Lightning-Dono: This fanfic will be pretty fun. I might not update it as often as you'd like since I'll also be updating Love Yourself, but I'll try my hardest!

This chapter continues off the first one, just to show you how everything happened. And Celia bashing in this chapter is from Nami. I married Celia in AWL and I love her. :)

Answers to the Reviews

BorderWolf – Thanks! Yeah, the dark and stormy night feel does wonders, but it's so cliché...

Krazie4Christ – But all my fanfics are strange! xD; It was intentional. I mean, I want to make people read, not lose readers. And I love your profile, even though I'm Buddhist. :)

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I paced around the top floor of the hotel, unable to get to sleep. It was two o'clock in the morning, yet I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night and into the morning. Every so often I would stop by my desk and subconsciously flip open my violet diary, just to look at the hearts I had lovingly printed onto the page and assure myself that they were still there. After yesterday's events, I began to lose faith in Jack. Being shunned can only be survived through for so long before you start to recognize signs. Signs that someone would be leaving you soon. The usual cold chill crawled down my spine like a cube of ice stuck down my shirt. I still never understood what caused them, but I always developed these when something horrible would happen later on.

All I could hope for was that this time, nature's instincts were wrong.

Leaving the hotel was a real pain. Ruby cornered me as soon as I reached the end of the stairs, commenting upon the light bags beneath my opalescent eyes.

"Are you not getting enough sleep?" She asked, apparently highly concerned about the health of another guest at her inn. Why she cared so much I wouldn't know. It wasn't as though we ever communicated – just walked by each other like the shadows of two people slipping through silently.

Shrugging, I evaded her prying eyes and shuffled out of the door, the gravel that had been long since reduced to a fine dust shifting beneath my feet. The pleasant trill of birds pierced the air and beneath a tree, Murrey was worming his way into the Inn's food storage, hoping to scavenge something in the shadows.

I marched up to the plantation that resided not very far away from Jack's own farm, watching the leaves flutter down fondly. A raccoon was stealthily creeping around a Hackberry, as though ready to pounce and devour it. The windmill's shrill sound of harsh wind made cows moo nearby. As usual, I perched myself by their hefty growth of sweet potato, watching bugs wander aimlessly around the forest of vegetables, unable to determine which one to infest.

Vesta emerged happily from the second house facing west, arms swinging gaily by her sides as she approached the crops, revealing a watering can from the depths of her wide, brightly colored dress. She tipped it over a little, supporting its weight by keeping a hand beneath it. Water spilled from it, wetting the base of each sweet potato planet, smiling all the while. I watched her do this every morning and still I never ceased to come, just to watch those helpless little stubs grow into something more powerful, something that looked like it could have some authority over others. It was enrapturing to see the leaves grown greener, buds bloom, and seeing them plucked from the ground to be made into a tasty dish for human enjoyment.

Then, the girl who had been my rival for ages, exited her house, humming cheerily, hands behind her back as she stopped right next to me to observe their soon-to-be harvested plants. Celia was a rather coy girl with the air of a hard-working person about her. She rarely left the farm and when she did, it was either to visit the spring where she enjoyed watching the ripples in the water as fish swam by or admire the miniature door that the Harvest Sprites had constructed for their home.

"Good morning, Nami," Celia addressed pleasantly, still leaning over to giggle softly at the bugs crawling about, shining eyes bubbling over with mirth.

"Hi," I intoned stonily.

Celia stood up straight. "This is a happy day! Why aren't you festive?"

"What's there to be happy about?"

She seemed to be very thoughtful when approached with this question. Her eyes continued to reflect her bubbly attitude. At this moment, I felt like getting up and leaving right infront of her face, just to prove to her how much I never cared about her constant happiness. But I didn't, because I wasn't heartless. I knew how it was to be alone and it was bad enough just feeling it, but to inflict pain upon others that she knew you shouldn't have? I would be brooding upon it guiltily for life.

"There's tons of things to be happy about, but...I'm only happy about one thing today."

From behind me, I felt Vesta flash her a knowing look. I knew them both well enough to predict their every action without even turning to see. Spending mornings at a single place can do that to a person.

"Spill it."

Celia didn't seem unnerved by my rudeness. Instead, what I was saying to her seemed to be feeding her inner joy.

"Jack proposed to me today!" Celia bounced up and down happily on her heels, her arms jerking out from behind her back and clapping together lightly beneath her chin. "And I accepted! Isn't that sweet?"

I felt like I had been frozen in time in – my head and torso were in the past while the lower part of my body remained in the present. My heart skipped a beat and something activated my sweat glands.

"What?"

"Jack proposed to me! Isn't that great?"

I would've smiled, just out of kindness and to bottle emotions up like a usually did. I could've told her, "Congratulations" and walked off. But instead, my face became contorted with anger and spite and I began to cry.