Author's Note:

I do a particularly good job of disappearing without notice and getting inspiration randomly.

Sweet Pea

a My Candy Love (© ChinoMiko) fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Five
dealing with the devil

Opening Song: "Honey Come Home" - the Head and the Heart

do you remember every block

every minute of every walk we used to take

we were young, so many years ago

and I think of all this time

that we've wasted with all our fighting

I am the farthest thing from anti-social, and meeting new people and making new friends has never really been something I've struggled with. There's something about this situation, though — me, the girls sans Rosalya, and Deborah — that makes me really uncomfortable. Maybe it's because I don't know Deborah or maybe it's because we're in the middle of my (why me? I did not volunteer) living room or maybe it's because there's no snacks or anything and we're just sitting on the floor in a circle like I did back in kindergarten. I know and trust Kim, Melody, and Violette, but there's something about Deborah that just really… intimidates me? And I don't really know how to act around her?

This was all Violette's idea, to get together and welcome back Deborah and give me a chance to get to know the girl that everyone loves. Which, I mean, was a good idea in theory, but what kind of party only has four people (one of whom doesn't even know the person being welcomed back) and no snacks!?

"So, uh," I start, clearing my throat, "why don't I just run to the store and grab some twinkies or something—"

"Well, this is your house, Aome, you shouldn't leave," Melody says. "Why don't Kim and I go to the store and pick up something to eat?" Kim, who's been staring at the wall for the past five minutes, looks up in surprise at the mention of her name. "The dollar store is just right down the street, right?"

Oh God, oh God, just me, Violette, and Deborah? Not that having two other people here makes this any less awkward, but—

"Yup, I'm down," Kim says, jumping to her feet. I give her a look of horror, but she returns it with one that clearly says, 'This is survival of the fittest.' "You want some snowballs, right, Aome?"

If I'm going to suffer, I might as well suffer with copious amounts of sugar and artificial flavoring. "Yes, please," I say, hoping I don't sound as pathetic as I feel.

"We should be back soon," Melody says as she pulls on her jacket. "Do you want anything, Violette? Deborah?"

"Maybe just some fruit snacks or something," Violette says.

"Nope, I'm good," Deborah chirps. "I'll just have some water or something." Deborah has a super nice body; she probably doesn't ever snack or gorge herself on snowballs.

"Alright, see ya." Kim throws us a two finger salute, while Melody smiles, and two of them step out of the apartment.

I can actually feel myself drowning in the silence that follows. I know that Violette only had good intentions, because she's an angel and a sweetheart and incapable of ill will, but this was an awful idea. I tried inviting Rosalya and Alexy, but Rosa had to help Leigh out at the store and Alexy had "an obligation to expand Armin's closet." I thought about reaching out to the guys, but Castiel has been no where to be found and Nathaniel's been kinda brushing me off whenever I mention Deborah.

"Oh, um…" Violette pulls out her ringing cell phone and reluctantly pulls herself to her feet. "My dad is calling… Do you mind if I use your room, or…?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" She smiles gratefully before scuttling down the hallway, answering her phone in a hushed whisper. I try to smile through it, too, because now it's just be and Deborah and I'm pretty sure I'm actually dying under the weight of the silence. "So, ah…" When I turn my attention to Deborah, I catch her staring right at me, without any reservation. It's like she's the kid at the zoo and I'm the mildly entertaining sleeping elephant. "H-how are you enjoying your time back here? Did you miss everyone?"

"Oh, yeah. It's weird, coming back here after being away for so long." Deborah stretches across the floor, extending her legs and arching her back as her bones pop appreciatively. "Nothing's changed, though. Everything in Sweet Amoris is just the same as I left it."

There's something kind of weird about the way she says it. I can't tell if she sounds nostalgic or indifferent or pleased; it's hard to read Deborah, which freaks me out. Maybe that's why I can't figure her out or why I'm not sure how I feel about her — I have no idea what her intentions are. I'm a people watcher and I can read people really well, but I can't get anything off of her. I'm trying to believe Violette's words and Melody's and everyone else's, but I just don't know.

"The school, the shops… Everyone around town," she goes on, "the teachers, the students, my old friends…" (Old friends?) "All the same. I guess that's the charm of Sweet Amoris, isn't it? You're new here, Aome. How do you like it? What's it like, coming to a small place like this after being all around the world?"

How does she know I've lived around the world? She doesn't strike me as the Facebook stalker type.

"I really like it," I say, and I mean it. Sweet Amoris isn't like Albuquerque or Munich or Tokyo or Paris or Washington, D. C., but it has its own charm. And maybe it's the small shops and the apartments all stacked on top of the other and the teachers and the students who never change, but it's become something I've never really had before: a home. "I like that everyone knows each other and kind of treats each other like family. It's different from everything else."

Deborah smiles, but it makes me feel a little uneasy. "Different, huh? That's how I felt once I finally got out of this place."

What does that mean? Before I can ask her or even really think about it, she says, "Well, I'm only gonna be here for about a week. I actually had to cancel a couple of concerts to come here, but the show must go on, right?"

"You canceled a couple of tour dates to come here?" I ask. "Why?"

"I guess…" She shrugs a little, staring out the window, before she falls onto her back and I can't see her face. "I guess I just miss it all too much. You just said yourself — everyone here treats you like family. It's hard leaving that kind of place behind."

"Gosh, sorry about that!" Violette says as she comes back, flustered. "I thought I told my parents that we were coming here after school, but it must have slipped my mind… Maybe I just told my mom."

"Are you in trouble?" I ask.

"No, no, he was a little upset, but…" She sighs as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, but ends up smiling. "It's alright. Mom talked to him, so everything's okay. He just gets worried about me if he doesn't hear from me, and I usually go straight home, so…"

I know Violette's parents are strict, and maybe it's because Aunt Lonnie is so lenient, but I can't help but feel bad for her. My dad was always pretty intense, but Mom usually got him to cave in, and he's never really monitored me the way Violette's parents do. (He's definitely tried, but it's especially hard now.) I get that all parents have different parenting styles, but… I don't know, Violette always seems stressed out when it comes to social stuff.

"Geez, your parents are still calling you all the time, huh?" Deborah asks, sitting up. "Remember when they'd call my mom whenever we were hanging out to make sure we weren't lying?"

Violette laughs quietly. "Mom isn't too worried anymore; it's just Dad. But they were always worried that you were sneaking me into concerts and we'd start drinking alcohol and smoking… They never believed me when I said we were just watching movies at your house. They never really question it whenever I come over here, though," she says, exchanging a smile with me. "Probably because they really trust Aunt Lonnie."

"And you hardly look like someone who would sneak into a concert and drink alcohol and smoke," Deborah says, winking. She says it as a compliment, but something tells me she doesn't mean it as a compliment.

Melody and Kim come back ten minutes later, carrying a couple bags full of sweets and juice pouches. I'm grateful for the diversion, because then I can at least distract myself with food, but I still can't get rid of the nagging voice in the back of my head.

Something isn't right about Deborah.

"You don't trust her," Rosalya says the next day, when we're at the bakery after my shift. "I can tell. I told you you were walking into a death trap."

I deadpan. "You didn't tell me anything."

"I did with my eyes!"

"Okay, anyway." She pouts, but I brush her off with a flick of my wrist. "It's not that I don't trust her. It's that… I don't know… I guess I can't figure her out. And that kinda freaks me out. You know me, I'm just super nosy and I like to know things…" I try to shrug it off, even though the feeling's been driving me crazy since the first day I met her. "I just don't know her. Maybe I should try to get to know her better."

"Didn't that happen yesterday?" Alexy asks. Before I can smack his creeping fingers away, he steals one of my ladyfingers and dips it in his hot chocolate. "Or wasn't it supposed to happen yesterday? And you ended up deciding that you can't trust her?"

"Oh my God, I never said I don't trust her," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Well, you shouldn't," Rosalya says. I wait for the laugh or the "just kidding" or the nudging, but none of them come. Rosalya looks dead serious, and for the first time I'm actually worried. "I didn't know her very well while she was here, but I haven't heard good things."

"Really?" Alexy asks. "All I've heard about her are good things."

Rosalya scoffs. "Because you're not talking to the right people. Listen, Aome, it's important to go with your gut feeling, and in the case of Deborah, your gut feeling hit the mark. Like I said, I didn't know her very well, so I can't say anything for sure, but you should talk to Lysander about it."

I haven't really been able to talk to Lysander or Nathaniel or any of the guys a lot recently. Like I said before, Nathaniel's been kind of distant and Castiel is… Castiel. But Lysander… He's usually a pretty good neutral party.

"Maybe you're right," I mutter.

She nods wisely. "Of course I'm right. Now, if you don't mind, I've been eyeballing those ladyfingers for a while, so I'll just help myself…"

It's a lot harder to track down Lysander than I thought it would be. Every time I try to catch him after class, he ends up slipping away, and he's nowhere to be found during lunch. "God Lys-Baby," I think, after day two comes to an end and I still have yet to talk to him, "where are you hiding?"

Just as I'm about to give up and head to the bakery, I catch a flash of silver and black out of the corner of my eye, towards the gardens. I spin around, afraid I'll lose it if I don't hurry, and end up — surprise, surprise — running right into someone else. Whoever it is is a little smaller than me (4' 11"? 4'3"? I don't know anything under 5' is tiny), so I make sure to reach out and steady them before they hit the ground. "Woah!" I yelp. "Sorry about that! Didn't see you coming…"

"Oh, it's okay," chirps the Really Small Girl with Silver Hair and Victorian Clothing. (Is this just a Sweet Amoris thing because before I moved here I literally saw one person in Victorian Clothing and it was for cosplay purposes.) She looks down on the ground, where lies a tragically fallen muffin. "Oh…"

"Oh, frick, I'm so sorry." I pop down to pick it up, dust off some dirt, and extend it to her with a cheeky grin. "Five second rule…?"

I mean it as a joke (mostly — I rarely joke about food), but she takes it and grins appreciatively. "Thank you."

"You're welcome…?" There's a flash of silver again, accompanied by red, and I know I have no time to lose. "Um, hold on, sorry about that, excuse me…" I quickly dismiss myself, muttering another apology, and chase after the wisps. "Lysander!" I shout, spotting him right by the greenhouse, facing me. "Lysander! … Cas?" He's talking to someone, whose back is to me, and I can tell that red hair from miles away. Something's different, though… A little off.

Lysander, whose brow is dipped in what I can only guess is concern, turns his eyes away from Castiel's and smiles; I can tell it's forced. "Ah, Aome," he says.

The flaming redhead turns around, the familiar teasing smirk on his lips. Right then, I know what it is that feels weird — his clothes. He's missing his black leather jacket and stupid red Winged Skull shirt, instead wearing a brown jacket and black shirt. It's all weirdly… plain. It's also then that I realize that I haven't really seen Castiel in the last couple of days. "Did Alexy take you shopping for a new wardrobe, too?" I ask. "Not that he'd ever pick out such a boring color, but…"

Castiel scoffs, reaching out to tousle my hair; I shriek, slapping his hand away before he can cause too much damage to the fishtail braid I worked so meticulously on this morning. "Is that really a way to greet someone, little girl? Don't be rude," he says.

"I'm the rude one," I mutter, adjusting my hair over one shoulder.

"Anyway, I'll see you around Lysander." I am extremely upset by the way my stomach drops in disappointment. "See ya, girly."

Hold on, I wanna say. I haven't seen you in forever. Or talked to you. Or kiss—

"Take care, Castiel," Lysander says, cutting through my thoughts. There's a tone of warning behind his words that I catch but don't really understand, and he probably notices, because he immediately throws on his award-winning Lysander smile. "Were you looking for me, Aome?"

"Uhm, yeah," I say, tearing my eyes away from Castiel's retreating back. "Yeah, I did, but… What were you and Castiel talking about? It looked like I was walking in on something important."

"No, I just…" He looks off, like he's not sure if he should tell me or not, which just makes me worry more. "I suppose I'm just a little concerned about him, is all," he says. "He's been skipping classes," (that would explain why I haven't seen him at all), "and… Well, perhaps I shouldn't be discussing this right now. Did you want to talk about something?"

Now that I'm actually standing in front of Lysander, about to say what I'm going to say, I feel totally ridiculous. Like, hey, what's up this Deborah girl freaks me out and I hear you have the divvy on her? Maybe I didn't really think this through.

"Um, never—"

"I know that look, Aome," Lysander cuts me off, smiling and also scolding at the same time. "You've a question for me, but you're starting to second guess yourself. You know how I feel about honesty."

I simper. "That it's the best policy?"

"Precisely," he says, chuckling. "You look very concerned about something. What can I help you with?" His eyes drift upwards, in the same direction that Castiel had headed off. "Does it have something to do with…"

"No, no, no, nooooo," I say, shaking my head too vigorously in protest. "No. This isn't about Castiel. Honest." Lysander doesn't believe me in the slightest, and for a second I have to wonder if him and Castiel have talked about us at all. No, no, no this is not why I'm here right now! "It's, um… Gosh, I feel kinda stupid, but… It's about Deborah."

Instantly, he presses his lips into a thin line. "Ah." Once again, I see him looking off in Castiel's direction. "Yes," he mumbles, and I can't help but feel that he's talking more to himself than to me, "her reappearance is a little… disturbing. I'm concerned."

"Why?" This is it — this is what Rosalya was talking about. Lysander is a good person and a good judge of character — I trust him. "Lysander, why? I, I… I've been having this weird feeling, and—"

"To be completely honest, I don't know her very well, on a personal level," he says.

My stomach drops. "Oh."

"Yes, however…" He folds his arms across his chest as he sighs. "I'm not sure if I should be telling you this, but I did just tell you that I value honesty above all else. Though I did not know her very well while she was here, and though this was before Castiel and I really became friends, what I do know is that when she left, she left Castiel heartbroken."

Heartbroken? So that means… That Castiel and Deborah… They…?

I can see it now, flashes of their old romance. The two of them, together. Were they happy? Deborah's such a beautiful girl, and Cas…

"Aome, please, I really don't think you need to be concerned," Lysander says, lowering his voice as he takes me by the shoulders. "I've heard that she's only going to be here for a couple more days."

"But you just said you were concerned," I say, biting down on my lower lip. No matter how much I try to quell the fear or the disappointment or the concern, the thoughts won't leave me alone. "You said you were worried. About Castiel. Lysander, I don't know what it is, but I don't trust her, and—"

"Aome? Is that you?"

I spin around, my heart in my throat and tears prickling at the back of my eyes (dammit I am so emotional right now), and come face to face with Deborah. Her gaze shifts from me to Lysander, before she tilts her head to the side, wearing a look of innocence and confusion. "Are you alright, Aome?" she asks, stepping towards me.

"Y-yeah. I, uh, just got back a bad test grade and…" I sniffle loudly, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my dress in embarrassment. "Uh, were you looking for me?"

"Yes, I just wanted to talk. Catch up and everything, since the other day." She comes over to me and easily slides her arm through mine, pulling me against her. She smiles, and I try my best to return it without making it look too forced. "Come, let's go on a walk. Have a little girl talk."

I try to shoot Lysander a look of distress, but she's already walked me out of the garden, back into the school.

I do not feel good about this.

Closing Song: "Out of the Woods" - Taylor Swift

Inspiration from the latest episode hit me so haaaaard. Also, there was a small cameo from Annitsu's Candy this chapter! Thanks for letting me use her! :)

Also, thank you to all who read and reviewed!