Unveil (Frayed Satin #1)

O rion has been quiet. Not “me talking his ear off” quiet like a couple days ago, and not because I’ve also been quiet. No, his silence is as heavy and loaded as the world after a gun’s gone off.

Meanwhile the cicadas are having entire conversations of their own, their constant buzz filling the night with white noise as I try to figure out what’s going on. There’s an undercurrent of emotion that thickens the air between us, the kind I’d have sprinted away from in the past.

But my friend just died. In my arms. Any emotion after that is child’s play. I couldn’t avoid them right now if I tried anyway. And I don’t want to. Not anymore.

The toast soothed some of those raw nerves, and like Orion said, I can’t explain why. Just that it felt like the kind of finality Benoit would’ve wanted and a much-needed stopgap before the funeral.