I love the title for this chapter. Just thought you needed to know that.
Chapter Five – Life's A Drag
When Helia had first transferred to Red Fountain, his grandfather had offered him a single room to himself. However, when a long standing argument between Riven and his roommate started to get violently out of hand about halfway through Helia's first year at the school, Helia had offered to room with Riven. Helia had been feeling rather self-conscious about the fact that he really didn't have any close friends like the other guys in the grade did and he knew that not having a roommate hindered that, though he did have some doubts whether or not he'd be able to get along with Riven.
His doubts proved to be fruitless and ironically, even though he had been accepted into Riven's small group of friends, Helia found that he was still closest with Riven. Helia had even come to suspect that a poet lurked somewhere under Riven's hard shell. At Helia's old school, swearing was never considered to be an art form, but things at Red Fountain were completely different and Riven had no equal in that particular field. He could splutter such wide, colourful curse words with perfectly poetic rhythm that Helia could only dream of achieving so spontaneously.
That was why when Riven stormed into their room absolutely overflowing with curses, Helia paused to listen for a minute before deciding it was probably a good idea to interrupt.
"What's the matter?" Helia asked calmly.
Riven let loose a few more choice phrases as he paced angrily before answering. "Nothing."
"I highly doubt that."
"Why are you here?" Riven demanded sharply, eager to shift the attention off of him. "Shouldn't you be with Flora?"
"Her and Layla are doing a project so I'm not going anywhere soon," Helia explained, recognising Riven's diversion tactic and refusing to fall for it. "Now what's got you all worked up? And if you dare try and tell me it's nothing I'm going to rip your tongue out."
"This coming from the pacifist poster boy?" Riven hissed, still pacing the room like some kind of caged animal. "Did you know that Jared had a crush on Musa?"
Helia frowned. "Flora might have said something about it."
"You knew?" Riven flared, his eyes blazing.
"I didn't know anything for certain. Flora just said that Stella was trying to set Musa up with Jared and that Musa was upset with Stella because she was still infatuated with you."
"Stella! I should have known!"
"Stop it, Riven."
"Where's Jared now?" Riven demanded, heading for the door. He was going to kill that grass cutting little nerd. However, before he could so much as grab the doorknob, a set of thin, golden strings latched hold of his body, stopping him in his tracks.
"I'm not letting you leave," Helia said firmly, his laser glove leashing his roommate.
"Lemme go!"
"No."
"Helia! Let me go, or so help me I'll – "
"I'm not letting you go until you calm down."
"I am calm!"
"No you're not!" Helia snapped, pulling back on his laser strings and throwing Riven so off balance that he crashed to the floor. Helia quickly moved so he was standing over his roommate and blocking his way to the door. "Now, what has been going on with you lately?"
"Nothing," Riven answered stubbornly, refusing to look at Helia. He was making him feel like a disobedient child and Riven didn't like that in the slightest. However he had managed to bring some of his temper under control.
Helia's eyes narrowed. "Okay, if you're going to be like that, fine. Let's move onto something else. Why haven't you been sleeping at night? Don't think I haven't noticed. And what exactly is going on with you and Musa? A few weeks ago you were so smitten with one another it was impossible to get a straight conversation out of you and now you're always fighting. Riven, what is going on?"
Riven felt his body start to go cold as he thought of how he and Musa were always fighting and even just thinking about it made him sick to his stomach. Riven pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around the top of them. And then, with a deep sigh, he buried his face in his arms.
"I'm screwing everything up," he admitted to Helia in a small voice. Riven was aware that he looked and sounded like some pathetic child, but he was so lost and confused that he didn't know how else to act. Fortunately he believed that Helia would be too kindhearted to judge him to harshly.
"How?" Helia asked gently, sitting down on Riven's bed and placing a supportive hand on his roommates shoulder. He needed to get Riven talking. Bottling up his emotions inside himself like this wasn't healthy for him.
"I don't know. I just am. I must have done something wrong because she's acting like she's afraid to be around me. It's like she doesn't trust me or something."
"She does trust you. I'm pretty sure she's in love with you."
"No she isn't."
"How do you know that?"
"Because if she did she wouldn't go out on a date with Jared, now would she?" Riven point out, his face still buried. "Maybe it would be better if she went out with Jared. He'd be a better boyfriend then I'd ever be."
"I don't think that's true. I know that you really care for Musa, and she cares for you too. There's nothing Jared can do that can out weigh that. I think you just need some sleep," Helia suggested.
"Maybe."
"Why haven't you been sleeping?"
"No reason. Just dreams."
"About what?"
Riven hesitated. He needed to tell someone about Darcy. He knew he needed to warn them, but he also knew he couldn't just come right out and say it. Not if he didn't want to lose his friends trust. "Just dreams, but they've got Darcy in them."
"That witch you went out with?" Helia asked. He had missed the whole Darcy and Riven saga, but Flora had filled him in on the details. Why would Riven be dreaming about her? Maybe he was still a bit freaked out by her trying to kill him at the Resort Realm. "You don't have to worry about her. Her and her sisters are still trapped in the Realm of Realix."
"What if they got out?" Riven questioned, looking up at Helia for the first time since he fell to the floor.
"Is that likely?"
"You never know. They're pretty talented witches. If anyone could do it, it would be them."
"I think you're just tired," Helia told him. "Go to sleep and when you're rested you should talk with Musa. You two need to get passed this stage. I don't think either of you could handle it if you let this ruin your relationship."
"M'kay," Riven mumbled, getting off the floor and collapsing on his bed. Helia went back to his drawing, occasionally looking over at his roommate to make sure he was sleeping but unfortunately Riven was too afraid to close his eyes.
He knew what was waiting for him on the other side of them.
"Maybe me and Riven aren't meant to be together," Musa thought out loud that night. All her friends had gathered in her and Tecna's room to have a girls' session and the conversation had eventually gotten around to trying to figure out what was going on between Musa and Riven. Musa glumly ignored Tune's correction of her grammar staring pointlessly at the book on the desk in front of her. She didn't know why she even had the book out. She had finished all her homework ages ago. It had been the first time since she had started going out with Riven that she had done that before ten o'clock at night.
"Oh, no you don't!" Stella instantly snapped. "I tried forever to try and set you up with someone who would be a better match for you and you've selfishly stuck to Riven. And now I'm finally getting to see why you would want to have him for your boyfriend and you start to think he might not be the one for you? Musa! That is so inconsiderate of you!"
"You're right. I'm a selfish pig," Musa admitted sarcastically.
"But Musa, you and Riven belong together," Amore told the musical fairy. "I just know it."
"That's right!" Chatta instantly agreed in her loud voice. "And if anyone should know it should be Amore! She is the Pixie of Love after all! Everybody needs to stop thinking so glumly! I know! I'll write you a new cheer and then everyone will be happy! Here we go! Hap – hap – happy! That's what you need to be! Just – "
"Maybe we should leave the cheer for the moment?" Flora suggested gently, softly covering Chatta's mouth when she noticed the cheer was not making Musa feel any better.
"What did Riven do to make you change your mind about him?" Bloom questioned from her spot lying on Tecna's bed with Lockette and Kiko. "I mean, you've ignored most of his other short comings before, no offence. Why don't you think it'll work now when he's starting to open up to you?"
"I don't know," Musa admitted. "Maybe I've just ignored too much for too long and now I can't get what I've tried to ignore off my mind."
"What have you been trying to ignore?" Layla asked, sharing concerned looks with the rest of the Winx Club. They had no idea Musa was feeling this way.
Musa sighed deeply. "Riven's relationship with Darcy."
"But he doesn't like her any more," Tecna pointed out. "That's why he's going out with you."
"I know but I can't forget the fact that he went out with her before. Sure, everyone had baggage and I shouldn't be dwelling on something like this but I can't help it. It's all I can think about. And the one thing that I need to know I . . . It's impossible to ask."
"What is that?" Flora asked, while the others waited on baited breath.
Musa buried her face in her hands and took a deep breath. "I want to know . . . what he got up to with Darcy. Like how far he went and stuff."
"Oh honey no!" Stella instantly objected. "No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! Musa! You can't ask something like that! Sure, ask if they slept together but you don't need a play-by-play breakdown. That stuff will mess with your head. And his! You'll ruin everything you have or will have with Riven!"
"I know and I'm not even sure if I want to know the answer but it's driving me crazy," Musa admitted. "I mean, what if he did do some things with Darcy that I know I'm not ready for? Then what? Will he become bored with me and go looking for someone else like . . . like . . . like Priscilla or someone?"
"Priscilla?" Stella repeated. "Why would Riven go after Priscilla?"
"I did tell you that Priscilla was a name of a bus in a movie about drag queens back on Earth, didn't I?" Bloom thought out loud, remembering the time she wanted to drive through the Australian outback on a giant shoe with her dress flying behind her like a banner.
"It was just an example," Musa told the others, ignoring Blooms drag queen comment.
"You think Riven would be unfaithful to you?" Layla questioned.
"I don't know. Maybe?"
"Do you have any valid proof on this matter?" Tecna asked.
"No."
"Then this paranoia is illogical."
"Even I have to agree on that one," Stella nodded. "Riven's so hooked on you it's kinda pathetic. I mean, you have him so whipped there's no way he's gonna wander. And you should be happy about that, not freaking. I might think that Riven's attitude stinks, but he is one fine piece of flesh. He's got that whole bad boy kinda thing going on, he's got killer arms and rather large hands and feet. Now, I might be wrong, but isn't there an old saying; big feet, big . . ." Stella trailed off when she noticed that most of her friend and all the pixies – except of course Piff who was asleep and Chatta, who shared Stella's love of gossip – were glaring at her, "shoes?"
Tune looked like she was going to explode. "I think that it's dreadfully un-ladylike to be discussing this kind of thing," she objected in as even a voice as she could manage. "A persons dating history is a private matter, not something that should be analysed by their friends behind ones back."
"But knowing all the information is important," Digit disagreed. "Musa has every right to hypothesize now so she has some idea of what she's getting into."
"You can't put love down to logic," Amore said gruffly.
"Everything can be put down to logic."
"Not love!" Amore shouted.
"Everything!"
"Stop being so rude!" Tune exploded. "PLEASE!"
"Oh man," Musa groaned, burying her face in her arms as a three way pixie screaming match commenced, complete with Chatta as a cheer squad. Piff woke up and burst into tears at the noise, which was joined by the fairies all talking at once to try and calm the pixies down.
Musa did not want to deal with this now.
The whole thing about the bus called Priscilla and the drag queens is of course referring to the Australian classic 'The Adventures of Priscilla; Queen of he Desert'. I'm not certain why a movie about cocks in frock on rocks was so successful, but for some reason it is. I personally find the whole thing really disturbing because I'm a massive Lord of the Ring fan, and no matter how transgenderal the elves may seem, Elrond is not a girl, or even a man that dresses like a girl.
Anyway, TBC.