"Everything alright over here?"
The two sisters released their arms from the embrace to look for the source of the deep voice. With her back turned to where the voice came from, she looked straight into her sisters face. She looked stunned. Elsa turned around to see who it was.
It was Kristoff. Even though his muscles where even bigger close by, and his smile probably could wet some panties just with a quick show of white teeth, it wasn't him who almost knocked the air out of her lungs. It was the redhead behind him. Ariel.
Fidgeting with a lock of hair, the redhead pushed herself further behind Kristoff with a nervous smile.
Oh god, she's adorable!
Elsa shook herself out of her little blackout, before lifting herself and Anna up from the sand. She shot Ariel a shy smile before shifting her eyes towards Kristoff.
"Y-yeah we're fine" she giggled. "You've been lifting some cars or something, Krist?"
The big meatloaf laughed. "I joined the football team, I gotta get myself some muscles, you know!"
Elsa nodded understandingly, shooting Ariel a short smile. The redhead looked down at her feet, smiling shyly herself.
"Listen, the whole 'prom' thing last month..." Kristoff looked Elsa straight in the eyes. " you think we could lay that behind us and start acting like friends again?"
Elsa raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, I just read the signals wrong I guess." Kristoff lifted his shoulders up and down real fast as an apologetic gesture.
"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, Elsa's gay now!"
Elsa's eyes shut wide. Goddamnit Anna!
She looked back at her sister, who just laughed at her sisters expression.
"Come on sis, if you ever wanna get some, people gotta know first!" Anna gave Elsa a playful push. "All the girls are gonna jump your pale ass now."
Elsa could hear Kristoffs deep voice let out an even deeper laughter. She turned around to look at what now seemed to be a muscular blond football player, and a tomato. Realizing it was Ariel's blushing cheeks, she felt hers warm up herself.
Kristoff laughed: "well, glad we got that out of the way." He turned serious, and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Friends again?"
"Friends again."
They both smiled, then Kristoff embraced her in a backbreaking hug.
"Alright, since we're friends again. I'm hosting a party later this evening, the whole school will pretty much be there. And I want my best friend to be my special guest."
He smiled at Anna. "And Anna's more than welcome as well, of course."
Alright Anna, just... Breath. Don't start rambling, or say something stupid. Just say thank you, and say you'd love to come.
"Thank you so much, Kristoff. I'd love to come!" That's what i'm talking about, Anna!
Kristoffs looked like he was about to break his face from smiling. "Awesome! The party starts at seven. Hans will be DJ, and you two don't have to think about alcohol, I got you. All you two have to do is join in, and look hella good. But that won't be taught to pull off!"
Anna who wasn't used to Kristoffs compliments, blushed. Elsa didn't change her expression, but his compliments did feel good.
Elsa felt a warmth in her chest, seeing her sister like this. It was very rare that Anna spoke to people from Elsa's year. Or with anyone who was not Elsa.
"Well, seeya tonight!" Kristoff waved, before walking towards the volleyball game, which was still going on in the background. Ariel send Elsa yet another shy smile, before she turned around and ran after Kristoff.
Elsa felt Anna place her hands around her belly. "Seems like you already got yourself a little flirt there, Sis"
Elsa giggled. Seems like it.
"H-how are the pills working, Hun?"
Anna just kept staring into her half eaten chocolate cereal.
Oh you mean the damn 'zombie pills'? Totally working. Would probably be real nice, if they didn't make me feel even worse than I did before, whenever the effects run out..
"Working fine."
Her mother gave her a sad smile. "You only got two days left of them. The doctor and I just wanna make sure you don't end up..." Her mothers word faded into a mumble Anna couldn't hear.
What, cutting myself? End up with a rope around my neck in the closet?
Well, she had three hours of clearheadedness before it was back to zombie Anna. Her heart began pounding. It had begun doing so randomly after Elsa's incident. It hurt a lot, but she didn't wanted to give her mother yet another reason to give her more pills. It was probably just the stress anyways.
At least her whistling has quiet down. Thank god.
She excused herself and grabbed her crunches. She left the kitchen and moved into the livingroom, where she sat down on the big couch she called her bed. She would like to go to her bedroom, but for an unknown reason, she felt a huge knuckle in her check whenever she got near the stairs to the second floor. A brief glimt of her sister passed her eyes as she thought about it, making her dizzy. She shook her head to remove the picture of the beautiful slim blond from her view. It was hard though.
Her mother had opened up a window to let some fresh air in. It felt good, even though her broken foot was cold. She couldn't wear socks.
Her phone buzzed, making the small TV-table vibrate. She hadn't had a text in a week. Not that it was unusual, she had just as many friends as she had before the incident.
'you think you and I could... Talk or something? I wanna make sure you're okay.
-Kristoff.'
Anna stared at her broken iPhone screen, stunned. She didn't expect this from Kristoff. Sure, he was one of the only people who talked to Anna at the party, but he had too right? He invited her. But he actually seemed like a nice guy, and it had not felt like he invited her because he felt like he had too, but more like if he actually wanted her to come. Maybe she did have a friend? Or something that might end up as a friend at some point.
She re-read the message a few times.
'I wanna make sure your okay'
Maybe he actually did care if she was okay or not...?
She pressed the screen a few times, and began typing an answer.
'Meet me at the new coffee place in an hour, need a shower.'
She looked into the wall above the fireplace for a few seconds, thinking.
Then she added: 'Thanks Kristoff.'
she send the message, and coded Kristoff's number into her phone, before lifting herself from the couch.
"Mom, you think you could fetch me some clothes?" She thought about it. "Some sweatpants would be nice"
At least the toilet was downstairs.
The small coffee café had an old '60's American' look. Apparently European people liked this kind of stuff. Anna had to admit she did find the place rather relaxing herself.
Kristoff had been standing in front of the café door, and he waved at Anna when she arrived. He had a smile on his face, but his eyes were exhausted. His clothes were all matching, but the his shirt was messed up and had clearly not been ironed in some time, and his pants had mudstains at the lower part above his shoes. He looked like a student, who had finally gone down with the stress of his own expectations. It was nothing close to Anna though.
They found a table as far from the other 4 customers in the café as possible. It didn't take long for their coffee to come, and Anna quickly began sipping, wanting the coffein's sweet wonders to work as soon as possible.
"You look...good?" Kristoff's complimentary outburst sounded more like a question than a compliment.
Anna made a 'pfft' sound. "I look like shit."
Kristoff looked like he wanted to protest, but on the looks of his eyes, he agreed.
"Listen, I...I'm sorry if this feels inappropriate or something. I just couldn't stand being at home any longer. My mother treats me like I'm a kid who got his first knee scratch, asking how I'm feeling all the time. She talks to me like I'm a psycho, who might crack and just start taking swings.. and.." He drove his hands through his blond hair. "I-I just needed to talk to someone, who gets me. Who knows how I feel... And, I've been worried about you."
Anna looked up, still sipping from her coffee. "Worried?"
"I see you as a friend. And I care about my friends."
Anna smiled for the first time in a week.
"Listen... Elsa... she's gone Anna. I'm not sure if you've accepted that fact, but by the looks... You've felt just as shit as I have about it. "
He noticed Anna's sad expression turn even more sad. She even stopped sipping from her mug.
Kristoff hurried to explain himself further: "I'm not saying that we should just forget her. We shouldn't. Elsa was perfect in any way, and I will never forget her, and I know you won't yourself. But Elsa wouldn't wanna see us like this. If she was here right now, she would call us both a pair of sad shits. Let's just...try, you know?" He looked her straight in the eyes. "For Elsa. And ourselves."
"I-I'm n-not su-re I can do t-hat"
Anna felt her heartbeat raising fast. She wanted to help Kristoff, and herself. But... Fuck! They were talking about Elsa here, she couldn't just...
I can't.
A loud shattering noise broke the silence, and her tears started flowing, large sobs making her bounce up and down in her seat.
"Jesus Christ, Anna!" She heard the fear in Kristoff's voice. It sounded like he was yelling at her from a great distance, due to the ringing in her ears. She looked down at her hand, which was supposed to be holding the mug. What she was holding now was a handful of broken porcelain. Blood was rapidly flowing from the inside of her palm, dripping from the end of her pinky.
She saw Kristoff disappear towards the counter in a hurry to get some napkins for her hand. Anna studied the dripping blood and the pieces of broken porcelain inside her palm. her sobbing continued as she did so.
I'll never get through this...