Elysium: Desired by the Cold-hearted Princess [GL]
Chapter 167 167: Blatant Rejection

Third-person POV

Electra felt her mind short-circuiting as Seraphina's words echoed in her head.

Someone I like.

The phrase kept playing over and over in her head, pushing aside all coherent thoughts and leaving her frozen and unsure of how to respond.

Was Seraphina just saying things because of the drugs? Or was this some deeper confession that had slipped out under the influence? The idea that it might be the latter made her chest tighten in a way she didn't quite understand—or maybe didn't want to understand.

She leaned against the desk even more for support, her legs suddenly feeling like they couldn't hold her up properly. Seraphina, standing only inches away, tilted her head slightly, a mix of curiosity and frustration etched across her face.

"Electra?" Seraphina's voice broke the silence, her tone a mixture of impatience and vulnerability. "Are you okay? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Electra blinked, finally snapping out of her trance. She swallowed hard, trying to force herself to say something—anything—that would diffuse the growing tension between them.

"I... I just…" she stammered, her voice unsteady. "Are you sure you're okay, Sera? You're not... thinking clearly right now."

Seraphina's expression shifted, a flicker of irritation crossing her features. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, crossing her arms.

Electra let out a shaky breath, trying to steady herself. "You've been drugged, Seraphina. You're not yourself right now. I don't think you really mean the things you're saying."

For a moment, Seraphina looked like she was about to argue, but then she hesitated. She uncrossed her arms and looked down, as if she were trying to process Electra's words.

"Maybe you're right," she admitted softly. "Maybe I am just saying things because I'm a little off the charts right now, but that doesn't mean I don't know what I feel, Electra."

Electra's heart skipped a beat, for some strange reason, but she forced herself to maintain a nonchalant expression, not wanting to completely give away how strangely nervous she was right now.

Seraphina looked back up, her gaze locking on Electra's.

"Look," Seraphina continued, her voice quieter now. "I don't know what's going on in my head right now. Everything feels… off, but I do know that right now, with just you and I here, I don't want to pretend like I don't feel something for you. And maybe I shouldn't have said it like this, but I can't take it back now, can I?"

Seraphina's thoughts were all over the place as she watched Electra, who was now staring at her with a mix of confusion and intrigue.

She knew that the words that just left her mouth were a very risky choice of words, but she couldn't stop herself. Every logical part of her brain was screaming at her to back down, to walk away and spare herself the inevitable rejection, but the irrational and intoxicated part of her was louder, keeping her rooted in place.

Electra tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing as if trying to decipher Seraphina's intent. "Are you even aware of what you're doing right now, Sera?" she asked calmly. "Do you realize that what you're saying is weird? You're basically confessing to feelings you don't have."

Seraphina swallowed hard, her sly smile faltering for a brief moment. The fact that Electra was thinking she didn't know what she was saying made her angry, and even though she knew this was an opportunity to back down and pretend like she had been joking, she didn't intend to.

Backing down now would only make things worse, so instead, she took another step closer, closing the already minimal space between them.

"How can you be so sure that I'm confessing to feelings I don't have?" Seraphina asked, trying to sound even more daring. "You already know that I used to have a crush on you, so why do you find it so hard to believe now that I actually like you? Yes, I'll admit that I hated you for a while, or better still, I convinced myself that I did, when in fact, I did like you, but I hated myself for liking someone like you."

Electra's eyes widened slightly, the corners of her mouth tightening as her jaw clenched. "You don't know what you're saying, Seraphina," she said, her tone more serious now. "You've been drinking, and whatever's in your system is making you reckless. You just want to have sex with me right now because you're horny, so you're just saying anything."

"Maybe," Seraphina admitted, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "But you know what they say, Electra: drunk words, sober thoughts."

She hesitated for a moment, her eyes scanning Electra's face for any sign of anger and any hint that she wasn't about to completely humiliate herself more than she already had. "And right now, my thoughts are all about you."

Electra's mouth opened slightly, but no words came out, and Seraphina took it as her cue to keep talking.

"I've been thinking about this for a while, Electra," she continued. "Not just tonight, but for longer than I care to admit. I hated seeing you with Iris, and when you suggested that we meet other people, I was hurt. I didn't want to admit it then, but I realized at some point that I was hurt because I liked you, and I didn't like the idea of you being with someone else that wasn't me."

When Electra still didn't say anything, Seraphina felt her confidence faltering, so instead of just confessing, she decided to ask what she really wanted to know outrightly. "If you want to pretend this conversation never happened tomorrow, Electra, I'll go along with it, but right now… right now, I just need to know one thing. Do you feel anything for me? If you don't like me in that way, just tell me to my face now, and I promise I'll never talk about liking you ever again."

Electra's silence was deafening, and Seraphina's heart threatened to burst from her chest. The seconds stretched into what felt like an eternity, and Seraphina's mind kept racing through every possible response Electra could give.

Finally, Electra broke the silence with a sigh, her expression unreadable as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Seraphina," she began, her voice surprisingly calm, "you don't know what you're asking me, and this isn't the time or the place to have this conversation."

Seraphina felt her chest tighten even more and took in a deep breath to control herself before speaking.

"Why not?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly despite her best efforts to remain composed. "Why can't we talk about this now? Why can't you just tell me how you feel? It's not that hard, Electra. You either say, 'No, Seraphina, I don't like you that way, or you say, Yes, Seraphina, I like you too.' It's quite simple."

Electra shook her head, her jaw tightening again as she glanced away briefly before looking back at Seraphina. "I'm not going to say anything because you're not yourself right now, Sera," she said, her tone softening slightly. "And I don't want to say something I can't take back when you're not thinking straight. We can have this conversation some other time, when you're yourself."

"For the love of the gods, I am myself, Electra! I don't look like someone else, do I? I'm still the same freaking Seraphina Hook that I've always been," Seraphina blurted out in frustration, stepping even closer until their faces were mere inches apart. "And maybe I am being reckless, but for once, I'm not overthinking, and I'm just… I'm just telling you how I feel."

Electra stared at her, her expression conflicted. For a moment, Seraphina thought she saw something flicker in Electra's eyes—something softer, something almost vulnerable, but just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by the guarded, unreadable mask that Electra always wore.

"I think you need to go back to your room, Sera," Electra said finally, keeping her tone calm and gentle, despite her nerves. "You've had too much to drink, and you'll regret this in the morning."

The words hit Seraphina like a slap to the face, and for a moment, she was too stunned to respond. All she wanted was a yes or no response, but Electra couldn't even give her that, but she wasn't foolish enough not to know that she had just been rejected.

The rejection hurt her more than she thought it would, and she could feel her eyes beginning to burn with tears, but she refused to let herself cry—not here, not in front of Electra.

"Fine," she said, her voice colder now as she took a step back, creating some distance between them. "You're right. I'm definitely not in my right mind, and this conversation never happened."

Electra's expression softened slightly, and she reached out as if to grab Seraphina's arm, hating how shaky her voice got, but Seraphina stepped out of reach before she could. "Sera, wait—"

But Seraphina didn't wait. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room without looking back.