"So...you...are saying that... I... I'm not...real?"
Luca looked at me, shocked...in disbelief.
"For god sake, Laurel, if...this is a joke...just please tell me...you...you are trying to prank me?"
He looked at me helplessly, but I remained quiet, because this was true, this was not a prank.
His head slumped down, heaving out an exasperated sigh, as he got up from the couch and subconsciously I grabbed his hand.
"Where are you... going?"
I was afraid, scared that he might leave, thinking I have gone crazy or something.
"Don't worry, I'm not leaving, I just need some fresh air, it's a lot to process."
He smiled at me, caressing my left cheek, before he walked to the balcony, standing there, his hand going in his hair.
I myself was feeling weird, this wasn't what was supposed to happen, it really wasn't...
This was not how I had originally planned to escape the plot.
It was simple, get a separate house, a job, save money and then fly to another country, that was it... that was the plan, things were supposed to go like that.
I grabbed my head in both my hands, my hold tightening over my hair, pulling on them, cursing, blaming myself, for messing it up.
Messing up by ruining my relationship with Luca, messing up by falling in love.
Tip- tip.
Tears dripped from my eyes, falling on the tiled floor... My head was still between my hands, facing downwards, when I saw someone's knees on the floor Infront of me.
And then someone's soft grip over my hands as he pulled my hands away from my face.
As I saw Luca, I quickly wiped my tears away.
"I made you cry? I'm sorry, but I... I swear, I promise that I will support you, stand with you, I'll be there for you, whatever, wherever you needs me I'll be with you..."
"Are you even trusting my words?"
"Your words? I don't know, but I do trust you, and even if you had said something crazier than this, something real crazy, I would've even trusted that... because I trust you."
He sounded confident, He was confident, about the things I had told him.
He was confident about me.
"Now tell me, what are the important things I need to know, to protect you?"
I smiled as I began telling him everything, bought all the letters, the book- books, voice recorder, the journal, everything that I had collected this past month.
Keeping everything in front of him, I told him everything from point one.
But still had not opened the novels, the letter aur played the recorder.
His eyes widening in shock, whenever I told him something, till now, I was calling Cassian by Male lead, and Elodie by Female lead.
"By the way who is that male lead? Just tell me it's not me!"
His face was scrunched, with fear reflecting in his eyes, the corner of my lips lifting up in a smile.
"No... it's not you." I said with the shook of my head.
He wasn't even a character in the novel.
"Thank god." Heaving out a sigh of relief, he muttered, before sitting up straight.
"Then? Who is it?"
"Cassian... Cassian Valor."
I finally said his name out loud
"What!" He screamed.
"He was the one who killed you?"
I frowned.
His expressions shifting.
"Oh- I mean Laurel, the real Laurel..."
"But still, what ever the crime, how could he just go on shooting a pretty lady like you? Like you are so pretty and Laurel must also be pretty since you both have the same face, same voice, same mind...."
Unintentionally, but he was praising Laurel, not me– Laurel.
A sarcastic, yet full of fury smile had take over my lips.
"Yeah? was she that pretty? You tell me, you have seen her too right? It has been just a month since I reincarnated in this world but you...you have been living here for many years...you must've saw her too before, maybe talked to her?
My insides were burning with anger, it was as if I had been ignited.
And he... instead of feeling ashamed, feeling guilty, feeling bad for his words, for his behaviour he was looking at me with a...with a freaking smile?
I took a deep breath, trying not to forget what I wanted to say, not forgetting that I was –I am angry at him.
And that was the last blow, when he tilted his face sideways, looking at me with a soft smile, his index finger touching his lips.
I gasped as I smacked his forehead...
"Go away!"
I picked up both novels and began inspecting them even though, I was blushing.
"Okay, sorry." He laughed holding both his ears.
I ignored him, reading the copy, Laurel had given me.
I felt heat of his body on my back before, his chin was resting iver ny shoulder.
"Fiammetta, who is the female lead? Like... I can't think of any woman."
"Elodie West!" I said as I removed his chin from my shoulder.
"You mean, Valor enterprise's director's daughter?"
I nodded.
"That girl who came when you and Cecily were talking?"
I again nodded.
"That girl who was making you uncomfortable?"
I was once again about to nod, when I realised what he had just said.
He was serious though, his face was stoic.
"Who said I was uncomfortable?"
I watched, narrow-eyed.
"No one did, but I got eyes though, I can see, you know."
He shrugged.
And the very moment, a small pout had formed on his lip, a very small...a very cute... almost invisible pout...BUT.THERE.WAS.A.POUT.
I took a deep breath at my thoughts, they were right though, the pout does look cute... It does suit him.
Snap out of it!
I cursed myself, with him around I don't think I can ever work with full focus, especially if he looks at me like that.
"Luca stop changing the topic!" I said angrily.
"But I didn't even do anything."
He looked like an innocent child.
"Stop diverting my mind!"
He knew what he was doing, because that sheepish grin on his lips, was evident enough.
"What about me? What was my character like? Am I exactly the same as my character in the novel, or am I opposite?"
My smiled vanished at his words.
"Actually... Luca...you are the character that was never actually talked about in the novel, not in any single page was there be your name."
"When I met for the first time here that's when I got to know you."
His face could hardly conceal the sadness within, he was disappointed.
"But do you know, all the characters that I had never once read about in the novel, and now when I am coming to meet them, it's another type of experience, I had many expectations from all the characters I had known while reading the novel, and I could say most of them, turned really bad, but the characters that I did not know about, I'm really glad that I could live this life and meet all those characters."
"You, Cecily, Ayla. You three mean a lot to me."
My words had as if lifted a weight from him, and the tension in his body decreased.
"What about you? Your previous life... I mean your actual self."
"Do you remember the woman, whose pictures were pasted all over the room?"
"You mean that Dr? What was her name?... Sarah....Sarah Junes?"
"What about her?"
"That's me...my actual self, she was the person who I was before coming here..."
"You were a doctor?"
His eyes had doubled in size, looking at me as if I were a ghost.
"You really were a doctor?"
I could feel excitement boiling up from him in his voice, in his tone and especially in his eyes beautiful eyes.
"Yes, I was." I nodded in affirmation.
"What...kind?"
"A gynecologist!"
He let a loud gasp, his eyes widened in shock.
"What?"
I nervously chuckled at his reaction, his smile saddened for a second before once again turning into that beautiful smile.
He began asking me more questions about me, and I answered each and every of that question.
Me being an orphan, living alone, scholarships, betrayal, no friends.... Everything.
And he kept listening me, his full focus on me and my words.
"So...you never had a family?"
"No." I shook my head.
"When I had just came here, whilst being scared, I was kind of happy too, that I will have a family, people who will love me, but sadly nothing was same after all."
"The mother that was supposed to be a loving one, was actually a toxic step mother, and the father, he couldn't even pretend to want his own kids."
He patiently listened to me, letting out all the frustration I had felt over here, in this life.