Her Devilish Alpha - Chapter 214
One quick trip later, the girls arrived at Indiana’s grave.
Briar stared at Indiana’s grave, breathing deeply as she said to Madeline, “This is where you go whenever you say you’re visiting Indiana?”
“Yeah.”
“Feels cosy,” Briar commented, trying not to get teary.
Madeline took a seat on the grass, patting the space beside her.
“Sit down,” Madeline ordered.
She followed her orders, sitting down right beside her.
“Are we supposed to talk to her?” Briar questioned.
“That’s what I usually do when I come here,” Madeline answered, squeezing Briar’s hand gently.
“So does Indiana know about you and Xavier’s third date?”
Madeline brought out a basket full of treats.
“You brought those for Indiana?”
Shaking her head, Madeline left a flower in the vase right in front of Indiana’s grave.
“The flower’s for Indiana, the treats are for us.”
She had brought some treats along just in case Briar got hungry or wanted something else to do. Briar wasn’t some child, of course. But Madeline knew her friend well, she knew that Briar would want to distract herself somehow.
“Indiana loved croissants,” Briar said, staring at the grave miserably. She had remembered Indiana’s words, but she wished she had the chance to speak to her friend in person.
“She liked flowers too,” Madeline pointed out, smiling.
“How do you do it?” Briar asked all of a sudden.
“Hmm?” Madeline asked absentmindedly.
“You’re acting like it’s normal.”
Madeline pursed her lips, “It’s not normal.”
As much as she acted or pretended like she had made peace with that fact, there was no making peace with the fact that her friend was dead. Just because they didn’t know each other for that long didn’t make her death less painful. For a moment, she had even thought she was going out on dates and everything because she was trying to distract herself from the truth.
She hadn’t even been that upset with Cornelia because… Cornelia was still her biological mother. She still said she cared, she still apologised. A part of her wanted to salvage as much as she could of it because she was terrified the same thing that happened to Indiana would happen to Cornelia.
But Cornelia was all-powerful. She knew what lay ahead, didn’t she? She could handle herself just fine, she didn’t need her daughter worrying about her.
Madeline laughed when she thought about giving Cornelia a chance. Give that woman a chance?
She could think of a million reasons why not to forgive Cornelia and to keep things the way they were.
“Madeline? Madeline!” Briar exclaimed, snapping Madeline out of her reverie.
Madeline shrugged, “It’ll never be normal.”
“Oh, you’re continuing,” Briar mumbled, eyeing Indiana’s grave. She could see Indiana wanting to give Madeline and her hugs at that moment if she were here.
“Yeah, I am. Just because I act like I’m okay doesn’t mean that I am, and that I’ve gotten used to not having Indiana around.”
Madeline remembered the times they had girls nights with Indiana present. There were times she had fallen asleep way before them because she was simply tired, and times where she’d win games and rub it in her and Briar’s faces.
“You hear that, Indiana? I miss having you around for girls night,” Madeline said, speaking louder than she usually did.
Briar laughed, her mood improved.
“You don’t happen to have brought cupcakes in that basket, do you?”
Madeline grinned, before she pulled out a cupcake.
“Here you go.”
“You’re an amazing friend.”
“One cupcake. One cupcake was all it took to be considered an amazing friend.”
Briar chewed the cupcake, telling her with her mouth half-full, “I didn’t take two like Indiana would have.”
The wind whooshed loudly in both their ears, as if it was Indiana’s way of communicating with them. Rustling noises could be heard next, although Madeline and Briar dismissed it, thinking it was just the wind. They didn’t think too much about it, returning to their conversation.
“Hm, you make a good point,” Madeline admitted as she found herself a cupcake to dig into.
“Madeline,” Briar called.
“Hmm?”
“I need to tell you something, and you need to promise not to tell Xavier.”
“That depends, is it about Xavier?”
Briar shook her head, “No, but it’s about Adrian.”
Madeline turned to face Briar, her brow raised, “About Adrian? Do tell.”
Biting her lip, Briar decided to come clean to her friend. She had been meaning to tell Madeline anyway, so why not now?
“I think I have feelings for Adrian,” she blurted out.
“About time,” Madeline said, placing her cupcake down to clap in celebration.
Briar laughed, “You have frosting on your nose.”
Madeline took a tissue to wipe the frosting on her nose, “Now back to your feelings. You want to talk about it?”
Her friend nodded shyly, “We’re not soulmates. He and I aren’t soulmates. We’re friends.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“Because he doesn’t see me as anything more than a friend. I’m just Briar, his good friend. Nothing more, we’ve never established we were anything more than just friends either. But he’s so… sweet, and charming. How am I not supposed to fall for him? I tried not to but it’s like a disease which keeps worsening and worsening.”
“Did you just compare your feelings for Adrian to a disease which keeps worsening and worsening?” Madeline asked incredulously, staring her friend in the eye.
“I did,” Briar admitted, fidgeting with her hands.
“What are you going to do about these feelings?”
“I’m going to act like nothing happened, like I didn’t just tell you I had feelings for him and like I have absolutely no feelings for him,” Briar answered, before she saw the expression on Madeline’s face. She pleaded, “Please don’t judge me.”
“I’m not judging you.”
“You have that judgy look on your face that you have whenever you’re judging people.”
“No I don’t!” Madeline insisted.
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Author’s Note: Who misses Indiana? Also, I just wanted to thank you all so much for the support! Hope you all have a nice day ahead.
Love, mari.