Chapter 3
746 Words
Louis stared at my wound, his lips parting as if to say something. But in the end, no words came out.
Seeing that it was getting late, he turned around without a flicker of hesitation.
Chloe waved at me. "Sofia, don't mind him. He's been like this since we were kids."
She lifted the hem of her skirt and trotted after him, slipping her arm through Louis's with practiced ease.
That same spot on his arm, the same stinging tears burning my eyes.
I watched as Louis gently closed the car door for Chloe, a faint, relieved smile playing on my lips.
Soon, they would be able to be together openly and properly.
I turned away, tears rolling down my face.
Louis, who had been focused entirely on seeing Chloe into the car, finally looked back at me, but all he saw was my retreating back.
I went back to my room to change clothes, gathered all my belongings, and tossed them into the trash can.
The only thing I planned to take with me was the gun my father had left me.
After all, it was something he had given me for self-defense.
I searched my entire room but couldn't find the gun, so I finally had to go to Louis's room.
Louis's room was filled with all kinds of guns.
The one my father left me was his only memento and a precious link to his memory.
I understood why my father had wanted me to learn to protect myself. As a girl, no matter what, my safety had to come first.
No one had expected my father to pass away so suddenly. After burying him, I had stored the gun away carefully.
I never thought Chloe would find it.
She took it without asking and brought it outside to shoot. Once she ran out of bullets, she tossed it straight into a mud pit.
"There are so many guns. Why did you have to take mine?" I demanded.
When I saw the gun caked in mud, my chest felt so tight with grief that I snapped.
Chloe put on an innocent look, her face pale as she sobbed.
Louis pulled her behind him to protect her, his face twisted with rage. "It's just a lousy gun! There are plenty more in the armory. Go pick one out for yourself. What's the point of yelling like that?"
It was an expression I had never seen on him before. Louis's eyes were red, and he looked at me as if I were his worst enemy.
"You have so many guns in your armory, but not a single one of them is mine! Only this one belongs to me!" I retorted, unable to hold back.
"It's just a stupid gun. Is it worth making such a fuss over? It's not like I can't replace it for you!"
That was the first time Louis and I had ever fought.
To him, it was just a broken gun, but I had told him before that it was the love token my mother gave my father.
He never took it to heart, never remembered where this gun came from, which was why he could dismiss it as a broken gun so casually.
I snapped in anger, "Louis, everything that belongs to Chloe is a treasure, but everything of mine is trash? Am I trash in your eyes too?"
"You are simply being unreasonable!"
Louis gently wiped the tears off Chloe's face and left with her.
I was left standing there alone, with nothing for company but that gun half-submerged in the mud.
In the end, all that came of the whole thing was Chloe grabbing a random rusty gun from Louis's armory to apologize to me. "Sofia, I didn't do it on purpose. Your gun was already old anyway, so I picked out a different one for you. Don't be mad, okay?
"Louis has been in a bad mood these days. Don't fight with him. Can you cheer him up?"
She sounded so sincere that I started to wonder if I was being too sensitive.
I shouldn't have fought with Louis and given him the cold shoulder over such a trivial thing.
In the end, I found my gun in the gap under Louis's bed.
Its surface was covered in dust. As I gently wiped it clean, a thin c***k had appeared along its barrel.
It was just like the rift that had always stood between Louis and me.
- Writer
