𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐿𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒲𝑜𝑜𝒹𝓈 || CH2
Sophia didn’t realize where she was going until she got there. All she knew was to get out of that place. The lake sat hidden behind the woods on the edge of town, untouched by tourists and forgotten by almost everyone else.. almost everyone.
She stood at the water’s edge, staring at her reflection. The surface rippled beneath a cold breeze. For a moment, she wished she couldn’t see herself. Her father’s words still echoed in her head.
“Stop seeing her” As if it were that simple. As if Daniela wasn’t becoming impossible to avoid.
Sophia crouched near the shore and picked up a small stone.
Then another. Then another. Each one disappeared beneath the water. A pointless distraction but yet it was better than thinking.
“You’re going to run out of rocks eventually.” Sophia nearly jumped.
She turned. There stood Daniela, a few feet away holding a bicycle by the handlebars. A grin spread across her face.
“Do you always sneak up on people?”
Daniela leaned her bike against a nearby tree.
“Just you.” Daniela softly smiles
“What are you doing out here?”
Daniela nodded seriously.
“That explains the scary expression.”
Sophia looked away to hide a smile.
Daniela sat beside her on the wooden dock. The boards creaked beneath their weight and for several seconds neither spoke. The lake stretched endlessly before them and birds drifted across the water.
The world felt strangely peaceful. Daniela eventually broke the silence.
“I come here when I’m upset you know.”
“You get upset?” Sophia asks her
Daniela gasped dramatically.
“Because you pretend you’re scary.”
Daniela looked completely unconvinced.
Sophia raised an eyebrow.
The certainty in Daniela’s voice annoyed her.
Mostly because she liked hearing it.
Daniela picked at a loose thread on her sleeve.
Sophia immediately regretted asking.
“I think you’re quite lonely.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
Sophia’s smile disappeared.
Daniela immediately noticed.
The teasing vanished from her face.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
Sophia looked out across the water.
The truth was she couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her and seen anything real.
“Yeah.” Daniela’s voice softened. “But not everyone looks sad while they’re surrounded by people.”
Sophia didn’t know what to say to that.
The silence stretched between them.
The sun began disappearing behind the trees.
Orange light reflected across the lake.
Daniela watched it quietly.
Daniela wasn’t looking at the sunset.
She was looking at Sophia.
Daniela quickly looked away first.
A faint blush colored her cheeks.
And suddenly Sophia realized something.
She wasn’t the only one feeling this.
The realization should have scared her.
Instead it made her chest ache.
Because now there was something to lose.
A branch snapped somewhere deep in the woods.
Daniela’s expression immediately changed.
The werewolf stood, her eyes locked on the tree line. Listening. Watching.
Sophia slowly rose beside her.
Daniela didn’t answer immediately.
Then the feeling vanished.
Just as suddenly as it had appeared.
But Sophia wasn’t convinced.
The look they exchanged said everything.
The same feeling settled over both of them.
And for the first time, they were afraid of the exact same thing.
Something neither of them understood.
As the sun disappeared completely, Daniela looked back at Sophia.
“You should probably head home.”
The honesty caught both of them off guard.
Sophia’s chest tightened.
For a moment neither moved.
And Sophia suddenly understood why people wrote poems about girls like her.
Because some people didn’t walk into your life.
And Dani was becoming impossible to ignore…