The Concept of Forever

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Author's Note: I always say that I'm going to update on a schedule, but that really just never happens, huh… Well, anyways, enjoy!

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Chapter Three: Secrets

"Your friends don't seem to care for me too much," commented Lucia casually, dangling his legs off the side of the mountain. They were on the path up, not too far up that the height was disorienting, but high enough that they would not be seen from the ground – a nice hiding place given the size of the island.

Elie hadn't intended to skip classes. She had made up her mind to stay and finish the school day, and was on her way to tell him so when something changed. Elie had been living on Garage Island since she was a little girl, and she couldn't remember a thing about her life before. Sieg had told her that it was good they had come to the Island, that it gave them a security that they hadn't had previously. However, somewhere over the years, security had turned into a stale routine, and Lucia was a change from that routine. He was new and different and completely foreign to the world that she lived in.

For the first time, Elie finally understood why so many of the teenagers on the island clung to their televisions and internet and allowed themselves to live vicariously through what they saw; it was something different, something that never stayed the same for long.

So when she got down to the cafeteria, she adjusted her school books and asked him where he wanted to go.

For a newcomer, he knew his way around the island surprisingly well. "What do you mean?" Elie replied carefully, knowing exactly what he meant. Normally, her friends weren't quite so judgmental, but there really was no denying that there was something about him that left a bad feeling deep in her stomach.

Lucia laughed. "The people you were with at lunch. The girl and those three guys. They all gave me dirty looks when I walked by," he said, not beating around the bush.

"Oh, that," Elie replied, laughing as if it was nothing. She hated to lie, but she also didn't want to betray her friends' trust by saying too much. "They're just uneasy because Demon Card has such a bad reputation."

"Do you share the feeling?"

The question came out sounding light, and the blond even retained his half-grin, half-smirk. However, out of the corner of her eyes, Elie saw a glimmer of something heavier than a lead balloon in those golden eyes. "To be honest," she said slowly, keeping her tone as light as his had been, "I don't keep up with what happens outside of the island. My brother doesn't care for television, so we don't have one."

"Good to know," he said, his lips stretching outwards. Elie returned the smile, and the conversation was quickly dropped and with it, whatever it was that had swelled between them after his question.

"So, since you don't really keep up with what happens on the mainland and the rest of the world," he said after a while, watching her closely, "What do you keep up with?"

It was a good question, one that had been clawing at the frontlines of her thoughts since she had left the school building. "My friends, mostly," she answered with a shrug. "School. My brother would kill me if I did poorly, so I guess I just focus time that could be spent gawking at the mainland on ensuring my grades are good."

Well, it wasn't a lie, that was for sure. But she hated the way it sounded, the way the words came so robotically, like she had been trained to say that. The clip in her voice was not missed by Lucia.

"Have you ever left the island?" he asked softly. His eyes were watching her every move intensely, similar to how Sieg used to hover over Niebel while he was doing homework.

"I was born somewhere on the mainland," she replied with a grin. "I don't remember where, and my brother said we used to move around a lot so I guess it wouldn't really matter where anyways. And I've taken trips up to Hip Hop Town and Punk Street with my brother and nephew, and my friend Julia and I always spend a week in Experiment during the summer."

"Yes, but that's just one small continent," Lucia said with a sigh. "The smallest one there is, really. Aren't you at all curious as to what else there is?"

Elie considered. Of course she was curious. She was curious about where she had come from, about why her parents had never stayed in one place for too long. She was curious about Resha Valentine, with who she shared a last name.

But then she thought of Haru, of how he had, unknowingly, given her a reason to love the island, whether it was because of his own intense love for his home or simply because this is where he was. She thought of all the great times they had had together, just playing or hanging out on the island, and how the few times he had ever gone to the mainland had ended up chiseling away at his smile, something Elie could not forgive.

But what sense is there in loving a boy that won't ever love you back?

"I am curious, yeah," she finally said, shrugging. "But all my friends are here, my family. It's a little boring, sure," very boring, "but it's still home, you know?"

Even as she said the words, Elie knew that they were half-hearted. Yes, it was certainly true that this was where all of her friends and family were, and that alone was all the reason she needed to remain here. But there was a part of her that desired more than anything else to see the sky from a new perspective.

Lucia only shrugged. "The place seems dull. You see the same people, every day. You do the same thing, every day. There's no variety, there's no…excitement! I could never understand why my father refused to visit here until I got here. It's really no wonder why he left in the first place."

"It's a little dull, sure," Elie agreed, frowning. "But isn't it the same in a big city? You see all those people, but you don't know any of them. You do all the same things, but there was millions of other things to do. It isn't like that here."

He did not respond, and the brunette did not push it further. She remembered having similar arguments with Julia when she first moved to the island five years ago. Whether you wanted it to or not, Garage Island grew on you if you kept an open mind about it. "I should probably head home," he said suddenly, standing. "Father and I have plans."

Elie nodded, about to rise as well when she noticed that he had extended his hand for her, smiling down at her. She returned the smile and took his hand, allowing him to hoist her up. Lucia did not release her hand immediately after she was on her feet, but instead seemed to hold her against his body for a second. "We will do this again." It was not a question, it wasn't even a suggestion; it was a statement.

"I'd like that," replied the brunette, realizing that she meant it. Despite all she had said about Garage Island – most, if not all, she had truly meant – there was something undeniably magnetic about Lucia and all his newness. The island was her home, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the taste of something different, right?

He nodded at her, as if he was pleased with her response. "I was thinking," he said, turning to leave, "since it would appear that your friends are…less than thrilled about my arrival, perhaps it would be best if we kept our friendship a little…private? It'll be our little secret, Elie."

The way he said her name made Elie feel oddly torn between swooning over him like she had seen the other girls at school do, and jumping off the ledge. Talk about mixed signals. "Probably be for the best," she agreed, watching him leave. He flashed her one more smirk before he disappeared behind the bend of the path, leaving her alone.

Elie couldn't quite place her finger on him. There were moments, like that last one, where she felt the same sort of repulsion that made her want to be as far away from him as possible, but then there were also moments, like that last one, where she found herself drawn to him like a magnet. She had never dealt with these sort of mixed feelings about another human being before. Normally, she just liked everyone and didn't cause problems. No confusion. No weird bad feelings.

But, was a bad feeling really enough justification to terminate what could possibly be a wonderful friendship before it even had the chance to bloom? At the very least, Elie would give it a shot.

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. True to his word, Lucia did not again associate with Elie while they were at school, but Julia had mentioned a few times that she swore she had caught him staring at her during class. When her friends asked where she had run off to that first day, she lied and told them that she hadn't felt well, so Sieg gave her permission to leave school early. She got home and deleted the message from the school and spent the rest of the evening complaining about a migraine to her brother to make it more believable.

She hated having to lie to them, but since it was just a one time thing, Elie considered it a necessarily evil.

Musica did manage to hook up with Reina at her party and described their night together with more detail than the pornography that she had Haru had once looked up online (not to actually get off to, just to see what the big deal was; they were unimpressed). However, she then contacted him the next day and informed him that it was nothing more than a drunken one night stand, regardless of how wonderful it had been. Elie thought that that would have made him as moody as he had been after Melodia broke up with him, but he said that he didn't really care they weren't going anywhere; he was just happy he managed to actually get in her pants.

However, other than that, nothing had really changed. Elie went to school, she did her classwork, she hung out with her friends, she did her homework, and she occasionally played with her nephew and listened to Sieg drag on about something or other. But, at the same time, everything was different. It was like the world had somehow changed just enough to be noticed, but not enough to cause disarray.

Every night, she spent hours texting Lucia. When she ran out of minutes the first time, she simply asked Sieg if he could drop a few dollars for some more, saying that she hadn't realized they had run so low. He believed her, and she received more. After she had used them all up the very next night, Lucia surprised her with a brand new cell phone, with only one number programmed in.

"You don't want your brother to find out that you've been using the phone for casual texts, so I figured maybe it'd be better if you just had my old one. The number is unique, and you only have to use it to text me. That way you won't run up all that money," he had explained, his eyes liquid gold.

She kept that cell phone at home, hidden in a locked drawer she once used to store her diary in. It was a bit strange, but it felt good to be breaking the routine.

"You guys hear the news?" Julia asked on the way home from school one gloomy Monday afternoon. The school year had been in session for about a month now, and Garage Island had finally settled down from the Raregroove's moving in. The overcast, however, had the entire town uneasy; since they were on a small island in the middle of the ocean, overcast could really only mean one of two things: they were about to get hit with a horrible thunderstorm, or somewhere around them was about to get hit. Both were equally bad, since many of the natives were fishermen, and would not be able to arrive back on the island before the rain hit.

"No, what now?" grumbled Musica. He hadn't had the best day at school; he had been given detention for sleeping in class too often.

"I guess another new family moved to the island recently. Two girls our age and an older one about Sieg's age," she said, nodding at Elie. "I saw a glimpse of them on my way to school. One of them is about Elie's size with long, light blue hair, and the other is taller with darker blue."

"They've got blue hair?" repeated Haru in surprise. Not that he was necessarily one to talk about strange hair colors, seeing as his was naturally the color of silver. "Are they cousins of yours, Elie?"

The brunette thought about her parents, specifically trying to recall if they had had any siblings. "No, I don't have any cousins. Both of my parents were only children," she finally said, frowning. "I guess it's not too uncommon to have weirdly colored hair on the mainland, though. I mean, look at Sieg and Niebel."

The others nodded in agreement, dropping the subject of their strange hair color. "I wonder what sort of people they are," commented Let softly. "And why they came to the island."

"Not everything has to be analyzed," joked Musica, rolling his eyes. "Were they cute, Julia?"

"Look for yourself."

The five of them followed her gaze to the right, seeing for the first time the two girls with blue hair. The one with darker hair was clearly several years older than the other one, with bright violet eyes and a serious, reserved expression on her face. She was dressed in a form-fitting button down shirt and long slacks. The other one was more cheerful, her bright blue eyes taking in everything around her. She was dressed in a tight green tank top and bright orange shorts that cut off right where nothing would be seen.

Elie involuntarily looked down at her own outfit; a t-shirt that was slightly too small on her and a pair of worn jeans. Practical, given they were most likely about to be hit with a pretty bad storm later.

"Ohmigosh, is that Haru?" cried the younger one, noticing the five of them. Before he could answer, her whole face lit up and she started running towards him, completely leaving the other girl behind. A spark of jealousy ignited within Elie as she noticed that the girl had an extremely impressive chest (though she managed to take note that her own was larger), which was emphasized by her running. "Oh, it is, it is!"

As soon as she reached him, she jumped up and threw her arms around him, pressing her body so tight against his, it was a wonder if she could even breathe properly. "Ce-Celia?" stammered Haru, stepping back to prevent himself from tipping over. "What are you doing here?"

"My sisters and I moved here, silly," she said, pulling away to get a better look at him but not removing her arms from around his neck. "I was waiting for you, I wanted to see you before anyone else!"

"Uh, Haru? You wanna introduce us?" said Musica hotly, crossing his arms over his chest. Elie remained quiet, shifting her position so that she was halfway hidden behind Julia.

"Oh yeah!" cried the girl happily, still not releasing their friend. "My name is Celia, and that girl over there is my older sister, Belnika. We just moved here from down south with our eldest sister, Fumia."

Belnika slowly made her way over, waving nervously. "Hello. It is a pleasure to meet you all," she said. Her voice was incredibly soft-spoken, as if she was uncertain of every single word she had uttered. "You are all friends of Haru?"

"Yeah," replied Julia, her brown eyes narrowing. "How do you guys know him?"

"We met on the mainland, duh," chimed Celia, laying her head against Haru's chest. "We're his oldest friends!"

All eyes turned to Haru, who was glancing between his friends and the girl. "Uh, well, I don't know about that, Celia," he said softly. "We met a while ago, when my family and I went to visit my grandpa up north. They were in Ribelya for the dance festival and we just sort of…I dunno, became friends."

Celia giggled, looking around at his friends. "Oh, Haru," she suddenly pouted, lightly hitting him on the arm. "You have to introduce us to your friends, it's only polite!"

"Oh, yeah," he said weakly, clearing his throat. "That's Musica, Julia, Elie, and Let," he said, gesturing to each of them as he said their name. Elie remained quiet at her introduction, suddenly very interested in the ground in front of her feet. "What are you guys doing for the rest of the day?"

"Unpacking," Belnika said quickly, cutting off her younger sister. "Celia wanted to come and say hello to you, but we really should be getting back."

The younger girl pouted again, but finally – finally – released Haru and went to join her sister, wiggling her fingers at them all. "Let's hang out sometime, okay?" she called, but Elie couldn't tell if she was talking to all of them or just to Haru. Belnika did not wave, but instead followed her younger sister silently, leaving the five of them in shock.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Julia and Musica pounced on Haru.

"What the hell was that?"

"Why didn't you ever mention them?"

"Is that why you won't date anyone else?"

"Wait, are you and Celia dating?!"

"How long ago did that happen!"

"How have you guys kept in contact all this time?"

"Is this, like, a love story finally come true?"

While Haru tried to answer, or dodge, their questions, Elie turned to leave, not in any mood to listen to this any longer. As she was leaving, Let placed a hand on her shoulder, halting her. "Will you be okay, Elie?" he asked softly, his narrow eyes soft. Elie glanced back over to Haru, who hadn't looked at her once, apart from her introduction, since Celia appeared.

"Of course," she managed to get out, shrugging. "If Haru's got some girlfriend from overseas, great for him."

Let stared at her for a long minute, his eyes taking in everything that she was unwilling to admit. Finally, he nodded and removed his hand. "Let us know if there is anything we can do for you," he muttered, turning his attention back to the other three. Elie did not follow his gaze, but nodded anyways and then made her way home, alone.

For the first time in a month, the first thing she did when she got home was not go to the drawer and begin texting Lucia. Instead, she collapsed onto her bed just as the tears arrived, her body trembling with the force of her sobs.

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Author's Note: Awwww, poor Elie! D: Sorry this took so long, I wasn't really sure how I wanted to start this chapter. But, seriously, this chapter actually did not take long to write. I sat down at about 2am and started writing it and did it all in one sitting!
And I even have plans for the next chapter, yeah! Things are about to get interesting, I promise!