Page 24 of Butterfly

You haven’t.

“You’re pushing me away.”

Teddy rinsed his toothbrush, then slotted it back into the holder.

“You said you’d never hurt me.Never, never, never, you said.”

Teddy bowed his head. The vein in his temple jumped when he clenched his jaw.

“This…hurts,” Ollie whispered. “I don’t know what I did to upset you.”

Teddy shook his head, and Ollie read the expression from his face.You didn’t do anything.

“I must’ve for you to have changed like this.”

Teddy exhaled, then snatched up the dictionary. He stopped at the wordTired.

“Bullshit,” Ollie replied, crossing his arms. “You’re just trying to avoid the subject.”

Bed.

Ollie lifted his chin. “You want to go to bed, then you’ll have to go through me.”

Teddy took hold of Ollie’s waist and lifted him off the floor. He turned with Ollie in his arms and put him down again in front of the sink.

“Teddy…”

Teddy climbed beneath the bed and lay down on his side, facing the wall.

“You can’t ignore me.”

The pillow quickly shoved over Teddy’s head said that was exactly what he was planning to do.

Ollie huffed and brushed his teeth. Teddy still had the pillow over his head when he’d finished.

“Be like that,” Ollie snapped, heaving himself onto the top bunk. He stared a furious hole into the ceiling. It took another hour for the lights to go out and an hour more for Ollie’s forced frown to unconsciously fade from his face. He was too tired to keep it up and gave in to his weighed lids and the tug of sleep.

He woke to a scratching sound, a singular scratch, followed by silence, then a scratch again. Ollie knew it was Teddy but didn’t know what he was doing until an orange glow lit up the cell.

A match.

He’d lit a match.

It had never scared him before, but now…knowing what Teddy did to be sent there…

Ollie clutched his duvet, peering over the side of the bed.

Teddy sat with his knees to his chest and his back to the cell door.

He held a lit match in his left hand, transfixed by the flame dancing before his eyes. It was close enough to his face that the light reflected off the tear trails on his cheeks. His eyes looked more sunken than hours before, with the flame making the bags beneath seem infinitely darker. He was shirtless and barefoot but wore his checked pyjama bottoms.

Ollie swung his legs out of bed and slipped down. He crouched where he landed, then crawled closer to Teddy.

“Hey…” Ollie whispered softly.

It wasn’t the first time he’d woken up to Teddy this way, obsessively striking matches. His unsuccessful attempts littered the floor, shooting spikes of pain up Ollie’s knees until he swept a clear path with his hand.

“Want to talk about it?” Ollie asked.

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