A Graduation Gift

"I'm sorry, Cassandra! I shouldn't have mentioned it..."

Stella shut her mouth immediately, realizing she had completely disregarded Cassandra's feelings. She would have felt terrible finding out something like that.

"I'm fine. It's nothing. They're all over the news. I already know this."

Cassandra feigned a ghost of a smile on her face bitterly. She tried not to pay attention to news like this, but it was inevitable for her to come across it every now and then.

Whenever it reached her, she smiled speechlessly at the words they used: the Golden boy and Jade girl; the business tycoon and the amazingly talented, beautiful lady; a heaven-made match and whatnot.

All the possible words they could use to describe couples were used to describe Rufus and Amanda. Cassandra simply pretended like she saw nothing and heard nothing. She made herself trust Rufus. However, no matter how much she tried, her belief was always broken by the reality that hit her everywhere she went.

If they were a perfect match, what did that make her? Was she simply Rufus's other woman?

"Cassandra, as your friend, whatever I'm saying is for your own good. Rufus might not be the man you knew anymore and he is definitely lying to you. Please, stop trusting him and move on. If he really cared about you, he wouldn't have been engaged to Amanda. How can you stand this!" Seeing how broken her friend looked, Stella decided to speak her mind.

She was neither able to swallow it nor spit it

Cassandra didn't get over Rufus, the fishbone would be there forever and rot in her flesh, brewing nothing but pain for her,

was finally time to leave, but Cassandra decided to stay. Stella left soon, leaving her

soft light on her face, making her eyes shut. She was too tired and decided to take a break. When she opened her eyes again, she caught a silhouette right in

pair of strong hands before she could utter a sound. A voice spoke to her, after which she

"It's me, Cassandra!"

voice rang right beside her ears, making her eyes

a trace. She could never comprehend when or how he would show up and disappear. She could never anticipate how long it would be before she would

accord. She wondered if she would ever be capable of making

felt Cassandra's clenched body relaxing and took his hand off her mouth, finally appearing in the light and greeting her with a delighted smile.

you didn't show up. So I assumed you'd be working and came here to see you," he

a blaze of light, filling Cassandra up with warmth, as if he had just kissed her. She stared at his face overwhelmed with love but Rufus couldn't see the moisture

past days. My aunt's husband, Jasper's company was in trouble and I

of the Dark Night group were on the move again. Rufus helped Jasper to deal with them but hadn't expected it would get stretched to such an extent. He