Violet stared at herself in her bedroom mirror. The dull light hanging above her head made her skin appear pale and sickly. A thick layer of gauze had been taped over the bridge over her nose while some was placed inside of her nostrils as stabilizers. Even though the accident was only about 24 hours ago, the bottom edges of her eye sockets were swollen and severely bruised. The pain was relentlessly pounding throughout her skull.

The accident, as suspected, had left her with a broken nose. An ambulance arrived to transport her to a hospital to get her wound treated. Larry, Ash, and Todd's faces were littered with cuts from what was once Lisa's back windshield, which, fortunately, didn't need any medical attention. Sal was the only one in the group who sustained no injuries.

According to Larry, the police let the kid who caused the accident off the hook, despite the entire incident being at the hands of his irresponsibility. Lisa was deemed liable for the damage to her car and was forced to either pay to fix it or go without it. However, since Sal was the noe behind the wheel that day, he and his father promised to help in any way they could.

Violet couldn't help but hope that the accident would be the reason that Sal started talking to her again. When he texted her that evening and apologized for the umpteenth time and asked how she was doing, she was filled with hope. Alas, he stopped responding after that and hadn't visited once.

"Ugh," she scoffed, while carefully pulling her shirt off. She had a tutoring session for organic chemistry with Todd today. She briefly considered texting him and telling him that today wasn't going to work out after all, but decided against it. She couldn't deal with the pain in her nose on top of her father's disapproval if she fell behind.

Fortunately, her parents weren't angry at her in the slightest following the incident. Her mother panicked and demanded every detail of the accident while her father merely asked how she'd keep up in school while protecting her injury. Violet was fully prepared for a stern talking-to, but was endlessly grateful for her parents' lenience. It was the little things like this that made her consider that they really did care.

After getting dressed, the teen slung her backpack over her shoulder and gave herself one last look in the mirror. She looked just about as horrible as she felt, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

That was when her gaze fell onto the picture Larry had given her. She had tucked it into the corner of her mirror frame, but often avoided looking at it. There she was, sleeping peacefully with Sal's hand in her's. She was almost cuddling with his side. He looked so happy beside her. Why did that change? What did she do wrong?

The image of him wiping her bloody nose at the scene of the accident flashed in her mind. His eyes showed nothing but concern for her. It was almost like things had gone back to normal. It was almost like he cared again. But he ripped that feeling away from her just as quickly as he gave it to her. He cared for her one minute and disregarded her the next. How could he do something like that?

With a shaking hand, Violet pulled out her phone.

Messages

Can we talk?

Still, Sal couldn't even be bothered to answer her texts. After yesterday, Violet simply couldn't take this anymore. She had to know why the boy who held her hand, watched movies with her, napped with her, danced with her, played video games with her, and practically cuddled her at times decided to cut her off out of the blue. Why he, Sal Fisher, suddenly decided that their friendship was worthless now.

With a short text letting Todd know that she wasn't coming, she made her way to the fourth floor.

The elevator ride felt like an eternity, but Violet didn't mind. She used this time to rehearse her statement in her head. "What's your problem with me? No, too aggressive," she thought to herself. "Why don't you like me anymore? Ugh..."

The elevator doors slowly pulled themselves apart. If it weren't for the glowing number 4 just above the buttons, there'd be no way of telling which floor she'd arrived on. The hallways of the apartments were identical with their wooden paneled walls and cold linoleum flooring.

As she stepped into the hall, she heard an odd creaking sound followed by a grunt and something clattering to the floor. She turned her head, only to find Sal himself prying planks of wood off of apartment 403 with a crowbar. As far as Violet knew, someone had been murdered there and the door was boarded shut ever since.

"Sal?" She called, carefully making her way toward him. "What are you doing?"

The blue-haired boy quickly lowered his crowbar. "O-Oh, uh, just looking around. Why are you up here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Uh, this isn't the best time. Can you come back?"

Violet felt anger bubbling in her chest. She would not, under any circumstances, be pushed away again. Her parents and friends back home did that enough. She was sick of it. Sal was not going to do this to her. He couldn't do this to her. "No, Sal. I want to talk right now."

"Vi, I really—"

"Sal," she cut him off. Tears of frustration blurred her vision. All she could see were blotches of blue, white, black, and red. "I-I want to talk to you right now."

He finally surrendered, laying the crowbar beside his feet. "Alright, alright. What is it?"

"Take me to your apartment."

"Okay."

> > >

Sal knew exactly what this was about. He should've known this would happen eventually. Ignoring Violet's texts and refusing to engage in conversations with her was hard enough. It was arguably one of the most difficult things he'd ever forced himself to do. But seeing her stand before him with an injury that he caused and tears in her eyes was his breaking point. He couldn't push her away like this.

Leaving his current mission behind, he led her a few doors down and into his apartment. Fortunately, his dad wasn't home to see what had happened to Violet. He had enough stress on his plate with Lisa's car. Plus, Sal was grounded.

Once the pair made their way into his bedroom, Violet sat down on his bed and crossed her arms. She chewed on her bottom lip as if her life depended on it. It was clear that she had a lot to say and plenty of emotions built up from the last week.

Sal sat down at the foot of the bed to give her space. "What's up?"

She inhaled sharply. "Y-You have been very unfair to me, Sal."

"I know..."

"You ignore my texts, you barely speak to me, and you won't even look at me unless you have to."

Sal wanted nothing more than to spill everything. He wanted to tell her that doing this broke his heart just as much as it broke her's. Watching her smile fade when he was short with her was like a knife through his heart. He had watched her slowly drift away from him until the two were practically strangers. And to hear her call him by just Sal instead of Sally...it hurt. It all hurt him so deeply, he couldn't stand it. He asked himself every day if this was truly the right thing. Sal had never felt so wrong about something in his life. "I know I do..."

"Why?" Violet exclaimed with a sob. "Why don't you want to be my friend anymore?"

"Vi, it has nothing to do with you, I promise."

"I thought you were my friend! I thought you cared about me!" Violet's tone was growing softer and weaker by the second. Tears streamed down her bruised face, some of which were absorbed by the dressing on her nose. She hugged herself tightly as her body trembled with what Sal could only imagine was anger and disappointment.

"I care about you so much," he breathed. "I really, really do."

"I thought you cared for all that time. I was even starting to think that we would become more than friends one day, but then you..." she trailed off, letting her face fall into her hands as she cried.

Sal felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. The sweet, loving, and ever so bold girl that he'd fallen for was not only physically hurt by him, but emotionally hurt as well. Right when she began to reciprocate his feelings for her, he made the stupid decision to shun her. Now, here she sat, crying her heart out because of it. "I was trying to keep you safe, Vi. I-I thought I was doing the right thing."

"Keep me safe from what, Sal?"

"The cult, the demon, everything. I didn't want you involved with any of it." When Violet didn't respond, he continued. "I felt like I was the reason you were seeing the Red-Eyed Demon. If I stayed away from you, I thought it would too."

"You were wrong..."

"I know I was. Larry told me."

Violet uncovered her face, using the heels of her hands to wipe her tears. She sniffled. "So, y-you still like me? You don't hate me?"

Sal let out a breath and scooted closer to her, grabbing both of her hands in his.

It was now or never.

"I just might be in love with you, Vi."