[center] His tone had not gone ignored by Clara, but she kept her gaze ahead just as he had. Clearly he had reservations about telling her what he had, and Clara still hadn’t entirely understood why he even decided to tell her. Maybe he had grown tired of her brooding, thinking about Kieran in such a negative light and furthermore constantly speaking her disdain could have been something that had triggered him considering he had known the truth. She had only understood the pieces she was given -- the broken promises, the rush of one night where everything had been tossed aside for each other before the inevitable pain had settled in, waking only to what she’d become and the ache that lingered thereafter in the realization that although she had Christian to take care of her in his wake, she had been betrayed and abandoned by Kieran. How was she to even guess of his motives; to even think that he could have checked on her after all of this time? She couldn’t fathom the thought, nor did she want to entirely believe Ryanair either -- but the way he’d suddenly tucked himself away and seemed irritated, she knew she probably should believe him. 

Her grip on the books in her arms had been firm as she kept her focus on the path ahead of them, eager to get back and submerge herself in drink to numb the feelings surging through her. Would she sleep that night? Probably not -- any ounce of being able to forget certain details; certain feelings had been cast aside hours before. Every bit of detail of her memories had flooded back and there was no amount of forgetting -- not so soon, at least. 

A shame, really -- They’d at least shared a carefree moment before everything had fallen to shit again… now it felt like those walls were right back up between them with no crack in the foundation that might have brought it down. 

He would submerge himself in his distractions as would she. Clara just wanted to drink, perhaps soak herself in a long bath, and try to bury herself in a book until sleep would take her over and the nightmares would inevitably pull her from that comfort. [/center][@Arista]