From Selena's perspective
As we enter Felix's bedroom, I watch him as he tells me with excitement in his voice about what he heard from Mike. At this point, he is so happy that I can't get enough of him. He laughs between words, saying how much he missed his best friend, who in the past accompanied him practically every day.
I guess how much he misses the people with whom he has good memories. After this meeting, his mood changed a hundred and eighty degrees.
He has the old energy in him, which was taken away by depression for a long time.
I want him to remain like this forever. Happy, with a smile on his face that is not forced.
- Thank you," he says suddenly, embracing my hands. - Thank you for letting me meet Mike and giving me the chance to spend so much time with him.
- Talking to a buddy is the best therapy, isn't it?
He looks into my eyes and suddenly, his smile dims. He watches me closely, and I begin to feel uneasy.
- I am glad that you appeared in my life back when we were children. It was you who gave meaning to my existence, and now you are making me regain it anew. I am beginning to feel again how much I love you, Selena.
I don't even blink my eyelids when he says these words. With glazed eyes, I watch his mouth, analyzing that he really said it.
This is another good sign.
I don't control my emotions and throw myself at him, embracing him as tightly as if I were afraid, he was just an illusion.
- I love you very much too," I say tearfully. - Although every day you make me worry about you a lot, know that I love you beyond life and my feeling for you have always been sincere. When I didn't have you by my side, then I realized how much I miss you, that you are my air, without which I can't live.
Felix strokes my hair and I can even hear him laughing in my ear, while I cry in his arms like a baby.
- I already told you that I will fight for you, right? I will not give in to this disease when I can be happy with you again. I won't let you suffer any longer.
Furthermore, I step back and look at him with weeping eyes. He brushes a strand of hair away from my wet cheek, looking happy.
I watch his beautiful face and run my finger over his nose. He focuses his intense gaze on me and at one point attaches his lips to my mouth. Initially gentle kisses turn into fiery desire, which we both can't control.
Again, I feel like a teenager reliving it with the love of her life.
I'm so excited that I'm the one who pushes him onto the bed and sits on it with my arms around him. He embraces my face with his hands and gently bites his lower lip, looking at me with the same desire in his eyes as before.
- I missed you so much," I say, between kisses.
- I follow you too, writer of hopeless fan fiction," he replies and spoils the mood for a moment. I look at him with indignation in my eyes, and he smiles charmingly. - Selena, it's not my fault that some demon threw the pages of your novel in my face. Those scenes really were hopelessly written.
I squint my eyes, then answer him:
- Oh, Felix, shut up and just bring me all in.
This is enough for him to attack me. Like a tiger, he throws me on my back and, lying over me, pulls a strand of hair away from my face.
- And have you thought about the second part of this novel? Maybe I should inspire you?
- Oh, don't tease me, or in a moment I'll lose the urge, and you'll regret it," I assert, pulling his head in and kissing him as if I were a hungry vixen. He looks at me with puzzled eyes when I unexpectedly interrupt. - And I am not at all a hopeless writer of fan fiction, because, however, not every author succeeds in transferring a novel to real life. I am unique.
- Yes, you are special, Selena," he replies, between kisses. - For me, you have always been like that.
*
I feel Lucas' penetrating gaze on me as I descend to the first floor alongside a happy Felix. The brunet squints his eyes as he sips coffee from a cup.
- What's good for breakfast? - his younger brother asks him as he sits down in a chair. He radiates such joy that Lucas watches me closely the whole time, wondering what I've done to fix Felix.
- Scrambled eggs with a pinch of salt," he replies, forcing a smile. When he does this, he looks like the devil incarnate.
- Strange that a pinch of salt shouldn't be added to scrambled eggs," Felix says, throwing him an offended look.
- It is strange for your condition to improve so significantly overnight," Lucas announces, shifting his gaze to me. - Selena is a born doctor of psychiatry. She has missed her calling.
- You should be happy that your brother is recovering," I say as I sit down in the chair next to Felix. - Or not, Lucas?
He takes another sip of coffee, then answers me:
- Then you have no choice, I am happy that you are helping my brother, so I will also take you to New York permanently.
I open my eyes wide, not expecting that he already has such plans.
- What are you talking about, Lucas? - Felix asks, and his smile dims.
- You know very well that I have to go back there. I came here for you, I wanted you to recover, but I won't leave you here alone, I can't, even if I ask Selena to take care of you," he claims, then shifts his gaze to me. I understand what he means. Their mother is still around, and when Lucas leaves, then she will have no qualms about approaching Felix.
He can't stay in Los Angeles. He must leave here, for his own good, especially now that his condition is improving.
- I think Lucas is right," I support him, looking at Felix. He raises an eyebrow in surprise. - In fact, I don't even have a job here. In New York, I could start all over again. During my vacation I felt like a fish in water there. I like the city.
- And will you leave your family and friends here?
- I'm an adult, I can go out with them. Am I the only person who would go to another city? Many people do that, what's strange about it?
Lucas nods.
The truth is that I have long fooled my parents into transferring me to the New York branch, and when they call, I lie like crazy.
- Something doesn't feel right to me. You guys are acting strangely.
- What are you talking about? - I laugh nervously. - I simply support Lucas' idea. I know that in New York he has his life, and besides me, you need him too, because he is your only family.
Felix squints his eyes.
- And your only family is here, and you want to leave them?
The recovering, Felix, can be difficult to decide. If he insists on something, he will not be so easily persuaded to change.
- To get away with you, I lied to them a long time ago that I was transferred to New York.
- Despite everything, I don't want you to leave your hometown for me.
- Why are you deciding for me again? I really want it. I like the idea.
- It's getting melodramatic," Lucas comments under his breath.
- I just want you to think it through, Selena," Felix says, looking at me with those beautiful eyes.
- I have thought it over a long time ago. I want to live in New York.
*
With Lucas' permission, we were able to invite friends to his house in the evening. Since he saw that after talking to an old friend, his brother was feeling much better, he didn't mind.
Nevertheless, he escaped upstairs, not wanting to come into contact with them.
As Eve crossed the threshold of the mansion, she let out a strange sigh, as if it was the first time she had seen such wealth with her eyes. Well... I probably acted like that too.
When we are in the living room, Lily looks around the interior, clearly intimidated. She sits politely on the couch, watching Felix.
- Auntie, is this really the missing uncle you loved so much? - she asks me, at which I open my eyes wider in surprise. - Dad told me so.
I look with amused eyes at Mike, who is again immersed in conversation with Felix.
I lean over Lily's ear and whisper to her:
- And I still love him, but stud, it's just between us.
The girl smiles broadly at me.
- Auntie, this will be our secret!
Eve sits next to me, trying to act like a lady as she gently sips tea from a porcelain cup. I am incredibly amused by this sight.
- Are you okay? - I ask her.
- He's not here, is he? He doesn't live with you? - She asks me in a whisper.
I smile devilishly.
- He doesn't live, but enjoys paying Lucas a visit.
Horror appears on the blonde girl's face.
- It was probably a bad idea that I came here," she declares, and I see that the hand in which she holds the cup is shaking dangerously.
- Remember that eventually every secret comes out.... - I tease her.
- Oh, don't stress me out! - squeaks by my ear.
To my surprise, I spot Lucas on the stairs, heading downstairs. He looks at our guests with a not very friendly face. His attention is particularly drawn to Eve, and at one point I'm afraid he'll say something with which to destroy her marriage, but Lucas is someone who likes to throw around texts in a pinched but puzzling way.
The blonde girl swallows her saliva nervously as she recalls seeing him at the party she attended with Sebastian. She realizes that it was Felix's creepy older brother who beat Sebastian for disobedience!
- Lucas, this is Mike," Felix speaks up, introducing his friend.
- I've heard a lot about you, you seem like a cool guy," replies the brunet, surprisingly, shaking his hand in greeting. He shifts his gaze to his woman. - This lady I've already managed to meet, quite an entertaining woman," he adds in an amused voice.
Mike crinkles his eyebrows, wondering what he is talking about.
- We met in New York, during an event. It's quite a long story. Someday I'll tell you," the blonde girl hastily explains.
Lucas snorts under his breath.
- I take a drink and get away.
Felix watches Lucas with nervous eyes, afraid that he will say a few words too many and completely spoil the atmosphere, but fortunately, he does as he says. He takes a drink and goes back upstairs.
- I'll bring some snacks," I say, lifting off the couch.
- Let me help you. - Mike also gets up, heading after me. I realize he wants to ask me something in private. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my friend's frightened gaze.
When we are in the kitchen, the man leans his hip against the countertop, looking at me with concerned eyes.
- What's up?
- It seems to me that I have been followed for some time. Yesterday... I also felt it when we were sitting in the playground.
- What are you talking about, Mike? - I ask him in an amused voice, getting the impression that my friend is getting some kind of paranoia.
- I'm not joking, I'm serious. It seems to me that since I met Felix's mother, she has been following me, wanting to reach her son.
The plate almost falls out of my hands.
- It's impossible. She won't go near him. Lucas threatened her.
- It's possible, Selena, because I think when we entered the house, out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman standing in front of the fence.
For a moment, chills paralyze my body. I stand still, looking at Mike with frightened eyes, then I unexpectedly evade him and run towards the exit.
- Selena, what's going on? - All I hear is Felix's voice as I run past the living room.
With slippers on my feet, I ran out into the garden, coming closer to the gate. My heart is beating like crazy with fear when I actually spot someone behind the fence.
She is standing there. The woman is there, disregarding Lucas' threats.
- Why are you here? - I ask, nervously looking back to make sure Felix hasn't followed me out.
- I want to meet my son. I miss him. If you can, then I, as a mother, should have more right to do so," she replies, looking at me between the bars of the gate with hatred in her eyes.
- Lucas clearly forbade you to do so. You must not go near him.
- You also could not, and yet he allowed you to him," she declares. - He is my son, so no one will forbid me! - she says with a raised tone in her voice. - I will get him back.
- Selena, what's going on? - I hear Felix's voice from behind.
My heart is beating like crazy with fear. He can't see her, he can't know that she's alive! This will end badly when he realizes how advanced his disease is, if he believes in illusions that never happened.
Not now, when his condition is improving significantly.