2 A.M. Silence | ✓

06 | midnight blues

She's always been running from love
'Cause daddy didn't give her enough
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IT WAS 2 A.M. WHEN Diana found herself at the park again. She sat on the swings alone, gazing up at the blinking stars.

She had been waiting for the guilt and remorse to attack her, and yet hours had passed, and she still felt nothing.

Her brain kept replaying her mother's last words: I love you.

It made her, if anything, unbelievably angry. Her mother had absolutely no right to utter those words to her. For years, she suffered alone, hiding in closets with the monsters inside her head, watching her mother lose herself in intoxication, dumbly taking every slap that came her way.

If that was love, Diana didn't want it. If that was love, she was right to call it a lie.

I love you. Weren't those the words her parents said to each other when they first got married? Weren't those the words they said, even through all the fighting and the cheating?

Weren't those the words Aiden Miller said to her that night in his room, after he had satisfied himself and not her? Weren't those the words he later on said to Madison Knightley?

Love didn't exist.

It was a ruthless game of who could make the biggest promise and break it in the cruelest way.

Love was for the weak hearted. It was for those whose paper hearts burned easily at the sound of lies and deception, for those who fell blindly into the game.

Diana clenched her fists, because the voices in her head had come back. The few blissful hours of silence had given her hope that she has managed to silence them forever, but there they were again, whispers that got louder by the second.

"Shut up," she muttered, shaking her head violently. "Shut up!" All she wanted was for it to stop.

"I'm not saying anything, but okay," a voice directly across her suddenly interrupted the midnight silence.

Diana's head snapped up, her wild eyes darting around the dark and eventually landing on a figure hidden in the tree shadows.

"What the hell?" her voice echoed through the night. "Who are you?"

The figure stood and walked towards her. Diana squinted her eyes, trying to focus on the figure as he got closer. When he came into view under the streetlamps, Diana saw a boy her age curiously watching her.

"I'm Luke," he said when he came to a stop 10 feet from her. "I'm hurt you don't know me, Diana. We've been in the same class for 3 years."

His eyes were a delicate blue, glistening as he looked down at her. Diana ran her eyes from his messy blonde hair, to his defined jawline, to the slight smirk dancing on his lips.

"Luke," she sounded slowly as she scanned him. "What are you doing here?"

He leaned against the pole to the monkey bars and looked around dramatically, "To play, of course! Why? You come to a playground at 2 AM for other reasons?" He gestured at her, "Like sulking alone in the dark and talking to yourself?"

Diana shot a deadly glare at him, suddenly feeling very exposed.

"Hey, I'm not the one muttering for myself to shut up," he said lightly, putting his hands up.

Diana clenched her jaw and the air around her seemed to freeze. Her devilish green eyes flashed in the dark as she gave him a hard stare. Luke simply tilted his head and returned the stare, those ocean eyes flickering playfully.

Diana leaned away, suddenly looking down at her quivering hands as flashes of what she had done hours earlier ran through her mind.

No one could know.

Her eyes flickered in conflict, almost like she was two different people, arguing amongst themselves. Luke must've noticed something was off because his blue eyes flooded with concern. He slowly came to sit on the swing set next to her, lightly swinging himself back and forth.

They sat quietly next to each other for a while. For the life of him, Luke couldn't read the girl that sat next to him. She sat stiffly, her eyes trained on the ground like it was a target, hands gripping the sleeves of her jacket tightly.

Of course, Luke knew who she was. Everyone knew who she was.

Diana Walker, the girl who had it all.

Everyone talked about how perfect her life must've been with her daddy's credit card and her mother's looks. She was a celebrity around here, with perfect smiles, perfect hair, perfect fashion.

Luke didn't care for that all that much. After all, she was human, and he had problems of his own to mind.

But right now, Diana Walker's perfect green eyes looked perfectly broken.

"You know," Luke said softly. "I come here at 2 A.M for some peace and quiet. To get away from my chaotic house. I have 5 younger siblings - can you imagine that? The constant screaming, the yelling, the blaming. It's absolute hell."

He took an exaggerated sigh and looked at her, hoping he had distracted her and helped take her mind off of things.

"I got two brothers and three sisters and yeah, I love them to death but they're a bunch of spoiled little shits. All they do is whine and cry about the smallest of things. No Avery, I don't care that your dress is too pink. No Thomas, you can't throw your potatoes at Owen. God, I barely have time to think."

The wind blew lightly, carrying away his meaningless little rant. He looked at her again, examining her emotionless face.

When she said nothing and didn't even acknowledge him, Luke sighed and nodded to himself, "Sorry if I scared you earlier. I didn't mean to bother you. I'll leave you alone now."

But when he got up to leave, Diana reached out her hand and stopped him. She looked up at him with guarded eyes before whispering, "Stay."

Captivated by her green eyes, Luke smiled softly as he slowly sat down again. Diana watched his every movement. She observed him carefully, her alluring eyes not missing a single detail. And then she gave a smile, a genuine, beautiful smile that surprised even her.

With just a glance, Luke had managed to tame the raging monsters in her head.