Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII or anything related to it
Everything never seemed to change. Everything stayed the same. Every day, every hour, every minute, every second. Sometimes I wonder if today was still yesterday and ask myself when will tomorrow come. I'm not really complaining. I have a good life. I have good grades, great friends, on the student council, I've even been accepted to a few universities already! Life is good, but…I can't help but feel like something is missing…I'm not one to complain or to hardly ever be depressed or sad and yet…I tend to find myself to be lonely and sometimes it's unbearable…I'm a cheerful and happy person, that's what type of person I'm known to be but there are times when I find loneliness creep up behind me.
"Hey!"
I turn and smile. The silver haired boy runs towards me with his navy blue swim bag bouncing wildly on his shoulder.
"What's up? I thought you had swim practice today?"
"Nah. It got cancelled today." He looks at me straight into the eyes and frowns. Dammit Hope, I hate it when you do that. He's the only one who could tell how I'm truly feeling and I wonder how and why.
"Are you okay?" I stared at my friend and smile softly. "Yeah. Why do you ask?" His gaze softens and reaches an arm out to me and places it on my right shoulder. "Your eyes look sad Vanille. I've known you since junior high. I know you…" his voice trails off and a faint hue of pink appears on his face. I've known for a long time that Hope Estheim has had feelings for me. "Nothing's wrong Hope, I swear," I tell him hoping he would lay off the subject. He sighs and slightly smiles. "Fine…if you say so Vanille." We stand there for a few seconds in awkward silence. This has been happening quite a bit already. Just as I was about to say good-bye and leave, he grabs my hand suddenly.
"Hey Vanille are you busy tonight? There's this really good band playing at the Sunleth Waterscape."
"I didn't know there were concerts at the Waterscape." How can they? It's a waterscape like the name suggests. He scratches the back of his head and laughs at me.
"It's something new they're doing. During concerts they're going to set up a little platform on the water for the band to play on. I don't know exactly how they'll really do it especially for the instruments but I do know that there is definitely a really good band playing tonight."
"Really. Who?"
He grins at me confidently.
"NORA!"
I blink in confusion for awhile. Why does that sound so familiar? He looks at me with his grin still plastered on his face and slowly dies down to disbelief. I can't help but laugh.
"Um…who's that?" He slaps his face overdramatically.
"C'mon Vanille! NORA! The band I'm in??? You know??? With Snow, Gadot, Maqui, Lebreau, and Yuj!"
Hehehe…oh yeah.
"Sounds like fun. I'll go tonight."
"Great! I'll pick you up at eight." He finally lets go of my hand. "Hey Vanille…maybe after that can we talk about something important?"
Oh no…I already know what it is…
"Sure Hope," I say smiling, hoping to hide my nervousness. I was wondering when he would want to talk about taking our friendship to our next level but why today? Why couldn't it be tomorrow when I'm not feeling like this?
"Sweet. I'll see you later then." He runs off. I sigh. Just as I was about to turn around I see him turn his body slightly and wave.
"I can't wait til tonight!" he yells. I just smile and wave my hand back at him as he turns his body back and runs faster down the halls. Crap. I seriously do not want to deal with this right now. I start to walk to my locker and see my best friend Serah waiting for me.
"Hey."
"Hey," I replied. I open my locker and start to put my books into my pink and creamy white bag. I could feel my friend's eyes burn into me. Just ask already Serah. I already know you saw me with hope.
"I'm waiting you know. I saw you with Hope," she says jokingly. I sigh. I'm feeling uncharacteristically irritable today I mused in my head. "Yeah. I'm going to watch him play tonight. You're going right?" She laughs at my stupid question. Oh yeah. She's dating Snow.
"You know it. But what's wrong with you today Vanille. You seemed out of it today."
I close my locker and shrug. So maybe Hope isn't the only one who could tell how I'm really feeling but then again Serah Farron IS my best friend. "I'm just having one of those days you know?" I turn and start to walk towards the glass double doors that leads outside of our school. She follows next to me. "I hate it when you have these days. You're not like yourself Vanille." I tighten my grip on my bag even more.
"You wouldn't understand," I say to her sadly.
"Try me," she challenges. I groan and she giggles. I definitely don't feel like myself. As we walked to her sister's car she continues to try and drag out what's been bugging me today. I tried my hardest to not punch the girl. I love her like my sister but today definitely is not the day to joke around with me like that. She finally relents as we near Lightning's silver mustang and sighs.
"You win this round Vanille. I'm only stopping because I need your help advice on what I should do with Snow." I look at her questioningly. "What's wrong?" She blushes and stops in her tracks.
"I think it's time to take our relationship one step further." Her face started to match the color of her strawberry blonde hair. Suddenly my face starts to heat up as well as I start to realize what she meant. I couldn't help but giggle. "Serah, I don't know how I could help you with that. I never dated anyone, let alone kissed anyone!" She shushes me frantically. I couldn't help but laugh. She looks behind her and I follow her gaze. Her sister's already waiting for us.
"I need you to cover for me tonight."
"Whoa. What? How?"
"Please Vanille???"
She grabs onto my hands and gives me her famous Farron puppy eyes. I sighed. "Fine. But if you get busted don't blame any of this on me or anything. I'm pretty sure Lightning sees me as another little sister but I don't want to have to find out whether I am or not." She shouts happily and hugs me. She puts her arm over my shoulder and mimicked the notion. We start to talk about tonight and things suddenly start to feel the same. It's not a bad thing since it brings me out of my stump that I was all day but it's not a good thing since it's, well, the same.
"Serah, Vanille, hurry up. I have to go to work soon," Lighting calls out to us annoyed. We both laughed and pick up our pace. Before I know it, we're both giggling and racing to Lighting's car.
"Ha ha! Made it first," Serah says flashing the victory sign everywhere. I stick my tongue out at her. "Whatever. I let you win this time." She sticks hers out and we both laugh. Lightning just sighs and ruffles our hair. "Why me," she mutters. Serah pokes her on the side and she lets out a high-pitched yelped. I started to laugh uncontrollably while Serah grins. Just as her name suggests, she moves like lighting and starts to chase Serah around her car. Serah just laughs while Lightning chases her. I couldn't help but smile. It's cute. But that lonely feeling is starting to come back...I wish I had someone I was close to, someone I could let into my heart, someone I could share my heart with, I think to myself. I stare at the little staff keychain on my phone and smile. For some odd reason it always makes me feel better, even if a little, no matter what. I don't really remember how I got it but all I know is that it makes me feel better when I'm down.
Lightning starts to slow down and comes to a stop. I guess Serah didn't notice since she bumped into her back. I laughed. There was a curious look on Lightning's face and I turn to see what she's looking at. At that moment, my heart started to pound.
What is this feeling?
A tall brunette walked towards us: beautiful and athletic. Her tight black sleeveless shirt showed off her well-toned arms and the lines of her well-defined stomach. The peculiar tattoo on her left arm opened many questions in my mind. Her forest green cargo pants hugged her hips snugly, showing off her curves perfectly. The white belt didn't even matter but it just made her whole look cooler and easier to notice. As she got closer I noticed a small lance shaped pendent hanging from her neck. My eyes widened. Why does that look so familiar? The mysterious brunette woman grins at me and I suddenly feel my face heat up and my heart beat increasing. What's going on? I start to feel nervous as I realize she's staring at me straight in the eye.
"Vanille?" I barely hear Serah call out from behind.
The brunette stood a few feet in front of me with her grin still intact. I swallow hard.
"What do you want?" Lightning asks this mysterious brunette defensively. Her deep cerulean eyes never leaving mine. Her grin turned into a confident smile. No. More like a little smirk actually.
"Vanille Dia," her husky voice says. My face gets hotter. Words won't come out of my mouth for some reason so I nod instead. "Twelve years go by and you can't even say hey to me?" she asks with a hint of disappointment. I look at her confused.
"Who are you?" I finally managed to say.
Her little smirk suddenly disappears and her face looks sad for a moment. My heart suddenly aches at the sight…why am I reacting this way? She looks at me somewhat surprised but recovers quickly but not fast enough for me to catch it.
"Fang Yun," she says. Fang Yun, I repeat in my head. Her lips form a genuine smile, the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, and at that moment I knew that I found what I was missing.