Page 121 of The Lies We Steal

“Yeah.” Dread filled my stomach, “It was bound to happen eventually.”

Everything about how Alistair and I did things was completely backwards. But that didn’t mean I cared for him any less, it didn’t mean my worry for him going to jail lessened because we’d just gone on our first date a few weeks ago.

I knew I had this deep, profound connection to him. Our souls linked through the different types of invisibility we experienced as children. But it was Thanksgiving that I knew I loved him.

When he walked into Thomas’s apartment wearing slacks and a button down, carrying a pie that Thatcher’s grandmother forced him to bring. I saw him step out of his comfort zone for something that made me happy.

All I wanted was for him to stop by, I didn’t expect everything else.

We spent the day together and it felt like something a real, normal couple would do. Helping around the kitchen as Thomas told stories of his youth and we tried to relate. There had been thirty minutes of awkward tension, but it quickly melted once Alistair began warming up to the situation.

I loved him because of what I knew he’d give up in order to protect me. In order to make me happy. And even though I may never hear those three little words from him, I know he feels them.

Alistair Caldwell will never be the man who will shower me with pretty words and love poems. The man who says every emotion he feels or the one who says I love you. But he is the man who will walk through a blizzard just to get me pie from Tilly’s diner during finals. The man who will break the noses of men like Easton Sinclair for not leaving me alone.

He is the man who is savage and security. The perfect balance to make me feel alive, yet safe. The only drug on the planet that’s good for you. Lyra had been right, to an extent in that diner.

I wasn’t the girl who just wanted comfort. I needed the challenge. And that’s what he was. A challenge every single day.

I didn’t know when it happened, when the hate and lust shifted to love, when my heart started drawing his name on the inside walls not with distaste, but with admiration.

It would just severely blow if the guy I just started dating went to jail for murder, but being with him, was knowing I was taking that risk.

“So…” I start, reaching into my side back and pulling out a neatly wrapped present. The rectangular box is decorated with black and purple wrapping paper.

“Briar! I thought we said no gifts!” She scolds.

“I had to get you something. I saw it and it was too perfect. It practically jumped off the shelf.”

Small white lie. I’d had this custom made, but she didn’t need to know that.

“I thought I was going to get to surprise you.” She pouts as she pulls out a much larger box, sliding it across the table towards me.

We share a laugh, realizing we are the type of people who couldn’t not give gifts to the ones we care about.

Together we begin opening our respective gifts, inside mine is a soft red pullover. The vintage looking material makes my toes curl with the happiness and I run my fingers across the embroidering on the front that spells,Loner Society.

If I wasn’t already wearing what felt like ten layers of clothing I would’ve put it on, that’s how much I loved it.

Lyra’s present was a silver charm bracelet, four charms already adorning the chain. A cute beetle, a cherry, a little knife for her obsession with Criminal Minds, and a raven for Edgar Allan Poe, her lover.

I walk to the opposite side of the table, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her tightly to my body. I was beyond thankful that my first friend was someone like Lyra.

We sat catching up over coffee, planning an entire Christmas movie marathon, and enjoying the company of each other.

It’s only when I get a notification on my phone that I have to leave. The text was a simple,

Labyrinth in five.

I told Lyra bye, not like I wouldn’t see her tonight before we all left for Christmas break.

Not being able to help the excitement bubbling in my stomach or the butterflies that fluttered in there, I speed walk out of the dining hall. Rushing across the school grounds towards the Bursley District.

The snow came down hard, huge snowflakes stacking onto the already white ground. My shoe prints leaving a trail behind me as I started a light jog. My breath coming out in visible smoke clouds.

I flew around the side of the building heading towards the entrance of the Labyrinth, the last time I’d been inside I’d been clawing to get out, now I was rushing through the semi-circles, ready to see who awaited me in the center.

Pine trees carried the weight of the snow, their dark needles still poking through giving me the first winter of my life and making it beautiful in the process. I came skidding to a stop when I made my way around the last portion of the maze.

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