Frozen belongs to Disney
Trigger Warning: Non-Con Kiss
Chapter 6
The phone rang three, four times, until Hans finally picked up.
"Hello," his sleep addled voice said.
"Hey, it's me. I need you to like, talk to your dad about something," she said.
"Whu… why, can't you talk to him yourself?" he asked. She could practically hear him rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"I tried, but he's being a jerk about it for some reason," Anna said.
He cleared his throat, and some muffled rummaging came through in the background.
"Like, hockey stuff, or something else?" he asked.
"Hockey stuff. Some girls were hazing Elsa in the locker room yesterday, and it got totally out of hand. Her cheek was bleeding," Anna said, "he gave me some bullshit about how two of them are centers and we'd kill our season if he suspended them, as if that gives them a free pass…"
She fumed at the injustice. Hans cleared his throat again.
"You know how he is, it's all about the W's. As long as Anderson's still playing, he's not gonna do anything to jeopardize the team's chances of winning," Hans said.
"That's crap, and you know it," Anna said, "come on, I never ask you for anything, can't you do me a favor?"
There was some rustling in the background, and what Anna could have sworn was someone else's voice. A female voice.
"I can. It's not going to make any bit of difference," Hans replied.
"Who was that?" Anna asked.
"Who was what?" Hans asked.
"You're in your room, right? Who else is there with you?" she asked.
Hans chuckled.
"Yeah, I'm here, alone, I swear," he said. She hit the button for speaker and paused for a moment, straining to hear any additional noises, but there was only a faint hissing through the tinny speaker of her piece-of-crap flip phone,
"Okay.. You'll talk to your dad?" Anna asked.
"Yeah yeah, for whatever good it'll do," Hans replied.
"Well, we won't know unless you try, right?" she said.
"Right. I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye," he said.
"Love you too," Anna said, but he'd already hung up. She looked down at the phone in her hand until the screen went dark. Her gut churned.
"I know I heard something," she thought, decided to head down to Alpha Delta Alpha to see Hans face to face. She threw on a light windbreaker to combat the November chill and stepped out of her dorm into the early morning sunlight. Leaves swirled on the roads in the autumn breeze, and Anna shoved her hands into her pockets.
"You're being paranoid. It was probably a video on his computer or the TV or something," she thought. Still, her steps did not slow, and she walked right up the rickety staircase and into the frat house with its familiar smell of floors infused with the scent of hundreds of spilled beers over the years.
"Hey Anna," Eric said from the kitchen, but Anna merely waved to him and walked upstairs to Hans' room to knock on the door. He pulled it open and his expression turned to one of mild surprise when he saw her. She pushed past him into the room.
"O-kay?" he said as he stepped aside and closed the door behind her. She stalked to the middle of the room, then spun to face him and crossed her arms.
"Tell me the truth, was there someone else here when I called you?" she asked.
Hans laughed.
"Is that what this is about?" he replied.
"Just tell me. Look me in the eye and tell me," she said.
The smile faded from his face, and he looked her dead in the eye.
"No," he said.
Anna paused for a second, then nodded.
"But even if there was, it's not like we're exclusive," he added. She blinked.
"Excuse me?" Anna said.
"…We never agreed to be exclusive. We're still just dating; we both can see whoever we want," Hans said.
Anna's mouth dropped open.
"What the hell do you think we've been doing for the past four months?!" she said.
"Dating. Come on, you haven't seen anyone else this entire time?" Hans asked, then he raised an eyebrow, "Bjorgman?"
Anna's mouth worked silently, but deep down, rage simmered to a boil and threated to explode.
"No, Kristoff and I are just friends, I told you," Anna said.
Hans made a non-committal expression with eyebrows and lips, as if he wasn't sure he believed her.
"Wait wait wait," she thought, "has he been sleeping around while we were going out?"
Panic threatened to seize her chest.
"Slow down… Maybe it's not that bad," she thought.
"Well… have you… have you dated anyone since we started? Since we got together?" Anna asked.
Hans shrugged.
"A couple, nothing serious," he said.
"Asshole!" she said as she took a step and punched him in the shoulder, hard.
"Ow, fuck," he said, and she hit him again. She drew back for a third punch but he held up a finger at her. Weight lifting, conditioning, the occasional scrap on the ice… none of it mattered; there was no way she could compete with him physically, not really, but that didn't stop her from trying to stab him with her eyes.
"Fucking cheating bastard!" she said.
"Whoa whoa whoa. If you wanted to be exclusive, you should have asked," he said.
"I should have asked? I should have asked?" Anna said, "when we started having sex is when we became exclusive! Jesus fucking Christ!"
Hans turned his hands up.
"It was just sex," he said.
"It wasn't just sex. You were my first, my one and only!" Anna thought, and tears welled up as she grit her teeth, but she didn't give voice to her thoughts, and she refused to let them fall.
"Were you at least using protection?" she asked.
His pause told her everything she needed to know.
"Did we?" he asked.
"Jesus fuck," Anna said, and she pushed past him towards the door as he stepped aside.
"It's okay, they were clean, I'm sure," he said.
"They?" she thought, "how many? Fuck, I don't want to know."
"Hey," he said, and a hand fell on her shoulder as she reached for the doorknob.
"Don't touch me, fucking prick," Anna said as she rolled her shoulder and elbow to throw his hand off.
She slammed the door behind her and stalked out of the frat house in a haze of anger and betrayal. Somewhere on the way back to her dorm, vision blurred and hot tears dripped down cheeks, only to turn ice cold in the crisp autumn air. She wiped them on her windbreaker sleeve, then wiped them again as they kept flowing. In the common room, she ignored the stares she was sure were aimed her way and ran up the steps to her dorm to jump onto her bed. She buried her face in her pillow and screamed out all of her frustration and rage in one long keening wail. Throat sore, she sat up, looked down at the innocent pillow, and punched it, hard, for good measure.
"Stupid… idiot," she said.
Anna lay back on her pillow and stared up the ceiling with her fingers laced behind her head. She thought back over their entire relationship, whether there were any signs that Hans considered it non-exclusive, whether he'd ever shown attention to other girls. She was sure if he ever talked about going on a date with someone else, she would have picked up on it. She must have fallen asleep, because when she woke up, it was almost time for hockey practice. In the locker room and on the ice, she went through the motions in a daze, and although Elsa seemed to suspect something was wrong, she didn't ask, and Anna didn't say anything. She crashed hard that evening, and went through classes the following day in a similar haze. She knew she should have been studying or rehearsing, but she couldn't manage anything more than crying into her pillow or mindlessly shoveling food into her mouth. As she ran through the conversation in her head, over and over, she clung to the fact that he had seemed surprised she was so upset.
"Maybe I'm being dumb," she thought; part of her still wanted to see if she could salvage the only serious relationship she'd ever had in her life.
"I'll never figure this out alone; I need help," she thought. She dried her tears, took a deep breath, then exited her room and descended to the ground floor to knock on Punzie's door. Her blonde friend opened after just a few seconds.
"Hey," she said, and then took in Anna's expression, "what happened?"
"Uh… can I come in?" Anna asked.
Rapunzel wordlessly stepped aside to allow Anna to enter, and she barely closed the door before she nearly broke down.
"Punzie," she said, and Rapunzel swept her up in a tight hug as she sobbed.
"Hans, he's been sleeping with other girls," Anna spluttered as Rapunzel stroked her back.
"Damn. I always thought something was off about him," Rapunzel said, "asshole."
"Well, that's what I wanted to get your advice on," Anna said, "he was like… surprised. He said we were never exclusive."
Rapunzel handed her a box of tissues, and then hopped up onto her bed and folded her bare feet beneath her, crosslegged.
"Tell me everything," she said.
Anna recounted how she had interrupted Elsa's hazing session and brought it up to Coach Westergard, who had done nothing, and then how she had turned to Hans for help, and thought she overheard someone in her room, then confronted him afterwards.
"Well…" Rapunzel said slowly, "I don't know if... Okay, let me start off by saying, complete asshole move."
Anna nodded.
"Totally," she said.
"But…" Rapunzel said as she looked at the ceiling in thought, "you said you asked him if someone else was in the room, and he said no."
"That's right," Anna said.
"And then… he said, it wouldn't matter, because you weren't exclusive," Rapunzel said.
Anna nodded.
"So… is it possible he didn't think he was cheating?" Rapunzel said.
Anna nearly exploded at her friend, but checked herself; wasn't this why she was seeking a second opinion? Maybe Punzie knew something she didn't.
"What do you mean? How could he not?" Anna asked.
"Well… he didn't have to say anything. You asked him if someone was in the room, he said no, and that's that," Rapunzel said, "the only reason he would say something is if he really didn't think it was a big deal. Either that or he wanted to break up with you."
"But it is a big deal, I mean…" Anna said, but she trailed off, at a loss for words, "are you exclusive with Flynn?"
Rapunzel nodded.
"Oh yeah, I locked him down after our second date. It was like a two second conversation," the blonde replied.
Anna nodded slowly. She felt more and more like an idiot for not doing the same with Hans. She recalled, during their fight, he told her if she wanted to be exclusive, she should have asked.
"Fuck, is this partially my fault?" she thought. Punzie must have picked up on her mood.
"I mean, I'm kind of used it, you know… my parents have an open relationship," Rapunzel said, "they're like, swingers or something."
"Really?" Anna asked.
Rapunzel nodded.
"It's like they dropped straight out of the sixties, I swear," she said, and her green eyes widened slightly, "not that that's anything like what happened to you, but it sounds like maybe you and Hans need to talk more and like… set boundaries."
Anna stared out her, open-mouthed.
"Assuming you don't just dump his ass, of course," Rapunzel added, "which, I totally get. But something tells me you wouldn't be here if it was that simple, so… if you still want to like… I don't know, stay together and be exclusive with him, then tell him and see what happens."
"I… I don't know. I need to think about it," Anna said, "thanks."
"Sure, anytime," Rapunzel said, "no matter what, you're still my bestie."
Anna nodded and Rapunzel hopped down and gave her another hug. Anna fumbled with the door handle and then stumbled her way back to her room. She leaned against the bed and thought, hard.
"Could it really be one big misunderstanding?" she thought, "is it really partly my fault for not asking him to commit and not date anyone else?"
One thing Rapunzel said rang true; Hans hadn't needed to tell her anything.
"Maybe I should just head over there and talk to him first, see how that goes," she thought.
She decided to sleep on it, and ran through possible turns the conversation might take. The following morning, she woke up well before her alarm clock, before dawn, even. Unable to fall back asleep, she took her time showering and changing, and put her hair up in her favorite pair of pigtail braids. It was halfway between putting on her lucky sweater and her favorite canvas sneakers that she cursed out loud.
"The videos," she said. It wouldn't matter if they stayed together, but if they didn't…
She finished up quickly and jogged over to the frat; Eric waved to her as she entered.
"Hi Anna," he said as he gave her a strange look, but she didn't pay any attention to him as she climbed the steps to the second story. She took a deep breath and knocked on Hans' door. He opened it and a surprised expression came over his face.
"Anna, hey, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"I wanted to talk," she said as she pushed her way into his room.
"Uh, okay but, this really isn't a good time," Hans said.
"No, we need to talk. Now," Anna said as she turned around.
Hans cleared his throat and crossed his arms.
"Okay, talk," he said.
She took another deep breath.
"So… our relationship," Anna said, "I realized that you… you didn't think you were cheating, and maybe it was partly my fault for not knowing I needed to tell you we were exclusive."
Hans looked like he wanted to say something, but Anna plowed on.
"But if you're willing to apologize and… and… and swear not to date, or even look at another girl," Anna said, and she looked down at the carpet, "then, maybe we can… maybe we can work it out…"
She looked back up into his green eyes, and he regarded her with a very schooled, neutral expression.
"Yeah. About that-" he said, and the bathroom door opened behind Anna. She spun around to spot the dirty blonde hair and dark eyes of last person she expected to see.
"Chloe?" Anna said, "what are you doing here?"
"Anna? I thought you two broke up," Chloe said as she exited the bathroom and passed by Anna to stand next to Hans.
"We did," Hans said.
"We… no we didn't, that was just a fight, and a misunderstanding," Anna said.
Hans sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair.
"You called me an asshole and a prick, walked out, and slammed my door," Hans said.
"Because you were sleeping around!" Anna said.
"Anyway," he said, "after you broke up with me-"
"We didn't break up, I was just… angry," Anna said.
"After you broke up with me," Hans said, louder, "Chloe called, asked to stop by, one thing led to another and…"
"And? It's been like a day!" Anna said.
Hans shrugged.
"Gotta get right back up on that horse, you know?" he said.
"Did you sleep with her?" Anna asked.
Hans stayed silent.
"Twice," Chloe said.
"What the fuck…" Anna whispered.
"Well what did you expect?" he asked.
"You, to not be an asshole about this whole thing," she replied.
His lips formed a thin line as he stared her down, but Anna felt like a flamethrower might explode out of her chest and she glared right back at him.
"Alright look, it's clear this hasn't been fair to you at all," Hans said.
"You can say that again, what the hell," Anna said.
"But.. you said you wanted to work it out," he said, "I mean, I couldn't believe you broke up with me just like that and I do still like… I still love you, but-"
"But, I suggested we don't date anyone else, and he agreed," Chloe said. Hans facepalmed and groaned in annoyance, and Chloe grinned slyly at her and hugged him around his waist. The overwhelming urge to punch her in the face swept through Anna, but Hans moved first. Without looking up, he peeled her hands off of him. Anna, distracted from her initial violent response and somewhat in a state of shock, swallowed and tried to steady herself.
"What the fuck," she said as she stared at Hans, "we dated for over four months and you're all, 'we can still date whoever we want', and then after two days you're going steady? With her?"
"Okay," Hans said as he held both hands up, then formed a 'T', "Timeout. It doesn't have to be like this. The truth is, I like both of you. Have for some time. And yeah I did agree to date only Chloe, but that was when I thought we were broken up for good. Really, there's plenty of me to go around. The truth is… I'm… you know how it's possible to love more than one person?"
Anna blinked.
"No?!" she replied.
"Well.. it is, and I'm one of those people," Hans said.
"He's poly-aimerous," Chloe said.
"Shut up," Hans said as he held a finger out towards Chloe while maintaining eye contact with Anna, "it's polyamorous. It means you can fall in love with multiple people at the same time."
"Bullshit. That's not a thing," Anna said.
"It is," Hans said confidently, "but please don't discriminate, it's hurtful. I'm really sorry, I thought you knew."
She couldn't tell if he was being honest or joking about it being hurtful, but she shook her head; it didn't matter.
"How… You never said anything. How could I have known? And now you've gone and slept with her, of all people," Anna said as she gestured to the blonde.
Hans glanced at Chloe.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked.
"Yeah, what's wrong with me?" she said.
"She's a bitch and she hates my guts," Anna said.
"Well… I don't, uh, actually hate you," Chloe said, "you sucked earlier this year, but you've gotten a lot better since then, so…"
She shrugged. Anna stared at her open-mouthed. Hans shook his head.
"Okay look, if Chloe is okay with it, then we can still date," Hans said, "I mean, you said you loved me, right?"
Anna nodded, her mouth still open.
"I thought I did," she said quietly, "but what if I'm not like that? What if I'm like… normal, and only love one person at a time? And also like… can't stand Chloe. No offense."
"Anna, I love you," Hans said.
In spite of herself, her chest clenched slightly at the declaration.
"Stop. He's lying. He's a complete asshole and he's trying to find excuses for his asshole behavior. And have sex with you one last time," she thought
"-and when you love someone, you should accept them for who they are, right?" Hans continued.
"I… I guess?" Anna said.
"Then if you love me, you should be able to accept that I can love both of you, at the same time," Hans said, "and that's the deal, if you want to still be with me, then you have to accept that I'm in love with Chloe too, and we'll be dating also."
"I…"
Hans looked to Chloe.
"Same for you," he said.
Chloe looked Anna over from head to toe, and back again.
"I'm okay," the blonde said with a small smile. For a split-second, Anna felt like a rabbit that had been spotted by a wolf; for some reason, her heart thumped heavily against her ribcage, and she swallowed.
"Come on Anna. At least give it a try. If you don't like it, you can always leave," Hans said, "but I think we had something special, and we should try to work it out. I mean… everyone has to make compromises."
"Umm.. what?" Anna said.
"We'll have to share," he said, and crossed the distance to her. Before Anna knew what was happening, his lips were on hers.
"Wait, I don't," Anna said, her words muffled by the kiss, but the familiarity of it felt so damn good, and she didn't pull away. Then, without breaking contact, Hans stepped slightly to one side, and Anna's eyes snapped open as a third person, Chloe, joined the kiss. Anna leapt backwards like she'd touched an open socket.
"What the hell?" Anna said. She put her fingers to her lips where she tasted Chloe's lip gloss or chapstick or whatever she was wearing.
"You two need to kiss," Hans said with a small smirk. Chloe smiled at her.
"I… I don't want to. This is wrong," Anna said.
Chloe looked hurt.
"You don't think I'm pretty?" she asked, "don't even try denying checking me out in the shower."
"Uh, ew?" Anna said as her eyebrows went up, "I mean, don't get me wrong, you're in shape and all, but, no."
The thought of Chloe in the shower stuck in her brain though, water sluicing across her naked body, and heat rose to Anna's cheeks.
"Then why are you blushing," Chloe said as she stepped closer, "just try it, you might like it."
"Come on Anna. College is all about experimentation," Hans said, "It's the only way you can still be with me."
Shocked and confused, Anna stood paralyzed as Chloe stepped in and pressed their lips together, and her eyes fluttered shut. Chloe's soft lips massaged hers, and even though she kept them shut tight, a familiar warmth coiled in her stomach.
"What the fuck?" she thought. She pushed Chloe away, but the blonde merely grinned. Anna felt behind her for the doorknob, twisted it, and bolted. Chloe's cackling laughter followed her down the hallway, followed by Hans' angry voice.
"Shut the hell up," he said, but Anna wasn't paying any kind of attention, and their voices faded into the distance as she sprinted. She ran, all the way back to her dorm, and even though she was in top shape, her legs and lungs burned from the uphill climb, and her heart raced. She burst into her room and slammed the door behind her, then stared around, wild-eyed. Her gaze fell upon the Katy Perry poster taped to the wall beside her bed.
I kissed a girl..
Anna nearly tripped as she ran back out of her room and continued on up the steps. She wasn't sure where she was running, but she didn't care.
Even though the colors had mostly faded to brown, Elsa still enjoyed coming up to the roof of Anna's dorm for the peace and quiet. The bluejay flitted about the tree nearest to the roof, and Elsa absently watched it go about its business. She originally thought it would fly south for the winter, but as the weather turned colder, she eventually surmised that particular species didn't migrate. The serenity was marred by the banging of the stairwell door; someone else had arrived. Elsa leaned around the corner of the vent to spot a familiar redhead sat against the edge of the doorframe, the individual of her desire, the focus of her nearly every waking thought: Anna Christiansen.
"It's her," Elsa thought as she stood up. She watched, unnoticed for a moment. Something had upset her. She was crying, sniffling, and repeatedly wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Anna?" Elsa said, and the redhead looked up, panicked.
"Elsa. Um, hi," Anna said as she stood and wiped a few more tears away, "what are… what are you doing here?"
"This is where I come when I want to be alone for a while," Elsa replied.
"Stupid, why would you say that?" she thought.
Anna's shoulders slumped slightly.
"Oh. Sorry. I'll umm… I'll go somewhere else," Anna said as she turned towards the door.
"No!" Elsa said, and Anna froze, "No, I mean, you can stay. If you want."
Anna let her hand fall from the doorknob.
"Okay, thanks. I won't bother you," she said. The redhead retreated out of sight, around the far side of the stairway structure, and it wasn't long before the quiet sniffles again reached Elsa's ears. Elsa bit down on her lower lip, hard.
"Stay away. Whatever it is, it's none of your business, and if you try to help, you'll probably only make things worse," she thought, "but she's hurting, obviously. Are you really just going to stand here why she cries by herself?"
She wavered, took one step, then brought her foot back, bit her lip again, took a hesitant step forward, then finally made up her mind and walked around to the far side of the stairwell. Anna sat pitifully against the corner with her knees pulled up, and her face buried in her arms. Sobs wracked Anna's shoulders but she stifled them, probably so as not to disturb her. Elsa took two steps and sat down next to her, so that their hips and legs touched.
"What happened?" she asked quietly.
The redhead took a shuddering breath, then picked her head up to stare forward with red rimmed, swollen eyes.
"Hans, slept with Chloe and… he wanted to have a threesome or something. I think. I don't even know if it's my fault or… Maybe he never really cared about me at all," Anna replied.
Her face crumpled again and Elsa's arms moved on their own as she wrapped them about Anna in a side-hug.
"Oh Anna," she said, but internally a little voice whispered to her that Anna was now single. She shoved it away as completely inappropriate. It took a minute, but Anna eventually settled, and Elsa reluctantly brought her arms back.
"Can I tell you something?" Anna asked.
"Sure," Elsa replied.
"I know everyone says how optimistic I am, and I'm bubbly and all that, but you know… I'm not really happy all the time," Anna said.
Elsa let out a small chuckle.
"Nobody's happy all the time," Elsa said.
"Some of the time… a lot of the time, I'm miserable, and I'm just acting happy," Anna said. She frowned as she stared at the edge of the roof for a moment. Elsa regarded her silently; even now, eyes red and swollen, and tears staining her cheeks, she stole Elsa's breath away.
"Why do you do that?" Elsa asked.
Anna sighed deeply.
"I don't know. I got used to being the optimistic one, and I guess I feel like if I'm not, I'm letting everyone down," she replied, "plus it's good practice, you know, for plays, pretending to feel something you don't."
She wiped her cheeks with the back of one hand.
"Right now though, I don't really feel like I have anything to be happy about," she added.
Elsa's hand reached out, hovered for a moment made a small fist and lightly stroked Anna's back, a comforting gesture. The redhead continued to frown as she stared at the edge of the roof.
"You still have me," Elsa thought, "go on, tell her."
"You still have… hockey," Elsa said, "you're having a great rookie year."
"Coward," she thought.
Anna smirked weakly.
"Yeah, thanks to you," she said.
Elsa shook her head.
"Don't sell yourself short," she said.
They sat quietly for a minute, and Elsa was in heaven. Here she was, Anna, and she was upset, and it was herself, Elsa, helping her feel better. Anna had opened up to her. Anna would remember this moment, remember her as the one who was there for her in her time of need.
"Stop," Elsa thought.
"I'm so fucked up," Anna said, breaking Elsa's chain of thought.
"Why?" she asked.
"Can you keep a secret?" Anna asked.
Elsa paused.
"Anna, I have no friends. I don't talk to anyone except you, and that's only on occasion. Your secrets are safe with me," she replied.
Anna sighed again.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this, but when Chloe kissed me, I kind of got… turned on a little bit," she said, "how fucked up is that."
Elsa swallowed as fireworks went off in her mind, celebrating the fact that Anna might not be fully straight.
"Oh god, is it possible she's attracted to women?" she thought. On the outside though, she maintained a steady, neutral expression.
"I think that whole situation was messed up," she said.
Anna chuckled weakly.
"Yeah. I mean I know she hates my guts and everything. I don't even know why she kissed me. Anyway, don't worry, I'm definitely normal, not like… gay or anything," Anna said.
Elsa winced, but Anna didn't notice. It was the casual way she said it, the disapproval Elsa had so often heard, the insinuation that liking and loving other women was somehow abnormal. A cold gust of wind washed over them, and Anna shivered. She glanced at Elsa's light hoodie.
"How are you not cold?" she asked, "I'm freezing and I've only been up here a few minutes."
Elsa smirked.
"I'm from Norway, this isn't cold," she said.
"Well… I'm not. I'm going to head inside. Do you…? I have hot chocolate," Anna said.
Elsa hesitated, then put on a smile.
"Lead the way," she said.
She followed Anna down to her dorm. The redhead quickly pulled out a pair of mugs and filled them from a pitcher, then popped them into the microwave to heat up. Elsa leaned against the vacant bed and watched Anna work. The urge to hold her tightly, to kiss away her pain, was like a magnet drawing her to the redhead, but she crossed her arms tightly in front of her instead. Anna opened the small closet and pulled out a pair of instant hot chocolate powder packets. The microwave whirred as the two mugs circled one another inside.
"Elsa?" Anna said. Elsa looked up to see her staring directly at her, and nearly lost herself in those beautiful teal-colored eyes.
"Why did you shut me out?" the redhead asked.
Oh. Elsa opened her mouth, then closed it again.
"She's single, tell her it was a mistake, and you want to spend more time together," she thought.
"It's… complicated," Elsa said.
"Help me understand then," Anna said, "what did I do wrong?"
Elsa smiled sadly.
"You didn't do anything, it's just… just me," she replied. It sounded stupid even to her own years. Anna paused, then let out a small chuckle.
"It's not you, it's me, really? That line's older than dirt," she said. Elsa bit her lip and stared at the floor, but didn't say anything as the microwave continued to whir.
"When we were hanging out in Salem, I thought we were becoming good friends," Anna said.
"Run," Elsa thought, but when she looked up, Anna's eyes had filled with tears again, brimming, about to overflow, and Elsa froze on the spot.
"I know, I was so happy," Elsa thought, "happier than I deserve."
The urge to come clean to Anna, to tell her how she felt, how she filled her thoughts night and day, and how she longed for nothing but her happiness, swept through her, and in an instant of madness, she opened her mouth to speak, but the microwave chose that moment to ding.
"Stop. You heard her. She thinks you're abnormal. She would never accept your feelings," Elsa thought. Anna was still talking.
"…and if I didn't do anything wrong, maybe we could try being friends again, because I think my life has just turned upside down and I could really use a good friend right about now," Anna said, and her breath hitched in the last few words, then she squeezed her eyes and turned away as she broke down again. Despite her misgivings, Elsa couldn't help herself, and she crossed the short distance between the beds to turn Anna to her and embrace her tightly.
"It's okay," she said as Anna sobbed into her shoulder, "shh, it's okay, I'm here for you."
She stroked her back once, then froze.
"Danger!" Elsa thought, and she balled her hand into a fist to continue to rub Anna's back.
Anna stepped back suddenly and wiped her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said as she turned to open the microwave and pulled out two steaming mugs of hot water. She busied herself with opening and pouring the chocolate and sugar powder into them and then used a small spoon to stir them up. She held out one for Elsa.
"I didn't mean to… I'm a wreck, obviously," Anna said as she composed herself.
"It's okay," Elsa said as she accepted the hot chocolate and blew lightly across the top, "I… my schedule is really busy, but I'll try to… I'm here for you, if you need me."
"You're going to regret this," she thought.
She was sure she'd forgotten something… something important…
"Anna?" Olaf said. She looked up from the script, which she hadn't really been reading, at all.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she said.
"Your line," he said.
"Oh, right, uhh," she said as she scanned down the page, "it's not that… I'm engaged to someone else."
The clock on the wall ticked and a loud bell echoed through the room.
"That's it for this week," Belle said, "Anna, can you stay after please?"
Olaf glanced at her from the door, and Anna gave him a shrugging motion. She walked over to Belle.
"Hi, sorry, I know I've been distracted lately," Anna said.
"I get it, I know you're busy," Belle said, "and I know you said you wanted to take this role. You're really good, and you're the best person for it, but if you don't have the time to commit to it, the best time to let me know is now."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Anna said, "it's just that I'm kind of going through tough period right now. I'll be able to focus, promise."
Belle looked at her appraisingly.
"Okay. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help," she said.
Anna shook her head.
"No, just some personal… stuff, I need to deal with," she said.
She stowed her binder, picked up her bag, still held together with safety pins, and headed out to the hallway, where Olaf and Marshall waited for her.
"Hey, you've been completely distracted lately… everything okay?" Olaf asked.
"Yeah. I just… well I just went through a bad breakup," she said.
"Ohhhh, how interesting," Olaf said as he waggled his eyebrows, "so you're saying stage master Olaf now has a chance, eh?"
Marshall smacked him on the back of the head.
"Ow, settle down, I was only joking," Olaf said, and he cleared his throat, "I'm sorry to hear that Anna, let us know if there's anything we can do."
Anna smirked at the two boys' antics.
"Nah, I'm probably going to stay single for a while until I sort myself out. I just need to… oh, crap," she said.
"The tapes!" she thought.
"What?" Olaf asked.
"Nothing, I just remembered I forgot something," Anna said, "I'll talk to you later!"
She ran off into the dark campus without waiting for a response, all the way to Hans' frat. Flynn sat by the front door, peeling an apple and tossing the skin over his shoulder into the yard.
"Hey Flynn," she said as she bounded up the steps.
"Whoa," he said as he stood up to block the door, "hey Anna."
"Hey… I need to see Hans," she said as she tried to shuffle past him.
"Sorry, no can do," he said as he slid sideways to block her. She looked up at him.
"Seriously?" she asked.
"Yup. There's an event tonight and… you're not on the list," he said.
Her mouth dropped open. Getting into the frat house had never been an issue before.
"Well… uhh, is he in? I really need to talk to him," Anna said.
"Yeah he's here. I'll get him for you, just, wait here," Flynn said.
He ducked inside and Anna folded her arms and sat on the edge of the porch as crickets chirped. Inside the house, the sound of muffled voices reached her ears, serving only to highlight the fact that she was now an outsider looking in. Just as her ears started growing cold, the door opened and Hans stepped out.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," she said, awkwardly, "I uh… did you delete those videos?"
He looked confused for a second.
"Oh, the videos. No, not yet," he replied, "you still haven't let us know whether you're okay with, uh, with the arrangement."
"What, the three of us?" Anna asked.
Hans nodded.
"No, I'm not doing that," Anna said.
Hans' shoulders slumped ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly, but Anna noticed.
"Alright. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about how this went down," Hans said.
"Forget it, just… delete the files. Actually, I want to watch you delete them," Anna said.
"Uh, now's not really a good time," Hans said as he glanced over his shoulder.
Anna blinked.
"Is she… is she up there right now?" she asked.
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Hans replied.
Anna crossed her arms.
"Look I'll.. I'll go delete them right now-" he said.
"Not good enough," she said.
"And I'll give you the only copy," he added, "just to show I really wasn't trying to… mislead you, or whatever."
She supposed it was the best she was going to get. She really didn't want to see Chloe again outside of hockey, and if she came back another time, there would be no way of knowing if he made a copy and kept it for himself.
"There's no way of knowing he didn't already make a copy," Anna thought.
"Fine. Just hurry," she said.
He disappeared back inside the frat house, leaving her alone again. The seconds ticked by as Anna tried to count down how long it would take to transfer and delete the half-dozen or so videos they had made. Finally, the door opened again, and Hans handed an external hard drive to her, complete with connector cable.
"Here. You can keep the drive. No hard feelings," he said.
"Fine," Anna said.
She stood there on the porch and he stood in the doorway. The gravity of the moment hit her; they were officially broken up.
"Alright well, I'll see you around," he said. She stood there silently as he retreated back inside and shut the door. Anna turned around and started the hike back to her room.
"You're better off," she thought, and although she knew it to be true, at that moment, it didn't feel like it at all.
Anna set up near the left faceoff dot as her teammates worked the puck around the boards. With their opponents down a skater for the next minute and a half, Arendelle looked to capitalize on the power play advantage. Their D passed the puck down to Elsa who snapped it across the offensive zone, perfectly on target as always, aimed just in front of Anna back skate. She shifted her weight and drove through it, letting the flex of her stick snap the puck towards the goal, but something went wrong, and the puck skittered into the corner. The weight of her stick felt off, and she held it up to see it snapped clean in half.
"Damn," she thought as she dropped the broken shaft. The opposing team reached the puck first and shot it all the way down the ice. Anna retreated to her bench to come off for a substitute. She searched around for her backup stick and picked it up, and by that time Elsa and Rapunzel had joined her. It was an older, heavier stick, one that she played in high school with, but she didn't have a choice. During a stoppage, the ref brought over the broken pieces of her usual game stick. She sighed heavily; the broken shaft would set her back at least ninety or a hundred dollars. The rest of the game was more of the same, whether it was the old stick she wasn't used to, or just plain bad luck, she missed two great opportunities on the doorstep, one shot wide and one chipped over the crossbar, and she coughed up the puck on at least two other occasions when trying to stickhandle. It got so bad she ended up benched for the second half of the third period, and could only watch helplessly as her equipment grew cold and Arendelle lost 4-3.
In the locker room, she slammed down the broken pieces of her stick and ripped her pads off to fling them haphazardly into her bag.
"Anna-" Elsa said.
"I know!" Anna said, "I'll make sure to get some extra practice before the next game."
She left her teammate there and stalked off to the shower. She caught Rapunzel whispering to Elsa out of the corner of her eye but ignored them. She knew it wasn't Elsa's fault, and most of her frustration was at herself for letting her down. The fact she'd snapped at her made her even more annoyed at herself.
"Stupid fucking stick," she thought, "that's like my entire paycheck."
At this rate, she might have to pick up more hours. Anna made it back to the locker room before Elsa or Punzie, only to hear a chirping from her bag. She fished out her phone to see a voicemail from her father.
"Great, just what I need," she thought. She decided to listen to it later. Thanksgiving was in a few weeks, but she had several exams to go before then and she couldn't waste any more time on the bad game. She slung her bag over her shoulder, collected her sticks, and was out of the locker room before either Elsa or Rapunzel finished showering.