A dry laugh came from Caradoc’s lips as Wendy reminded him of what happened. As if had forgotten and that wasn’t the reason why they were standing here, at the entrance of her common room tossing words back and forth too personal for eavesdroppers. “Yeah, Wendy I know that–” why was he even standing here with her? He’d tried to talk himself out of coming and tried to talk himself into walking away, but what did he even come here to find? To kindle a a wildfire he spent months fighting? Before he could answer her everything slammed to a halt. It felt GOOD, to be with you… In that moment it felt GOOD. He needed to leave. He needed to walk away because this was only adding insult to injury. “STOP it. Wendy– stop. Holy shit you really didn’t think this out” There was a pleading in his voice, and he wasn’t quite sure who he meant that to. Him for coming here, or her for leaving him.
There was something self destructive in this, Caradoc recognized. He’d burn this to the ground if it meant he was still able to taste the ashes. “I can’t.” He whispered hoarsely, feeling as if the air had been sucked from his lungs. LEAVE. He began to bounce on the balls of his feet. BREATHE. Everything was coming down on top of him because he didn’t anticipate this actually happening. For months Wendy had shot down all of his pathetic attempts. “I can’t wait around for you to figure out just to have you leave me once you get bored again, Wendy I cannot handle that and I can’t have this pathetic blind hope only for you to decide you still don’t want me until you do again–” but in this moment I would still do it all over again oh my god– Caradoc couldn’t get his shit together. Everything was screaming against his better judgement and he didn’t know what to do. “Please. Just, please–” want me again, leave me alone, come back, don’t confuse me. “I gotta go.” His voice was reluctant, because he didn’t want to go but he had to go or else everything would spiral to shit. “You became one of my best friends and I’ve really missed and I need you to tell me you don’t want me. Before I go, I need to hear you say it because saying you might is far more cruel.”
“I didn’t think this out?,” she shot back, eyebrows raised and anger suddenly much more present than before. “I --- you approached ME, Caradoc ... I was trying to avoid this for exactly this reason.” Because Wendy was a whirlwind of confusions, a person who could not make sense of her own thoughts because her mind so often fooled her by twisting situations into things they were not. Wendy was someone who needed time to think things over because otherwise she risked saying the wrong things and making the wrong decisions, and when it came to him she could not. Not again. Because she realised now how much she regretted the choice she had made before the summer, how she regretted having let him go because she could barely look at him now. And there was anger, too, because Caradoc had started this conversation and Wendy had not wanted to have it, and now he was saying that he couldn’t do it, and she was left with a lot of guilt.
Tears burned in her eyes as her heart beat against her chest much faster than was healthy. She remembered the words Alexander had said and tried to calm her nerves, tried to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth, but her entire mind was focused on Caradoc and the hoarseness of his voice and how this was ALL HER FAULT and there was no way she could make it right. Whatever she tried, Wendy was left hurting Caradoc and she wished she could stop herself, she wished she could let someone else take control of her so this could be fixed, because all she did was make messes bigger than she could handle. “I’m sorry,” she breathed, shaking her head as she wrapped arms around her body and stared at his eyes. She thought back of New Year’s and felt a need to be close to him again, felt a need to lose herself in some kind of substance and let all her worries go and be with him, because she knew that that was in the end what he wanted, but she knew that in this state -- trembling, crying and angry -- she couldn’t give herself that. “I can’t say that,” she said, shaking her head, because she did want him and she wanted him badly, and it had taken that mistake of New Year’s to fully realise it. “And I didn’t get bored, DON’T fucking say that. That’s not what this was, and you know that. Right now I need to think so I can give you the clarity you deserve, and I will give it but I --- I need some time. I do want you ---” Again, Wendy surprised herself with her honesty. “--- and that’s why I need to think, because I’m confused about what is happening here, so please .. please give me some time so I can give you that.”