Of course Hope was lying when she said that "it was only a movie date and nothing more" (she didn't know it was a lie at the time, but it was). She hadn't expect to have so much fun around Vikram (not to mention he was a great study partner). They went out on dates weekly, sometimes inviting Isabel, and eventually just decided to make it official.
"So," Isabel's voice was monotone, "officially boyfriend-girlfriend now, huh?"
Hope nodded.
She sighed, "I guess you can have his hair then."
Hope giggled. "And don't worry, you can have a try at him when he breaks up with me."
"More like I'll kick his ass if he breaks up with you." Isabel looked over at her friend from her homework, "What's with the pessimistic 'when' he breaks up with you?"
"His parents are setting up an arranged marriage, remember?" Hope mumbled sadly.
"I meant what if you break up with him."
"Oh god," Hope gushed, "I am never breaking up with him!" She began to laugh. "He's really nice…."
"I'm sure." Isabel mumbled.
"Oh, Isabel!" Hope went over and hugged her friend. "I'm sorry! I know you like him too…."
Isabel laughed as she hugged Hope with one arm, "It's all right. Early bird catches the worm."
Hope's alarm rang. "Oh, gotta go! See you later!" She grabbed a jacket and fled out of the door.
"But the worm who sleeps in gets to live." Isabel grumbled through clenched teeth.
minorline:D
Isabel made sure it was impossible for Hope to figure out her plan. She double checked, triple checked, and even quadruple checked everything. If she had a single doubt in her mind that something may not work, she scrapped it and moved on to a more stable plan. She couldn't risk a single thing to go wrong.
Around eleven o'clock at night, the door opened. Isabel, not in a rush to avoid suspicion, hid all of her plans in an envelope.
"You still have homework?" Hope asked as she closed the door.
Isabel sighed. "Yep. So," she swiveled her body on her chair so that she was facing Hope, "how'd the date go?"
Isabel watched, almost sickened, as Hope described her date with Vikram. How perfectly it'd gone, how magnificent the food was, and how kind Vikram was.
Normally Isabel wouldn't befriend someone like Hope (normally she wouldn't befriend anyone), but this was the daughter of Grace Cahill. Almost a direct source! She'd done everything she could to bribe and hack the system and get Hope as a roommate! Oh Mum and Dad were going to be so proud….
Eventually both girls decided it was near time for bed, and prepared for it.
"Night, Isabel."
"Good night, Hope."
Isabel seemed to get increasingly monotonous as time went by, Hope noticed. She and Vikram had been dating an official 3 months, and Isabel seemed to get bitterer as the days past. Some times Hope heard Isabel mumbling in her sleep about "the perfect plan." She began to worry about her friend, and she finally decided (grudgingly) what to do to cure her ill companion.
"We can still be friends…?" Hope mumbled after dropping the bomb. They were sitting on a park bench - in the dead of January winter - facing off into the common grounds, avoiding the other's gaze.
"I get it," Vikram replied, "you're still in that stage of life where friends are more important than boyfriends, lovers, and the like."
Hope nodded.
Vikram nodded as if it were still sinking in. "I understand. I was actually going to have to break up with you within the next week anyway."
Hope jerked her head, nearly giving herself whiplash in the process, in Vikram's direction. "What? Why?"
"Gotta go back to England." He shrugged. "Meeting my potential spouses." He stuck his tongue out. "No fun, I don't want to go." He sighed, "But I've got to."
Hope frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that."
Vikram nodded. "So am I." He scratched the back of his head. "I had much fun with you and Isabel, if that counts for something."
Hope smiled and nudge him with her shoulder. "Yeah… We had some kick-ass times."
liiiiiine
"You-You…" Isabel stared blank-eyed at Hope. "You broke up with him?"
Hope nodded her head. "Right now I'm more interested in friends than boyfriends."
Isabel - cold, ruthless Isabel - hopped up from her bed and hugged her best friend. "That was so…so…nice."
"I'm a nice person," Hope explained.
I'm not … Isabel thought with regret.
minorline:D
Isabel got up around midnight, grabbed her master plan, and headed out the door. She needed to dispose it somewhere where Hope wouldn't have any chance of stumbling upon it.
"Hey."
Isabel, by instinct, reached for the knife concealed inside her jacket, but whoever called her attention was ready for such an instinct.
"It's me," Isabel recognized the whispered voice immediately, "Vikram."
"What are you doing out here?" Isabel growled.
"I could ask the same of you!" He answered in an equally frightening growl.
"Let go of my arm!" He did so, Isabel turned around to face him. "What do you want?"
Vikram casually eyed the folder in Isabel's hand. "Is that your master plan to break me and Hope up?"
Isabel was speechless. "No…no…no no. Why would I want you two to…."
"You only befriended her because she's Grace Cahill's daughter, correct?" Vikram raised an eyebrow as he spoke his rhetorical question (rhetorical because he already knew the answer, and he knew Isabel knew he knew).
"How did you know?"
He smirked. "Great minds think alike."
"So," Isabel regained a strong posture, "you only dated her because she's Grace Cahill's daughter?"
"No, I befriended her for that reason, I dated her because I found her…intriguing." His smirk grew into a crooked grin.
"That's sick. What is she, a tool?"
"That's what you seem to think." And with that ever happy note, Vikram turned on his heel and walked away, leaving a sick feeling in Isabel's gut. He stopped suddenly. "Just as a confirmation, I'm Lucian. You?"
"Lucian, naturally."
Vikram nodded and walked off.
Hope was off getting disgusting airport food, leaving Vikram and Isabel together.
"So," Isabel started off once Hope was out of hearing range, "exactly how much of what you told us is a lie?"
Vikram shrugged, "Most of it's partially true, some of it's stretched truth. Like the arranged marriage part."
"Do I even know you?"
Vikram chuckled. "I'm expected to get married to a woman of high social and Lucian status." He turned to Isabel. "Which reminds me: Next time you're in London, try and find me?"
Before Isabel could think of a reply, Hope came back with sodas. "All I could find that wouldn't upset your stomach." She explained.
Vikram grabbed his gratefully, "Thanks anyway, I suppose I'll just have something on the flight."
minorline:D
Hope sighed.
"What's wrong?" Isabel, facing the road as she was the one driving, said with actual concern in her voice.
"I dunno. I feel like we're going to see him again." Hope began picking at her nails.
"Probably," Isabel thought of how he told her to "try and find him." Was that a hint at something?
"Fate works in mysterious ways… I feel like I didn't even really know him to be honest."
You have no idea. "We only knew him - for what? A year? Let's see, we were half way through freshmen year, and now we're at the end of sophomore year. So yeah, a little over a year. Not long."
"I guess…."
But they stayed in touch. They sent letters back and forth, Vikram to Hope, Vikram to Isabel, and vise versa in both cases. Sometimes he would send some coded message to Isabel, she made sure Hope never saw or knew about those messages. It would be embarrassing and punishable if Hope were to learn of certain Lucian secrets. Vikram, Isabel read once, was able to pull some strings and get Isabel into his college back in the UK.
I don't want you to react just yet, the letter read, they'll be sending you a letter. React then.
"Noooooo, now I'll be alone!" was Hope's reaction to the news. "I mean, I'm happy for you, but I'm alooooone."
Alone-ness didn't stop Hope from taking Isabel out to a congratulatory dinner, though. It was one of those semi-fancy restaurants that Isabel didn't particularly hate, and Hope could afford. Double bonus.
"So," Isabel said in the middle of dinner. "If you had two kids, a boy and a girl, what would you name them?"
"Well," Hope made a thinking face, the kind of thinking face that made people wonder about you. "It depends on the father, really, but I've always like Amelia or Amy for a girl. What about you?"
"Natalie's been a favorite since I could remember, Nicholas as well. I don't honestly care what the father thinks; I birthed them, I'm naming them."
Hope chuckled at the philosophy. "What's with the sudden name conversation? Are you," she gasped, "pregnant?"
Isabel looked at Hope in a way that you could instantly know that Isabel wished to throw her fork at Hope.
"But," Hope said, still giggling, "I've always, always, always - since I was a little girl - loved the name Ian." She shrugged. "I don't know why, I just do."
Isabel knit her eyebrows. "Ian?"
"It means 'God is Gracious'." She silently waited for an answer. She didn't get one. "Have I swayed you?" Hope asked with a smirk.
"Thank you, I no longer know what to name my son."
The two threw around more baby names, up to the point where they would be able to make a baby names book - maybe even a series.
"But," Hope said as they walked out of the restaurant. "There are four names I will never name any of my children.
"And they are?" Isabel asked as she stepped into her car.
"Luke, Thomas, Katherine, and Jane." Hope began to back out of the parking spot.
"Excuse me?" Isabel mumbled in shock.
"I've never liked those names." Hope explained. "Bad story behind them, but you already know that story, because you're a Lucian."
Isabel, shocked, stared at her friend.
"Yeah, I know. I've known for a long time. Don't look at me like that, you honestly didn't expect me to be a Cahill? Do you not know my last name?
"I know… You're just too sweet to be involved in something like the Hunt."
"Yeah," Hope sighed, "you too."
"I'm gonna miss you! Write, OK?" Hope let go of her friend and dabbed at her eyes.
Isabel nodded. "Of course I'll write, I'm more worried about you writing back."
Hope made a "pfffft" noise. "I always write back, though it may take a few months…."
Isabel started lecturing Hope about how important it was to not procrastinate and to write back almost immediately after she finished reading a letter. Hope, who wasn't exactly paying attention, just nodded and "mhm"-ed when she felt it necessary. Isabel finally realized and started to talk about the first subject on her mind - how ugly red hair is (Isabel didn't believe this at all, but she wanted to see Hope's reaction.)
"…and it's just so tacky."
"I totally agree." Hope mumbled.
It took about a year until Hope finally got Isabel to tell her why she was laughing so hard.
An announcement over the intercom said that Isabel's flight was getting ready to board. The girls shared one last good-bye hug before Isabel had to leave.
Hope didn't think of herself as a sappy girl, the kind of girl that would have a life like one of those weird romance movies. Hope was an adventurous girl, the daughter of Grace Cahill! Adventure and risk were practically in her blood! She didn't have a problem at all with this, she wasn't scared of travel or anything, but she did have secret wishes.
It was times like these, friends moving away, that triggered those secret wishes. A wish to be removed from the Cahill family (Hope even considered not having children, so that they wouldn't have to go through with the "family job"), a wish that her mother had not gotten her involved in the hunt, a wish - sometimes - that she had never been born.
There were, however, a few things that happened during the Hunt that made Hope proud to be a Cahill. One of which was imbedded in her wrist (but don't tell anyone that).
Years from now, when a blazing red painted her face, Hope would make another wish.
That she had never met Isabel Vesper-Hollingsworth, and that they were never friends.
Unfortunately, as Hope was only twenty, she would likely never fathom herself making such a wish. Sure Isabel was Lucian, but not all Lucians are bad. Luke himself wasn't as bad as he is portrayed today, in no way did he start the fire that burned down the Cahill Mansion. Sadly, he was blamed for it.
Just an example of how twisted this family has become. Hope reminded herself constantly. She found herself thinking the reminder so often as to justify what she was doing. Though not usually "bad" they were not always the most morally correct actions.
Isabel and Vikram probably do worse. Would this be considered wrong? Thinking badly of her friends without them knowing? No, Hope told herself, they probably do it themselves with me.
She sighed and leaned her head against the wheel of her car for a moment before driving off home.
If this fic seems a bit rushed, that's on purpose. I'm not planning for this to be any more than ten chapters (which, in itself, is probably far over what the actual amount of chapters will be.) So I'm only illustrating the main parts of the story between them. It'll most likely end with the fire.
The first segment of the next part will probably be major time skip, where Hope is around 30 and has to go to Turkey for something (and you know what that means~ 3) If not the first segment, then one of them will be.
Next update will be, for sure this time, sometime in December.
