and heading towards the front door. Almost immediately, I stopped before I could've stepped inside.

What if Luca was in there?

"What happened?" Marleen asked, glancing at me from over her shoulder.

I forced a smile on my face and shook my head. Pushing off all the unnecessary thoughts, I went inside and headed for the stairs.

"Frost, I swear to God, do not test my patience!" Alice shouted, running after him in the lounge. "Those are my favorite pair of glasses!"

I went upstairs, knowing clearly well where the attic was. When I reached at the top, my eyes instinctively flew over towards Luca's room. And surprisingly, the door was left open.

I looked over at it, feeling a slight tug in my gut urging me to go inside. I wanted to. I really did.

Don't, Grace.

I gulped and looked out of the hallway window. Marleen was still busy with the flowers. And I could hear Alice's faint voice downstairs from the lounge.

Even if I shouldn't have, I found myself heading for the familiar brown door. I took a step inside and looked around. No one was in there. It was empty.

Luca wasn't here.

I went inside and found my eyes trailing slowly around the familiar room. I had woken up here after I had panicked and passed out that night; at Kelly's party.

But I hadn't stayed here long enough to look around.

Everything was the same. And different at the same time. The walls were still painted the light shade of grey. The bed was still left unmade. I felt a strange ache in my heart when sudden memories rushed in my head.

I practically spent most of my life in this room. More than my own room.

I blinked and went over towards the one separate corner in his room, the corner where he used to paint. I was surprised to feel the tugging in my heart growing even further when I found that spot...empty.

Back then, whenever I came here, there were always paintbrushes scattered here. Or paint splatters. There was always something that told me he had been painting.

But now, it was empty.

It really hurt seeing that. One thing I really loved about Luca was this; his love for painting.

I was about to back away when my eyes flew over to a large canvas placed upside down against the wall. Going towards it, I cautiously flipped it over.

And almost instantly, my breath got stuck in my throat.

Oh God.

My eyes widened as I looked over at the painting.

It was beautiful. So beautiful. My heart raced as I looked over at the different shades of colors put altogether in that painting.

It was of a girl.

Me.

My throat clenched itself when I couldn't break my gaze away from it.

It couldn't be me. Luca never painted pictures of me.

And yet when I looked back at the face beautifully painted over the canvas, a familiar ache went through me. The girl's blonde hair framed her face in an almost angelic way.

That painting was so beautiful.

I jumped up in my position when I heard a door opening. Turning around abruptly, my eyes widened even more when I saw Luca coming out of the bathroom.

He was in the bathroom.

Oh fuck.

He pulled the towel away from his face before his eyes slowly trailed towards me, widening up a little. "What the hell are you doing here?"

I tried saying something but the words were suddenly stuck somewhere inside me.

He frowned at my silent state. "You can't just come in here."

I blinked, feeling my heart hammering against my chest when I realized that he was just wearing some black sweatpants and no shirt, his hair completely drenched from the shower.

"I...um—" I broke off when his gaze traveled behind me. And when his eyes widened in what I assume was anger, I realized that he must've seen the canvas I was just admiring.

"Jesus." He muttered through his clenched jaw before heading for it.

"No, wait." I blocked his way, coming in front of him, the painting right behind me. I didn't think I could've seen what he'd do with that painting now.

What if he threw it away?

The anger on his face clearly told me that he'd throw it away. Right in front of my eyes.

"If you don't leave now—"

"It's me, isn't it?" I asked him. "In that painting?"

He didn't say anything other than just glaring at me.

"You finally painted a picture of me?" It came out as a whisper.

"Leave, Grace."

"I'm not leaving!" I felt sudden anger overwhelming me, rooting me to my spot. "If you think you can destroy that painting, you're so wrong, Lucius."

"Are you serious?" He looked at me in disbelief.

"Do I look like I am joking?" I glared back at him. "Just because you lost your love for painting all of a sudden, that does not mean you can destroy this painting."

"I can do whatever I want." He said.

"No, you can't!" I spoke up loudly. I was aware of the opened door. And I really hoped Alice wouldn't come upstairs looking for me. "Why can't you understand? I am sorry for what I did. I am sorry for not letting you know that I was leaving! That does not give you the right to do this."

His eyes darkened up before he gripped my arm and pushed me aside, out of his way. Taken off guard, I looked at him in surprise.

He picked up the canvas and glared at me. "Watch me do it, Rose."

My eyes widened even further as I looked over at the canvas in his hands.

He was going to destroy it.

That mere thought made dread crawl inside my stomach. I really, really didn't want him to do that.

He gripped the canvas and I felt my vision clouding up with stupid, angry tears.

Why was he so mean?

But then again, I clearly couldn't have done anything. Clenching my jaw, I glared back at him through my tears. "I fucking hate you, Lucius." I whispered, my voice wavering at the end.

I saw his eyes widening up a little as I turned around, heading straight for the door.

I was tired, trying to let him know how sorry I actually was. I was exhausted, trying to make it up to him. He was a jerk. And he wasn't even trying to understand.

I was so fucking done.

I held onto the door knob and was about to step outside when I felt him grip my arm and turn me around. I was almost about to say something, probably tell him to fuck off, when he pulled me towards him.

And did something I clearly was not expecting. At all.

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Crystal 🌿