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“Mystery girl.” Selwyn’s voice pierced through the air and echoed lightly off the corridor walls. Bree startled at the intensity of his voice, subconsciously rubbing at her earlobe.
“Sel… I thought you’d be asleep by now. I guess you really are a vampire.” Sel’s eyes squinted at her weak joke. “What are you doing here so late?”
“I just might ask you the same thing,” Sel tested the waters, making his way slowly towards Bree. She remained fixed in her place by the doorframe, and Sel joined her. “Making a late night booty-call?”
Bree cringed, her face twisting up dramatically. “Don’t ever say ‘booty-call’ again.” Sel had released a breath he didn’t realise he was holding, his shoulders untensing slightly. “I just need to see him right now, and talk to him. Is that a crime?”
“Oh no, you can see your boyfriend all you want.” Sel replied, waving dismissively. The tone of his voice whilst saying boyfriend was more bitter than he would’ve liked, but if Bree had reacted to it wasn’t visible. “I just need to discuss some…. confidential matters with Nicholas.” Sel shifted his weight, but his face remained as hard as ever.
“Huh.” Bree raised one eyebrow. “Not gonna beg him to leave me alone, I hope?” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but felt a little lighter when Sel chuckled quietly at them.
“You know I'm not one for begging.” was all that Selwyn replied, the dip in his tone making her realise that whatever he and Nick shared had not fully dematerialised, especially on Sel’s side.
To Bree’s own surprise, she never felt bad or insecure about the secret Sel had shared about his former attraction to her current boyfriend. There was a layer of trust that they had built wordlessly together, and she had no intention to dissipate it. She studied the boy's golden eyes, which were fixed hard on the ground by her own feet. In those eyes were something so familiar to Bree - exhaustion, many questions without answers. His eyes were like small cracks through the hard exterior that he had built up for himself, much like Bree’s own personal wall.
It comforted her to know that there was much that Sel and her had in common, even if the distance between them was almost unbridgeable. She wondered, for a brief moment, if Nick ever saw Sel in her too. In the way she kept her secrets, and her distance.
She sighed, pushing strands of hair from her eyes. “Selwyn-”
“Don’t.” Sel’s voice was quiet but harsh, like he could read Bree’s mind.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Briana, you are the most predictable person I know.” He leaned into the doorframe, resting his back against it and facing Bree with a hostile look on his face. “You do not need to make me feel better about my own emotions. It’s more than insulting.”
“I know, I…” Bree crossed her arms protectively over her body. “I get that you don’t want to come off as weak, or reach out to anyone- ” Sel’s nostrils flared at this comment, and he opened his mouth to retaliate.
“Let me finish. I don’t care about whatever history you and Nick had. I wasn’t there for that, so it’s none of my concern. But, whether you like it or not, he’s both of our responsibility, as we are his.” Our. We. The words had a sort of harmony to them. They felt so comfortable in Bree’s mind, as if it was how things were always supposed to be: Bree, Nick and Selwyn. Unbeknownst to Bree, it felt strangely comfortable for Sel too.
“There is no history.” Sel replied quickly, disregarding the latter part of Bree’s mini-speech. “It’s just… not something I wish to discuss anymore.”
“Of course!” Bree lifted her hands, feeling relief wash over her now that the topic had been dropped. “I won’t press on it further.”
“Press on what further?”
The sound of Nick’s voice made Sel and Bree jump and turn like deers in headlights. “Nick! you’re back from training!”
“I sure am.” Nick grinned, but his smile dissolved as he turned his attention to an awkward looking Selwyn. He squinted at him, as if the boy blended into the darkness of the dimly lit hallway.
“Did you- did both of you want something?”
“Yes.” A beat. “But I’m sure it can wait for another time.” Sel shoved his hands in his pockets rather defensively and took off before Bree could say anything, leaving the pair standing in silence.
The tension in the atmosphere thinned out. “Is he always like this?”
Nick chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “That’s just Sel for you.”