Page 122 of The Light Within

Finding the hoodie he’d folded up earlier, Julien pulled it over his head. It would be cold on the journey, but mostly he needed the comfort it would provide. Cinn had no idea, but Julien had been routinely swapping the hoodie out with random identical ones Cinn left strewn all over his house. That way, it always smelled faintly of him.

Julien placed the note on the dresser.

He pulled the covers up over Cinn to cover more of his body.

He kissed his mop of brown curls, the tiniest bit too firmly.

Tempting fate.

Cinn didn’t stir.

So, into the stillness of the bedroom, Julien whispered, “I’ll be back soon,mon amour.”

twenty-nine

Cinn

Crash!

The sound of cupboards opening and shutting downstairs jolted Cinn awake. He pulled the covers over his head.

Bang!

Julien must have been messing around in Cinn’s kitchen again, despite being banned since he ruined the best frying pan byscratching the non-stick coating with a metal whisk while making scrambled eggs. Could he not have waited for Cinn to cook him breakfast like he normally did?

He channelled his annoyance into a heavy sigh, then Cinn was ready to drag himself out of bed. Pulling on some tracksuit bottoms, he padded across the room. He froze when he saw a note propped up against the mirror, Julien’s elegantly looped cursive handwriting filling the paper.

No.

Anxiety gripped him with an iron fist. Though he couldn’t make out the words from across the room, his instincts told him whatever was written on it, he wasn’t going to like it.

Let’s get this over with.

He forced himself to take one step towards the note, then another.

He snatched up the paper like it had personally offended him.

Mon amour,

Don’t be mad. I’ve gone back to Paris for a quick chat with father dearest. It’s the only solution to keep you safe. I wish I could have said goodbye, but it’s easier this way. Elliot is downstairs. I’ll be back before you know it.

All my love,

Your Julien

P.S. I took the last two cookies for the road. Sorry.

Cinn re-read the note. Read it again. No, he wasn’t misinterpreting Julien’s outlandish calligraphy.

Julien had left him.

Julien hadlefthim.

His heart sank like a stone in deep water, the cold realisation wrapping around him like a tightening noose. The world blurred, his mind teetering on the edge of panic as the words echoed relentlessly in his head.

A quick chat with father dearest.

Now, Cinn was no expert on conflict resolution, but after Julien had threatened to kill his father several times during his breakdown at the church, he wasn’t convinced a ‘quick chat’ was the likely result of Julien paying his fathera visit.

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