interlude


"Vera is acting so weird," Lillian confesses as her furry snow boots sink into the frozen deluge still falling over the Viridity campus. "She dropped out of all of her music classes and switched her major to athletics over break - for no reason at all, as far as I can tell. She's been partying and staying out all night, too. And that's weird, isn't it?"

He glances at his best friend from the corner of his eye. "That's weird," he agrees. Because Vera O'Brien isn't what anyone would call an athlete and the last Anthony checked, she hated sweating just as much as Lillian does. The partying, on the other hand, doesn't seem so out of character, but then he guesses that Lillian's real issue with that bit is that Vera is leaving her behind, or something. And that is unusual, because Vera O'Brien and Lillian Hale epitomized attached at the hip even on their worst days. It's been that way since they were all in grade school.

"God, did she go and get a lobotomy or what?"

"Those are illegal," he points out drolly.

Lillian arches a perfect ice-blonde brow. "But are they really?"

He scoffs and then -

A whiff of citrus-tang ensnares his senses. A scent he would know anywhere for its underlying notes of honey and electric-spark and something deep and dark, like chocolate and coffee.

Ella.

He is immediately distracted, stopping in his tracks while Lillian walks on.

Anthony catches a glimpse of her across the triangular courtyards at the university - talking to his sibling's annoying friend, Pete or something - and something unclenches in his chest. He sighs in relief at finding none of the tell-tale signs of her suffering - no shadowy bruises from sleepless nights, none of the tightness pulling at her mouth and shoulders, and decidedly sober. She looks leagues better than the last time he saw her, laid boneless and delirious over a bench, giggling one moment and cursing him the next.

(He had known it was coming - she'd told him before she left - but he didn't anticipate it would be so difficult for him to watch. Understanding that by her own decision that she needed this span of weeks.

"It's like, pain makes you feel alive."

"Ella, that's…" Cynical. Morbid. Fucked up.

"Yeah, I know. But it is what it is. Maybe a better way of putting it is that pain reminds you that you're alive - because if you're hurting, you're still breathing, right? I mean, physical pain is your body telling you that something is wrong; emotional pain is the same way. To suffer is to be human. And…especially those like us need those reminders, sometimes."

Anthony thinks he gets it, now, after watching her suffering.

Doesn't mean he has to like it.)

(She's still not the same girl. Not yet. But close.)

"Tony?"

Anthony forces his eyes away, then clears his throat at Lillian's expectant expression. "Yeah, sorry."

"What was that? You just zoned out," she says and there's genuine concern as she stares at him. Enough that he feels like a jackass for making her worry when she's already quietly fretting - in her own way - about Vera.

Anthony ducks his head. "Nothing. Just thought I forgot something in my dorm. Let's go."

(The citrus-electric-coffee scent still lingers, though, and the wolf inside rests easier for the moment.)


A/N: The final interlude for this arc. Onward to Part 5.

As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~cupcakeriot