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bonsai for a long time - part ii

Mood-board- part i

Chapter 2: —And To Be Loved.

Part of Thorne wished he was back in the garden with his feet bare. That way he could curl his toes in the gravel and feel like he was secure in standing upright. But on the pristine marble floor of the palace, his toes had no room to move but in his clacking dress shoes.

Even in his socks they were cold, while the warm atmosphere and his own dread heated the rest of his body. The disparity was dizzying.

Cold feet. Ha.

Typically it was an analogy applied to weddings, but he seldom saw it in full action. Of course, it had been funny to see Jacin, the usual picture of self assurance, blanching on his wedding day only two months prior. Jacin would have never backed out, but he had required a few words of consolation from his groomsmen to return to his normal, brazen self. He then gave Thorne a look that indicated it was not to be brought up.Ever.

Thorne didn’t have that kind of cold feet though—neither the kind Kai had had, where his giddiness for marrying Cinder combined with his anxiety and painful reminders of his last wedding. All was remedied when he talked to Cinder through the doorway, Iko insisting they were not to meet in person.

If you have cold feet, put socks on! she’d shouted.

They snuck past her to meet up just before walking down the aisle anyway.

Maybe the difference was the outcome. For his two friends, they had known despite their nerves, they would end the day married to the love of their life. Thorne had no such certainty. He wasn’t even asking a similar question—just telling Cress all that had been weighing on him, with no way of foreseeing the end result.

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