Chapter Ninety-Six

Talia's POV:

I guessed he was trying to make up for that morning. I wasn't trying to not let him off the hook or anything, but I just felt, I don't know, sad. I didn't know if he was being honest about the lipstick on his collar, and I didn't know what else was on his mind that'd made him so awful earlier. I didn't know how to fake it. And he told me he didn't want me to be fake when it was just him and me, anyway. But him buying me jewelry and acting the way he was acting felt fake to me. I wished we were back on the Island. Or that he was even busy, so I get to be with Louis.

Nicholas was a combination of complicated and sweet. The light and dark were who he was. I wondered if I'd be able to take the dark, though; I wanted the light to win out over it. But it looked like it'd be both I'd have to live with. Unless I found a way out. Honestly, I liked this part of him. Nevertheless, I still couldn't get myself to stay.