Character change: Rose will now be Rachel and I will get back to changing that when I edit this book.

You know this world has many ways of hurting you. Perhaps not the world but the people. If 7,53 billion people each have their own opinions and ways of doing things then technically speaking there should be 7,53 billion ways to hurt someone.

The bell had rung and I was in class. The tender moment had ended shortly with the lunch period ending. Her mask quickly rebuilt itself, sleeves quickly pulled down and with a promise to tell me everything, she disappeared to her class.

It made me think about Aleri. If she had done the same, perhaps not  cutting but drinking, would she have told me? Some guy who broke her heart over the phone? Absolutely not.

I wasn't a Saint. I had dated a lot of girls, sometimes repetitively. However back then I didn't think about alcohol, sex, drugs, self-harm. Maybe back then neither did they. Could majority of them (some of them) have felt this bad to do one of those things?

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I sat under her tree, waiting for her courage to gather. I wasn't under a time limit but, I admit, I was a little impatient. This was the moment I had waited for. Something had happened between us that day I saw her by the fence and I was sure I would be able to identify it once I knew more. Perhaps it was just a need to care for someone.

She smiled. "How was your day?"

"It was fine. I've had a lot on my mind today." I dipped my head and looked for small twigs to play with. "What about you?"

"It was fine too. I don't understand why there's so much work for CAT to study but then again I don't understand that subject at all." She chuckled softy.

"Adeline..." I tried. She was dodging but I didn't mind that. What she had done earlier that day was already amazing and didn't need a following act. "...you don't have to say anything or tell me for that matter."

Her eyes met mine, questioning. "Really? I mean it's just... Don't you want the story behind the cuts? Behind the tears?"

"Adeline, what you told me today was enough. You don't need to tell me more. I don't deserve it and I'm not forcing you. Honestly, you don't need to."

"River..." She reaches over, her lips touching mine.