Thank you :') and pttsh, I could never stop, the ending of this one should be good. Though, I do feel pretty sorry for Vera in this chapter.
Enjoy and review?
Stupid
Vera felt nervous again walking into the crowded room, but it was okay. Everyone was busy talking, or dancing so no one turned around to stare. She pushed any doubts about Trucy's sincerity to the back of her mind. She'd never been to a party before, it was pretty exciting.
They pushed their way through to the table at the back that Apollo and Phoenix had sat down at. She could see they were in deep conversation and a man with long blonde hair in a striped purple shirt was standing by them.
The man looked awfully like Klavier.
"Come on, let's go over, Vera." Trucy said, tugging at her arm as she'd stopped.
Suddenly feeling incredibly weird and as though someone had released butterfly's into her stomach she shook her head. "Oh God, I can't Trucy, what if he thinks I look weird. What if he guesses how I feel and never speaks to me again or-"
Rolling her eyes she continues to tug, now steering her along with her arm. "Relax, will you? You look amazing! He'd not going to guess either. He's not a mind reader!"
They'd reached the table now.
"Hi Daddy!" Trucy said, happily, sitting down next to him. Apollo and Klavier turned around to greet them. "Vera's worried she looks weird, but she looks lovely doesn't she?" Feeling that familiar feeling of the blood rushing to her cheeks she shook her head.
"Of course, she does." he replied in answer to Trucy's question and then turning to Trucy. "You're just nervous because you've never been dressed up in such grown-up clothing."
Apollo gave her an encouraging smile, but Vera hated this. Being the centre of attention and having everyone tell her she looked nice. It was weird. She was so used to being ignored and looked past that being asked out and told she looked beautiful (by three different people) all in one day was much more attention than she'd ever desired.
"I don't think Vera's comfortable with us all staring at her," Apollo said, finally. He was right. All eyes were on her- even Klavier's, but he looked awkward, as though he wasn't sure what to do with himself.
"-But she does look great, right Apollo, right Klavier?" Trucy chimed in again making Vera wish the ground would open up and swallow her.
"Yeah," Apollo said, nodding and picking up his drink. Klavier hadn't said anything, he was still looking at her though.
"Klavier?" Trucy prompted her, subtlety clearly not being her strong point.
"Wha? Oh er, yes. She looks . . .she looks really nice." he was staring at the floor. It hadn't been the most convincing compliment and suddenly Vera felt like someone had punched her in the chest. I must look ridiculous. She thought sadly, to herself. I was so stupid to get dressed up like this. Maybe I was trying to be something I'm not to impress him. She slowly slunk into a chair on the opposite side of the table, Trucy joined her.
"Cheer up, Vera. He did mean it. I think he's distracted though. He's got problems as well, you know? Maybe that's why he hasn't visited this week?"
She was right. He hadn't visited in a week and now this. Wanting to cry more than anything she looked away, swallowing back tears.
"L-let's get a drink, shall we?" she said, shakily, wanting to change the subject and cheer her up.
Vera nodded and attempted a smile.
"That's the spirit." Trucy said. They stood up but stopped when Mr. Wright spoke to them.
"Girls, where're you going?" he asked, suspiciously.
Trucy smiled, cheekily. "To get a drink."
"Fine," but his eyebrows were raised, ",but no alcohol, right? You're far, far too young. Not you Vera. Obviously, I can't tell you what to do. All the same, I wouldn't recommend it." he added, sheepishly.
Trucy rolled her eyes in return. "Fine, we weren't planning on drinking any anyway!" though she didn't sound altogether convincing, "Ah well, we'll still have a good time, right Vera?"
She'd been staring at the back of Klavier's head while he'd been speaking, but she nodded absent-mindedly, all the same.
And Trucy was right. They did have a good time. They got drinks from the bar and then headed off to the dance floor. Vera wasn't exactly sure how to dance so she just copied Trucy and when Apollo and Phoenix joined it it was fun. She avoided Klavier, which wasn't exactly hard since he didn't tend to linger for long whenever she was around. It repeatedly made her feel sad and confused. What had she done wrong that had made him want to speak to her so little.
Around eleven Apollo, Trucy and Vera sat back down at the table they'd sat at near the beginning, leaving Mr. Wright deep in conversation with Ema Skye. All she'd heard were the words sports-car and Edgeworth before they'd fallen out of earshot.
"Hey guys," she piped up, "I kinda need to toilet so I see you in a minute, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah." they said, almost in union. It was weird; they were actually quite similar in some ways. They were always arguing but you could tell they liked each other's company really.
Heading to the bathroom she passed Klavier who nodded at her. She nodded back and tried to find solace in the fact he hadn't completely ignored her. "How're you doing Vera?" he said, at the last minute when she'd felt sure a nod was all she was going to get.
"Um, I'm okay. It's uh, a good party." she said, feeling typically, unable to think of a lot to say. Sometimes she hated being so shy.
He nodded, "Yeah, it's pretty good. Music's not brilliant though- in fact, the music's quite awful."
"Well, I don't really know much about music. I mean, I listen to the radio a bit but I can't really judge what's bad or good, to be honest. I liked some of the your band's old songs though." she added, truthfully. She'd asked to borrow the CD off Trucy a week ago and knew all the words to half of the songs now.
He laughed, "Well then, you can judge what's bad and good. You clearly have brilliant taste in music." She had a feeling he was joking though.
"I think you were a good band, my favourite song was "shrinking violet" it's so beautiful."
He looked a little embarrassed. "It's funny. I used to live for compliments like that but now I know the truth about Daryan . . . it kind of feels like the band was a bit of a fraud. I mean, one of our songs was was basically about being there for your friends, and very ironically might I add, about not betraying them."
She shuffled on the spot. "I'm sure your friend didn't want to do what he did. I doubt that would help much though."
Klavier snorted, "The idiot did it for money. And I'm still pretty damn angry about it. Still, like I said to you ages ago- I've forgiven him effectively."
It felt normal between them, relaxed almost. There was none of the awkwardness there had been earlier by the table but realising she'd already been gone quite a while.
"I'm sorry . . . and I'm sure he is too. I have to get going now though, I told Apollo and Trucy I was just going to the toilet."
He nodded, for a second she thought she even detected a little disappointment, but shook the idea off, putting it down to wishful thinking. "Oh, of course. Sorry, I didn't realise. I'll see you later, maybe."
"Bye." she said, heading to the toilet, in a considerably better mood than before. He did hate her. He wasn't annoyed with her and the awkwardness that had appeared for apparently no reason seemed to have gone.
Almost skipping back to Apollo and Trucy she stopped a few metres away from them as she heard her name in their conversation.
"I know, it's just- I'm worried she'll get hurt." Trucy said, biting her lip and looking concerned.
"I know he's a bit vein, but he's not a bad guy really. He's been a lot less smug since the trial, I must say." Apollo replied.
Trucy still looked unconvinced. "It's not that I think he's a bad guy; I just mean, what if she tells him how she feels and he rejects her-"
Apollo raised his eyebrows, "How do you know he would?"
"I don't," she said, ",but she'd not exactly his type, is she? I mean, he dates supermodels-"
Vera knew exactly what they were talking about. And she couldn't help but agree with Trucy. Once again, that familiar feeling of having being punched in the chest hit her. Her eyes found Klavier, he was standing with with a male detective and two girls, both staring at Klavier with dreamy expressions. She could have hit herself.
How could she have been so stupid? Klavier could have any girl in the room, they were all besotted with him and why wouldn't they be. He was certainly charming and she felt like a complete idiot for feeling like this about him. How could she be so stupid as to get a crush on someone so incredibly out of her league? The fact that Trucy had acknowledged this made her feel all the worse. Now Apollo knew and that was one more person who knew that Vera had been foolish enough to believe that they lived in a world where a shy, socially awkward girl like her could ever be with a man like Klavier Gavin.
