Giselle's POV
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As Giselle took time to register Darian's answer about his parents she started to feel bad for the kid. What could he have gone through?
"Darian, are you okay?" She asks.
Darian seems to snap out of a daze after seeing her expression of worry.
"Yeah, I just realized something," he says.
"Like?" she asks.
"Have we met before?" he says turning to her with utmost seriousness in his sun ridden eyes.
Giselle deadpans, "Nah, I don't think so, I've never met a Darian before, are you on drugs?" Giselle squints her eyes looking for any symptoms of magic brownies in Darian's system. The closeness gave him a slight blush causing him to cover the bottom half of his face with his sleeve.
"N-no, I must be thinking of someone else, just forget I said anything." Darian waves it off but Giselle can tell he's itching to dig deeper.
"Okay, if you say so, not my business." Giselle shrugs and carries on with the library duties. By tomorrow she'd have to move on to cleaning the outside pool, not a fun experience in the cold.
_-_-_-_-_
Darians POV
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Darian could hardly contain himself anymore. Every moment was starting to feel like a drug. He was constantly drawing her, constantly thinking about her, there was something there, but he didn't know what it was.
Why was it her. What did she do?
All she did was throw a punch at a girl.
As Darian got lost in thought he saw her eyes big as snow globes. "Are you okay?" she asks.
Darian completely lost it on the inside, those grey-green eyes, it reminded him of grassy fog. Her black hair reminded him of black tar. Suffocating, yet relaxing at the same time.
It suddenly, hit him. Like a bullet train.
He remembers. She saved him... from everything.
It was that punch, it was the same. The same one Giselle gave another little girl before. Only except Darian was on the receiving end of the girls torments.
Fae's torments.
'Are you okay?', those words, maybe meant little to her, but it meant a lot to him.
Only Giselle can't seem to remember a thing.
When they were younger, she was different then. She was a little girl, with a pixie haircut, and much softer features. While he was a little boy, keeping his head down. Two kids who ran from home, hanging out at the playground, waiting for the sun to fall so they'd be able to go back and sleep in those beds they wish they didn't have to rely on.
Darian for sure wanted to ask her more, tell her more. How could they forget? They went to the playground almost every day.
Darian began to wonder what could've happened. More so, why did Giselle change so much?
_-_-_-_-_-
Giselle's POV
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Giselle woke up to the feeling of coldness all up and down her spine. It was autumn alright, the cold autumn. Beautiful fire trees and pumpkin spice lattes awaited every building. All the girls and boys at school would enjoy such amenities after the final bell meanwhile, Giselle went to go scrub the pool floor.
She wasn't alone however, Darian was with her. They had already spent the first week of her detention fixing the library. Giselle felt bad about asking Darian about his parents on Friday since he stayed quiet the whole time they were fixing the books. During the weekend she tried to figure out a way to make it up to him, but she still didn't really know what he liked, maybe some tarot cards?
So as of Monday both of them got to enjoy raking the leaves that fell into the pool floor. As if it wasn't trouble enough, still water sat at the bottom of the deep end, ready to ice over any moment.
They both stood by it, looking into their reflections.
Darian wore a thick sweater, his sleeves pulled up just before reaching his elbows. He wore gloves and a scarf with it. Giselle thought it almost looked silly, but she could tell he was strong from the way his arms flexed.
Giselle wore her usual shorts but, with leggings underneath. A cute and thick white turtle-neck sweater with a black wind-breaker jacket over it. Her hair matched with the jacket, her eyes went well against her shorts too.
"Say... What made you decide to hang out with someone like me?" she asks. "I'm not that good at anything, besides I cause loads of trouble, I just don't get it." she explains. Her eyes are still stuck in the murky water.
Darian exhales letting the heat run from his body, a fog forms and leaves as it releases from his lips.
"I guess, I was just bored. Bored of everything... I wanted to know more about you, after you came to the flower shop." He said, melancholy at the thought.
"So it was just plain curiosity?" she asks.
Giselle is now curious herself, surely he wasn't doing it just out of boredom.
"Well, it used to be...but I remembered something recently. What happened? Back then?" He said.
"Back when?" Giselle said, she was getting more confused by the minute.
"In elementary school, I was there, I saw you punch Fae at the playground too. You two have clearly had some kind of past" Darian was as cool as ever, nonchalant in the way he spoke.
Giselle didn't sense any accusations from him, but she couldn't understand what he was talking about. There was a time when something happened to her, it caused her memory to get foggy. But she couldn't tell him that, it's not like he's her friend or anything.
However he wasn't wrong. Giselle and Fae have had a past, but Giselle only remembers Fae being a bitch since middle school for seemingly no reason. What Darian said, made Gisele think there was possibly more to it.
"Well, I'm not really sure what you're talking about. I don't really remember elementary school too well. Oh, I'm sorry if I can't remember you... haha, this is pretty awkward..." Giselle continues to pick up leaves.
Darians golden eyes seem to get icy. Giselle couldn't place her hand on it, she couldn't tell if he was mad or sad at the answer. He seemed to want to talk to her more about it, but it was as if the timing and circumstances wouldn't have been appropriate for it yet.
For the next hours or so they continued to clean in silence. The murky water reflecting every action they took with the same reverence.