Sohalia
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.
In a dizzying moment of deja vu, all Soh could think was, not again. The world couldn't possibly be so cruel as to take away the closest thing she had to family. Why was it that she couldn't keep anyone she loved? Not her parents, not Auden, not Jude, not Koa, and now... not even Harper.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry.
And if this was how she was feeling... oh gods. Jude.
She was dimly aware of Koa speaking from somewhere far away, everything dulled by the pounding of her heart in her ears. The first time she'd felt like this, she'd been so young, and though she missed her parents with a dull ache that would never truly fade, there was something about the innocence of childhood that had protected her from lasting damage. But this... this, after everything else she'd survived in recent years... this was too much.
"He's - he was - like a father to me," she managed to choke out, wrapping her arms around her middle in an effort to pull herself together. Back when she and Jude were inseparable, she'd practically lived with he and his father, and she'd gone to Harper for advice and love more than once, even after she and Jude had broken up. To know that she no longer had that option...
Her devastation, not just for herself but for her one-time best friend, was clear on her face. "Gods, Jude - is he -" She cut herself off, backing a step away from Koa, shaking her head. She no longer had the right to ask how Jude was, and even if she did, she shouldn't be asking Koa.
Her offer of a hug took her by surprise, and for a moment, she almost laughed, feeling slightly deranged and not entirely attached to her body. A hug. He was offering her a hug. The boy she'd hurt over and over again was trying to help her, to take away a portion of her pain, even though she didn't deserve it. Certainly not from him. But at this moment, he looked so awkward and earnest that she couldn't help but think he meant it, that maybe he wasn't offering just because it was the thing that one did in this kind of situation. That maybe he really did want to comfort her, even after everything.
"I -" she started, intending to decline, to tell him that he shouldn't offer out of pity, that she didn't deserve his kindness - but she had never been a particularly strong young woman where Koa was concerned. And so it was that, with a trembling chin, she looked up at him with tears in her eyes and whispered, "Yes."
In a dizzying moment of deja vu, all Soh could think was, not again. The world couldn't possibly be so cruel as to take away the closest thing she had to family. Why was it that she couldn't keep anyone she loved? Not her parents, not Auden, not Jude, not Koa, and now... not even Harper.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry.
And if this was how she was feeling... oh gods. Jude.
She was dimly aware of Koa speaking from somewhere far away, everything dulled by the pounding of her heart in her ears. The first time she'd felt like this, she'd been so young, and though she missed her parents with a dull ache that would never truly fade, there was something about the innocence of childhood that had protected her from lasting damage. But this... this, after everything else she'd survived in recent years... this was too much.
"He's - he was - like a father to me," she managed to choke out, wrapping her arms around her middle in an effort to pull herself together. Back when she and Jude were inseparable, she'd practically lived with he and his father, and she'd gone to Harper for advice and love more than once, even after she and Jude had broken up. To know that she no longer had that option...
Her devastation, not just for herself but for her one-time best friend, was clear on her face. "Gods, Jude - is he -" She cut herself off, backing a step away from Koa, shaking her head. She no longer had the right to ask how Jude was, and even if she did, she shouldn't be asking Koa.
Her offer of a hug took her by surprise, and for a moment, she almost laughed, feeling slightly deranged and not entirely attached to her body. A hug. He was offering her a hug. The boy she'd hurt over and over again was trying to help her, to take away a portion of her pain, even though she didn't deserve it. Certainly not from him. But at this moment, he looked so awkward and earnest that she couldn't help but think he meant it, that maybe he wasn't offering just because it was the thing that one did in this kind of situation. That maybe he really did want to comfort her, even after everything.
"I -" she started, intending to decline, to tell him that he shouldn't offer out of pity, that she didn't deserve his kindness - but she had never been a particularly strong young woman where Koa was concerned. And so it was that, with a trembling chin, she looked up at him with tears in her eyes and whispered, "Yes."
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Sohalia.
Feel free to use force/magic on Sohalia.
