Chapter 21: Let's just breathe together…
Elena closes her eyes the moment she falls on her bed. She is so tired. All her fucking bones ache, not to mention her muscles as well as her fucking skin.
Why didn't anyone tell her that med school was going to be hell?
It has been two months since her admission and six since she was discharged from the hospital, and she thinks life has finally started to make sense.
She is turning to her side when the phone starts playing that irritating ringtone she absolutely abhors.
Bonnie! How does that girl get into her phone?
"I want to kill you," Elena grumbles when she picks up the call.
"You do know that you're threatening a minor, Elena? Did you shoot for the video? I need to have the footage to edit it!"
She is going to plead insanity after she kills Bonnie and calls the cops. What the fuck was she thinking when she decided to follow Bonnie's advice and open a YouTube channel of all things?
Now, she not only has to suffer those bastards at med school who think she got inside because her Daddy's rich and her scores don't fucking mean anything, but manage to shoot content for her vlogging channel.
"I am tired, Bons," She says as she stretches, bones of her back popping like villains from Korean slashers that she likes watching with Bonnie.
"Did those assholes give you grief today as well? Man, there isn't even a Rhen building of yadda yadda, or a Rhen library at your school. How do they think your Dad managed to get you inside without donating a fuck ton of money?"
"I don't know. And Bons, it's weird to hear you curse like that."
"You're the goody two shoes, girl. I am free from these societal constraints and norms," She says as a thumping noise comes from over her side.
"What are you doing, Bonnie?" Elena asks suspiciously. Her sleep has fled. Well, like most of the things do in the face of Bonnie's tenacity.
"Nothing!" Bonnie replies innocently, and Elena knows she's lying.
"Bons, you aren't watching weird porn, are you? Fuck, Bonnie, I know you are!" Elena whisper screams.
"Hush, Miss Prim and Proper. It's just background noise."
Bonnie is the strangest sixteen year old Elena has ever known. Well, she is also the only sixteen year old she has known if one doesn't count Jeremy. Bonnie is what they call a prodigy, but Bonnie scoffs at that label. She isn't interested in going to college early and collecting degrees. She likes things that old people at Fox and Friends point out as problems with the current generation.
She likes kpop. She's into kdramas. She is a reddit cop, a Facebook banshee and a Twitter warlord. She has got a YouTube channel where she talks about anything and everything, from beauty tutorials to Russian literature, Impact of U.S. - China trade war to the current indie artist she's listening to.
She's into protests and weekend parties, hitchhiking through Europe and making googly eyes at Jeremy.
And Bonnie, sweet, sassy, beautiful Bonnie decided the day she met Elena that she needed to take Elena under her wing.
"I am researching," She says after a while. "I am planning a mammoth Lan Zhan and Wei Ying story with loads of freaky sex."
"Dude, you don't need to research to write freaky sex. You have got your brain," Elena remarks.
Elena knows it well because Elena betas Bonnie's fanfiction, and she thinks that Bonnie has a natural flair for writing, just like she has for everything she undertakes.
"Elena, I will come over in the morning today and you will hand over the camera, okay?" Bonnie is bossy, Elena thinks as she looks at the clock. It's already two.
"Don't pretend you're doing it for me. You just want to stare at Jeremy," Elena teases.
Jeremy will probably barricade himself inside his room if he comes to know that Bonnie will be here in the morning, but what's the fun in that?
She delights in Jeremy's efforts to avoid Bonnie and Bonnie's resolve to put herself in his path.
"No comment," Bonnie says primly. "Are we still on for the BTS concert next month?"
"You've been asking me the same thing every time you call. I have told you I am not gonna bail on you!"
"I don't trust those assholes at your college."
"They don't know I am going to a concert with a fae who is willing to tear out hearts for Jimin," Elena teases.
"That sounds like a compliment. I will thank you for it, Elena. And now, off to bed you go," Bonnie commands.
"As you decree, your majesty. Sleep tight, Bons," She says before hanging up.
She knows she won't be able to fall asleep now, so she decides to copy the video she shot today to the USB.
And well, if she's watching an episode of Goblin again, it's no one's business but her own.
~UV~
When Dr. Lockwood suggested she watch Goblin, she had no idea what she was getting into, but now, as she cries and watches Kim Shin die for the umpteenth time silently, she does.
It is the kind of story that talks about life and it's suffering, and as Elena watches Kim Shin rise from the dead and fail to kill the master who ordered him to die in a battle at frontier borders and had his sister killed, she thinks her life isn't as heartbreaking as his.
Talking with Dr. Lockwood helped.
It made her realize that there is no shame in loving a man who didn't love her. It didn't mean that she's somehow inferior.
Sometimes, love isn't enough. Sometimes, you fall for the wrong man at the wrong time. Your feelings aren't the ones to blame in a relationship that doesn't come to be or passes over quickly.
Unfulfilled relationships, whether romantic or parental, aren't an indicator that there is something wrong with you.
Goblin reiterates what she knows about humans, and she likes reminding herself that waiting for the man who didn't ask you to wait isn't such a foolish thing if done quietly.
It's four in the morning and she needs to sleep if she doesn't wanna function on a concoction of coffee and redbull, but sleep, sleep is just like the man she fell for, elusive and out of reach.
She's invested in the sixth episode when her phone vibrates.
She ignores it at first, but then realizes that the one buzzing isn't her new one at the bedside table, but the one she hides beneath her pillows.
Her hands shake when she hits pause.
The phone keeps buzzing.
She can feel her throat closing. This is…. A dream.
He can't be calling her. He didn't come to see her at the hospital. Didn't call, text, mail or anything.
And now her phone's vibrating with a call at four in the morning and she doesn't even know if it's him.
The phone stops vibrating.
She would know it's him if she pulls out the phone and looks at the screen, but she's… a fucking coward, that's what she is, she thinks angrily.
She pushes aside her pillow and picks up the phone. The screen is dark, taunting her to power it up, and she's about to when it lights up again.
It's… Damon.
She drops it.
Fuck, it's him. He's on the phone.
He is… ON THE OTHER END OF THE LINE IF SHE PICKS UP THIS CALL!
Is this an accident? Did he dial-
Her hands are already on the move and to her utter horror, her fingers have already slid the green call icon to the right.
She puts it gingerly next to her ear and with all the apprehension of a heartbroken, betrayed thing, mutters, "Hello?"
There is no sound but for the quiet rhythm of inhale and exhale. Is he asleep? Did he sleep dial her?
Is her number still saved in his phone?
Does he remember her number?
She kept this one on even when Dad got her the new one in the hope that one day he would call.
"Hello?"
"E.. Elena?"
It has been months since she heard him call out her name and yet it hits the same it did when he said it first.
He doesn't say anything. She doesn't say anything.
And moments just keep passing.
She thought she was out of tears, but she feels them gathering at the corner of her eyes, and when they fall, a sob accompanies them, but it isn't hers.
It's his.
He's crying.
And so, they sit like that. Phone pressed against ears, sobs smothered against sheets, tears staining their cheeks.
When Bonnie punches against her door, it's nine in the morning. The phone is still in her hand, though the call disconnected before she fell asleep.
She has been asleep for mere three hours and yet, it feels as if she can take on the world…
~UV~
Just five shy from my first 300 reviews. A milestone, I tell you. You guys have been the best of the best. And if you like, you can check out a new fantasy story I am penning for The king:Eternal monarch at ao3. I go by Eosblaze.