The cushy living room of the Mayweather estate was a spectacle. The wood flooring was perfectly polished, and the white shag carpet in the center of the room looked soft enough to sleep on without a pillow. There was a wooden table in the center of the room with different stains that gave it an eclectic design of light and dark colors. The white fabric couch sat in an L against the wall, and across the living room sat a wood-burning fireplace with a cobblestone brick outline.
On the wall sat a large big-screen television and right under it, on the mantle of the fireplace, sat a pair of antlers from the first kill of the season her dad got this last year. Elle hated the grotesque meaning behind the antlers. Why did her father need a reminder he shot and killed another living creature?
Elle looked at Selena and gave her a light smile when she looked back. Selena instantly turned her head away and Elle scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.
There was an awkward tension that hung in the air between Elle and Selena as they sat alone in Elle's living room. Elle couldn't tell if it was just quiet, or if there was something else that she couldn't pick up. She opened up her mouth to speak several times, but each time was met with silence.
Elle watched as Selena looked at her nails and inspected them. Selena was beautiful. Even with everything that happened today, there wasn't a single piece of her long brunette hair out of place. Her makeup was still perfect, not a smudge in sight. She picked an outfit today that highlighted the light golden brown color of her eyes.
Elle's parents would have been much happier with a daughter like Selena.
Unlike Selena, Elle's long blonde hair was in a messy bun. Her navy v-neck and jeans were far from the latest fashion. Her mother always tried to get her to wear a dress like Selena was wearing, but Elle didn't feel comfortable in dresses. She didn't like anything girly.
The silence became too much to bear, and Elle grew sick of comparing herself in her head.
"Girl to girl," Elle finally managed to get out of her mouth. "Is there something wrong that I should know about? I know we were close before but in this world we aren't, and I'm not expecting to be best friends forever, but we are bound together by something greater than both of us. We can't be at odds."
"There's nothing wrong," Selena said.
There was something in the way that she scrunched her face. The way she shook her head and instantly smiled seemed familiar. Like the face, her mother would make when she feigned innocence and wanted to just move on from the awkward conversation.
Elle closed her eyes and searched her memory for anything she could have done to upset Selena, but she had barely spoken to the girl since they met just a couple of weeks ago. Elle bit her lip and tried to access some of her old Glorianna memories. Surely Selena could not be holding a grudge over something that happened when they were kids, could she?
"Don't give me that," Elle said boldly. She had a long day, and while she'd normally have a little more tact when she approached this, her patience was already used upon the monster that wanted to kidnap her and take her to another monster. "I've seen you sit in silence exactly zero times, and here we are, in a quiet room. Something has to give, Selena. We have to be able to trust each other."
Selena twirled her hair and leaned back against the couch. Elle wondered if she played her hand right. Selena was an expressive girl, but altogether, she was hard to read. She had a lot of emotions, and you could never tell which was going to pop out.
"You don't remember, do you?"
"I don't?" Elle said confused. "I want to understand what's going on because we can't be in a place with tension right now."
"When I merged with Megara again I remembered everything. I remembered the time when we were best friends. How we used to get in trouble because we'd stay up late and spend hours talking about what we would do once we could travel the realm. I remember beating the boys in combat training because we had such a great friendship we could read each other on the battlefield with no hesitation. I also remember why we stopped being friends altogether."
Elle felt a wave of anxiety fall over her. Not only because Selena is accessing memories she can't seem to recall, but the idea that they stopped being friends and the way that she mentioned it made it sound like it was Elle's fault.
"Selena, please help me understand. I don't know if the memories release slowly, or if I'll ever get all of them back, but I genuinely don't know what you're talking about."
Selena crossed her arms and huffed. She looked behind her with a hopeful expression, but Jayden and Asher were still nowhere to be found. Elle could tell that Selena wanted the conversation to end, but Elle needed to fix her past mistakes. She couldn't be on a team with someone who didn't trust her. Let alone like her anymore.
"Please."
Selena sighed and looked at Elle. Elle could see the hurt in her eyes. Water welled at the bottom of her amber eyes, and she looked away and out the window before she had a chance to let a tear fall down her face. "It was a few days before we cast the spell that brought us here," Selena said.
"Judah or I guess Titus at that point," she paused. "Never mind it's stupid. It wasn't even the current you that did it. Let's just move on-"
"You can't just do that!" Elle cried.
"I don't want to speak about it, Elle."
Elle crossed her arms and huffed. She wasn't used to being in petty girl drama. She did her best to stay clear of that. Elle did her best to stay out of drama period. She was perfectly happy in the background. She didn't need to stand out. Even as the mayor's daughter. Everyone might know her name, but if they were asked a question about her specifically that wasn't generic, Elle doubted many people could answer it.
"Look," Elle said. "I would appreciate getting a second chance for whatever I did," Elle said. She felt like she was an ex-boyfriend trying to win back Selena's love. "I know whatever it was, I didn't intend to hurt you. I would never do something to intentionally hurt anyone."
Elle didn't know what else to say. She leaned back on the couch and began to hope that whatever the hell was taking Jayden and Asher so long would hurry up. Elle couldn't make Selena forgive her, and if that meant that they were only allies and friends on the battlefield then so be it.
"You were stealing him from me," Selena said softly.
Elle whipped her head around confused. Who had she been stealing? Judah? Elle could assure Selena that she had no interest in whatever it was that she and Judah had going on. Judah was just a friend. A good friend. There was nothing more and nothing less.
"We would all hang out together," Selena continued. "We were young, and it was proper for a lady to have a friend with her when seeing a boy. At first, I was grateful when you'd talk sports and hunting with him. Gave me a break to just listen, but eventually, I noticed when we'd hang out it was becoming less about me and more about you. I was jealous," Selena said. "I know I was jealous. So I snuck into your room the night of the banquet. You and the boys had already made your way to the carriages, and I stayed behind. I walked in under the guise that I was borrowing something, but I tore your room apart until I found what I needed."
Elle was shocked. Why would someone like Selena ever be jealous of someone like Elle? With her perfect hair, perfect heart-shaped face, and perfectly straight white teeth, Selena was every boy's dream.
Elle was more of a nightmare.
Elle's heart sank. She had a vivid memory return to her the second Selena started describing the scene. A large wooden door, dresses, and nightgowns were thrown all across the floor. Dressers and drawers were laid open and messed up.
She remembered she walked into her room and felt panicked.
"I stole your diary," said Selena. "Or Megara stole your diary. You confided how you grew to have feelings for Titus. I knew that I was going to be replaced. So I shut you out. I had hoped that if I started seeing him one on one his thoughts would linger back to me. He kept asking about you though. Prying questions under the guise of just being good friends, but a girl knows. I was going to confront you the day Gedeon invaded, but it was too late."
Elle felt awful.
Surely she knew that it was a younger, more naive version of Elle that did that. She would never develop feelings for Judah today. Especially if Selena wanted him. She wasn't a homewrecker. Living in a small town, that's the one thing society hates the most. You can murder someone and people forgive you, but you wreck a relationship? Well, you were the town harlot.
If her dad being in politics taught her anything, nothing spread a rumor faster than a small town. Even the high school drama was well-known news to the beauty shops and sports bars.
There wasn't much to do in Saffron. So even the most minuscule things turned into big ordeals, and Elle wanted no part of any of it.
"Selena, I don't know what you and Judah have going on now-"
"We have nothing going on," Selena interrupted.
"But I can assure you," Elle continued. "I want nothing to do with him in that way. If you want to pursue him then do so with the 100% certainty that I would never do anything to interfere with that."
Selena rolled her eyes and returned to twirling her hair. She shook her head and then glared at Elle. "You can't make that promise anymore, Elle," Selena let out a laugh of bewilderment. "I'm not trying to be a bitch, but you can't. You're not just you anymore Elle. I'm not just me. The boys aren't just who they used to be. We all have a new part of us. Something that we can't deny. Who knows how much of our old self is going to influence what we do now? The same girl who was falling for Titus before all of this disaster happened is the same girl that is going to be sitting next to him in algebra class."
Elle hated to admit it, but she could see where Selena was coming from. Elle might still be getting accustomed to Rosemary, but the actions she did in the past have real consequences, and unfortunately for her now, Rosemary screwed over Megara.
Getting these memories back was supposed to help them in their fight against Gedeon. Now it seems the only thing it did was help the cracks form deeper into an already divided group. Elle didn't know what to say. Both she and Selena knew that she was sorry. Besides, Elle had known Judah for years, and never once had she been interested in him in that way.
"For what it is worth," Elle said. She desperately wanted to break apart the silence. "I thought it was awesome how you became a tornado today. Was I scared for my life a bit? Yes. Was it amazing to see Ander get his ass slammed against the wall? Also yes."
Selena chuckled. She turned to Elle and sighed, "I don't even know how I did it. I was terrified. Ander had his sword pressed against my cheek and I couldn't even think. If Judah hadn't stepped in when he did, I probably would look like a victim of Wolverine," Selena turned away again, but Elle noticed her casually look back in her direction. "What about you? You split the earth in half today. I felt like I was watching a movie."
The question caught Elle off guard. She honestly wasn't sure how she did that either. Something told her to stomp on the ground, and she did. She had no idea what was going to come of it. She certainly wasn't expecting the gymnasium to turn into a chasm right in front of her eyes.
"I literally couldn't tell you how I did that," she said. "It was like Rosemary was in my brain controlling my impulses because I never would have thought to stomp on the ground. I thought my power was strictly growing things like trees and flowers, but I seem to have a few tricks up my sleeve."
The two girls laughed and Elle grew hopeful that this was the beginning of what their friendship could be. She knew what just happened between them wasn't just going to disappear, but this was a proverbial crack in Selena's armor.
And today, Elle learned that she could do a lot with a single crack.
"Look, about before," Selena began.
"Don't worry about it," Elle said. "This is complicated. I get it."
Selena stuck her perfectly manicured hand. "Let's do our best to let bygones be bygones. For the sake of the team."
Elle reached her hand out and shook Selena's, her chipped nail polish looked childish next to Selena's sleek and glossy nails. but she wasn't focused on that.
A twinge of guilt fell over Elle. Because, while she never pictured Judah in the light of a romantic partner before, after this conversation she couldn't help but picture it.
And slowly, she understood why Selena was fearful. Because if she was honest with herself, which Elle did not like doing, she could see the feelings appearing for Judah.
The way he lead the team and encouraged them to be better, the way he supported anyone who needed it, Judah was a catch. It was as if Rosemary flipped a switch and everything came flooding back.
Across the room, Elle heard someone clear their throat. Elle turned and saw Asher and Jayden standing at the entry to the living room. Their faces were pale, and even Asher had a look of concern on his face. Elle sat up, the once silly mood turned somber as the boys entered the room.
"Guys, we need to check on Judah. Somethings wrong."