Disclaimer: I have no money. And, until I get money, I can't buy Sailor Moon. And if I do get the money, I will spend it on shoes. Lots and lots of pretty, pretty shoes.
The Essence of Friendship: Chapter 4
It All Comes Out
"Damn."
"You said it, sister."
"I can't believe she graduated," Serena said.
"I can't believe we missed it," Mina replied. The two girls were sitting on Mina's rooftop, staring out at the horizon. Audrey, brilliant, resourceful, amazing Audrey, had graduated secondary school the night before. Audrey was hardly older than themselves. She was sixteen, turning 17 in the summer, right before she jetted off to which ever fabulous university she decided to attend. It was still only January, so she had a while to decide.
"Who do you think cried the most?" Mina asked Serena.
"Lisa," Serena replied almost immediately. "Or Rebecca. One of the two. Jamie probably cried a ton, too."
"It must be hard," Mina mused. "For Rebecca, I mean."
"Definitely," Serena agreed. "It's really unfair to have a twin, or any person close to you, who outshines you so much." Serena took a swig from the bottle in her hand. "Don't get me wrong, I love Reba, and she's fantastic, but..."
"Audrey is Audrey," Mina finished for her. "And comparatively..."
"Yeah," Serena said distractedly.
Audrey and Rebecca were twins, Rebecca being 15 ½ minutes older than Audrey. They were very different from each other. Rebecca was laid-back, carefree, and loud, while Audrey was a quiet, elegant, book worm. Their personalities were reflected in both their clothing styles and physical features. Rebecca had wavy, very blonde, almost beach-blonde, hair with sun kissed skin and green eyes, and stood at about 5' 5". Audrey, however, had straight, brown hair with natural golden blonde highlights, very fair skin and crystal clear blue eyes; she stood at least two inches taller than her sister. Despite their many differences, they really seemed to adore each other, and had unnecessarily shared a room until the age of twelve.
"Okay," Mina said shoving herself up. "It's late and I've got school."
"Alrighty," Serena said getting up as well. "Hope to God that I don't slip and kill myself climbing off this roof."
"See ya later, alligator." Mina hugged Serena and climbed through the window into her bedroom. Serena inched over to the edge of the roof and shimmied down the drainpipe. She oh-so-gracefully slipped on the wet grass and had to grab on to a low hanging tree branch to keep from landing on her butt. Nice move, self. Serena trudged back to her house.
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Something felt weird the next morning when Serena awoke. She sat up and realised that she had rearranged herself as she slept so that her head was at the foot of the bed. She extracted herself from the sheets and stumbled into the bathroom. She turned on the water in the bathtub and waited for it to fill up.
She sunk through the thick layer of bubbles and into the hot water. She took a deep breath. Someone was keeping something from her, she just didn't know what or how important it was. But keeping something from her, someone was. She was still reeling from that whole episode with Darien. It was still shocking her how it had happened so out of the blue. Oh, how badly she wanted to not be so deeply hurt by all of that. How deeply she wanted to hate him. But she could only pretend that she did.
She didn't think he even cared that he had almost killed her inside. Strike that. She knew he didn't care. All he cared about was that bratty little horror that was masquerading as her cousin. Oh, please, like anyone even remotely related to Serena would've let that brat carry on acting like she did for any length of time. Whoever that kid's parents were, they needed to give their kid a little dose of reality. A person can't always get what he or she wants. In fact it's a rarity.
Was she the only one that saw through that little spore's lies? How could everyone else be so utterly blind? The child obviously had some hidden agenda. And how could they not see that one day she didn't have a bratty cousin living her god-'rents house, and then, the next day, some little eight-year old falls out of the freaking sky, kisses her boyfriend, and then "suddenly," bam!, she does! Il est ridicule! (T: It's ridiculous!)
They're always calling me stupid when I pretend that I don't understand the stuff that they do, and they actually fall for it. Every time. But the one time that I point out something and they didn't see it first, they call me paranoid and insane and jealous. Jealous. I can't believe they think that!
The nerve of that little bugger. Putting herself on the same level as people like Luna and Mina, my real cousins. She's nothing but a little fake who stole my friends, my former boyfriend, and my life. Well, not anymore, little girl. I was here first.
She was brought back to reality by the sound of something hitting the wall. It was a bar of soap. Serena laughed, she must've thrown it during her inner-rant. She clambered out out of the tub and pulled out the drain plug so that the water would drain as she toweled off. She pulled on a soft terry cloth robe, ran into her room , and dove onto her new bed.
After she had left the Arcade the other day, Serena had gone shopping to replace the furniture and things in the Fuzzy Bunny Room. She had done away with almost everything in the old room. All the comic books, bunny paraphernalia, stuffed animals, etc. had been put in boxes and been exiled to the attic.
She had totally redone her room in a kind of Parisian-esque style. The curtains framing her windows and the doors that led to the balcony were sheer and in a light pink color. Her bed frame was made of wrought iron and the iron was made into an oval design on the headboard. The sheets on the bed were soft blue with a tiny stripe of pink every now and then. The duvet was white with 'Paris' running down the middle in big black cursive letters. The bedside table was black as well, but it was made of wood. It was Victorian-like and had the little clawed feet at the bottom. On it, there was a black beaded lamp and a white iHome. The book cases, chest of drawers, desk, and desk chair were all in the same style as the bedside table. Real books and scrapbooks were on the book shelves, jewelry and candles littered the top of her chest of drawers.
The walls were still white, though. There was a space of empty wall across from the doors to the balcony that was about 5 feet wide. In the middle of the space was a giant wall decal of the Eiffel Tower that stretched from floor to ceiling. Eventually, Serena planned on totally covering that piece of wall with pictures of her family and friends.
Serena groped for her phone that was somewhere amidst the rumpled sheets. If Darien could screw her over at least she could screw him over back.
"Allo?"
"Hey, Audie. I need to screw over a guy. Any ideas on how?"
"Well you're terribly blunt today. What exactly were you planning on doing?"
"Well pretty much I was going to make him care about me...and then I was going to rip out his heart and give a nice cheery 'Fuck you' and never look back."
"You've been talking to Lisa way to much." Serena laughed. Audrey was silent for a moment. "Em, I'm not exactly the best person to be talking to about guys. Call Lisa. You know she'd love to practice her favorite pastime."
"Ok, will do. But I'm masquerading as a uni student, so..."
"You're a lit major. Show up at the Arcade and sit next to him. Don't say anything to him just start working on a pseudo-paper or something," Audrey supplied immediately. There, ladies and gents, is the reason she graduated grade 13 two years early. She just knew stuff. Her brain worked at super-human speed, and, although it was nearly impossible to tell, she had worked out every logical response in head before answering.
"And if he asks what the paper's about..."
"Tell him it's an analytical expository work comparing modern poetry greats to the likes of Shakespeare, Homer, etc."
"Oh, you're brilliant, Audie!" Serena squealed.
"Thanks." Serena could hear Audrey beaming through the phone. "Call Lisa. Plot your evil schemes together."
Serena laughed. "Bye."
She rolled over to look at the time. Ok, so if it's nine-thirty here...then it's way too late to be calling there. Lisa was not a pleasant person to talk to if you interrupted her sleepy time. She had once told Serena that if Serena woke her up in the middle of the night, she'd better have a damn good reason. Like if someone were trapped in a well or on fire. Serena let out a sigh. Now what? Maybe she should go to the Arcade. The worst that could happen was that Darien wasn't around in order for her to put her devious plan into action.
Serena went to her closet and stared at the clothes. What to wear... She pulled out an outfit and hung it on one of the hooks hanging on the closet door. It was comprised of: a purple silk blouse with white designs and puff sleeves that came just past the elbow that would be tucked into the dark, high-waisted denim pencil skirt; grey tights, black, high-heeled ankle boots and a white necklace.
She finished her light make-up and pulled her hair into a high ponytail with a poof. She shoved her cell phone and some poetry books and writing materials into her prized possession, a cream-colored leather tote bag from Marc Jacobs. She slung on her coat, tied a scarf around her neck, and pulled on a pair of gloves. As she was walking down the street, Serena realised that she hadn't seen the little spore or a few days. Huh. Maybe she got lost in a parking garage... She smiled slightly.
The breakfast/early morning rush had died down so there was really no one inside. Well, except for, you guessed it, the heartbreaker himself. Oh how I wish I had sparklers. Serena sat one or two stools away from Darien in order to have ample room for her 'study' materials. She could feel him staring at her but refused to speak to him first. She flipped open some of the books and started writing.
Euripides, Virgil, Shakespeare, Poe, Longfellow. These are some of the world's greatest and most well-known poets. But what is it that separates the ancient originals from the modern rebels? How is it that we discern the old from the new? The original from the unoriginal? Shakespeare based most of his plays and some of his poetry upon myths and legends. His sonnets, however, were declarations of love and devotion for the Dark Lady, of admiration and possibly platonic love for the Fair Youth, and of a competition with the Rival Poet. If one based his or her opinions--
"Why do you sit with your legs crossed like that?"
Serena turned her head slowly to look at him. She fixed him with her most withering stare. "Why did you do that? I was on a roll. A good one, too!"
"You didn't answer my question," Darien said resolutely.
"Nor have you answered mine." Serena mumbled the next part under her breath. "You annoying little prick."
"Is it because you're wearing a skirt, because you're at the counter. No one can see it," Darien said.
"I'm sitting at the counter? Really?" Serena's voice was filled with sarcasm. "Honestly, don't you watch the news? Perverts will do anything to get what they want. Sticking hidden cameras in odd places, bringing eight-years back to their apartments unsupervised..."
"Would you stop with that already?" Darien jumped up.
"How'd you meet that kid anyway?" Serena said calmly.
"She's, um, my ex's, erm, little cousin," Darien said squirming.
"Your ex's cousin. Wow. You must see your ex a lot, then, huh?"
"Not really," Darien said quietly.
Serena tilted her head to one side, feinting interest. "Why not?"
"I kind or, um, avoid her."
"Well I wouldn't really call it avoidance. More like being a rude, inconsiderate prick half the time, and the other half ignoring my total existence."
Darien stared at her, gaping like a fish.
"Oh and just for future reference, how did I lose your attentions and affections to an eight-year-old self-centred terror?"
"Serena, I've already told you. I never--" Serena cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah, you never loved me. It was all just and act," Serena said, lowering her voice to imitate Darien. "That's a load of crap, and we both know it. The truth is, you have some sort of sick crush on and eight-year-old."
"Serena, I swear, I don't--"
"Not that it really matters. Once Lisa, Ginny, and the guys get here, they'll kick your ass from here to kingdom come."
"Serena, listen to me--"
"And while we're on the subject of family and friends, let's get something straight. No matter what the little bugger has told any of you, she is not, has never been, and will never be my cousin. She's a brat and she's a liar. Remember that, Darien. She's gonna cause you guys a lot of trouble. And you can call me crazy, and paranoid, and jealous all you want, 'cause I don't care. I'm done." Serena shoved all of her stuff in her bag and marched toward the door.
"Done with what?!" Darien shouted.
Serena whipped around. "This." She gestured around herself. "And this place. I'm done with you, I'm done with her, and I'm done with the scouts. You win, Darien. I'm out."
"Serena, I didn't want--"
"Save it!" Serena shouted. She continued at a normal volume. "For someone who cares." She turned on her heel and walked out. Of everything.
Review! Please give me feedback. I hope you liked it. I feel as though I rambled in parts...it's kind of a problem. I do it when I talk, too...
