Leala Kaine
"Well good morning to you, sunshine," I laughed, eyeing the tiny blonde as she stumbled into the room. I couldn't remember just how late it had been when Jas had finally passed out. She'd made it through at least two bottles of wine on her own before she started in on my cognac.
The more she drank, the more she talked. Despite the fact that her closest friend in existence had finally come back into her life, anyone could tell, that there was still a Darien Grace shaped hole in her heart. The Darien who returned from France was remarkably changed from the girl I'd come to know. Some might say the change was for the better, but the differences were eating away at the youngest McKenney. She'd spent the majority of her life following along in the wake of Darien's debauchery and chaos. It was all she knew and the change in her adopted sister weighed on her.
Darien moved like a ghost through the house, passing in and out of moments of awareness. She'd started the night out with Jas and I, laughing along to the old sitcom on playing on the television. Halfway through, something seemed to snap in her mind. She fell out of the conversation, staring off into space as her right hand tapped a strange rhythm against the arm of the sofa.
"That normal?" I asked, taking a sip from my glass.
Jas sighed, her gaze locked on the screen. "It is these days."
Darien's left hand joined the right, playing absently across the surface of the pillow sat in her lap, her glass of wine forgotten on the table beside her. Her eyes closed and her head tilted to each side in a languid arch to a song no one else could hear.
"Still working on the coloring book piece?" I'd seen the multi-colored pages hung like wallpaper throughout Darien's room. She'd been back in the city for a little over a week and she'd spent the majority of that time in her room, staring hopelessly at the large expanse of blank wall between the pages. Each night she played the half-finished composition over and over again trying any possible progression to fill the void left between each half of the arrangement.
There was only one day left before the start of term. Jas and I had only just coaxed her out from her musical isolation and already she was drifting back into the recesses of her mind.
"It's all she can think about. Problem is, the more she thinks, the further the answer drifts away. Dad says it's the curse of the brilliant." She scoffed, downing her entire glass.
"Isn't it a good thing she's playing? Catharsis and all that?"
"Not like this. It's the same sort fucked up mental shit that drove her to France in the first place. Yes, she's playing, but she doesn't know why. She's not fucking dealing so she doesn't know what it is she's writing this piece about."
"Damn Dr. McKenney. Where did you get your degree?" I laughed, trying my best to lighten the mood.
"I'm the leading expert on the mystery that is Darien Grace." She waved her hand dramatically toward her best friend. As if on queue, Darien got up and strode from the room. Moments later we heard the faint plunk of piano keys drift up to us from two floors below.
As the night wore on, Jas's control began to waver; her filter on her thoughts gradually disappearing. She'd started sobbing around two in the morning. She was frustrated and heartbroken. Darien had retreated so far inside of herself she as practically a stranger to her best friend. Her moments of clarity seemed to cut deeper the longer they lasted. Jas's hope that she was finally coming back into her old self would grow only to be crushed as Darien retreated once more to the locked recesses of her mind.
I tried everything I could think of to distract the youngest McKenney. At some point during the night she'd insisted on trying to paint my nails; I agreed without hesitation. If it would make her smile again, I'd let her do it as often as she liked. Unfortunately though, I'd woken up to find bright red lacquer smeared across my hands and part of my face.
"Not in the mood, Lees," Jas muttered, throwing one manicured finger into the air as she crossed the brightly lit kitchen. Her usually pristine demeanor was thrown off by the matted mess of loose curls thrown haphazardly into a ponytail. The sleeve of her ratty, oversized T-shirt fell off of her shoulder—the hem barely came to the middle of her thighs as she stumbled into the room.
"Seems like someone slept well," I chuckled, my gaze drinking in the criminally short hem of her shirt and the appealing expanse of toned, sun-kissed skin exposed beneath. A warm shudder went through me as I thought back on the morning—waking up with her in my arms, our legs intertwined beneath her heavy comforter. I laid there, training my fingertips up and down across the bare expanse of her upper thigh as it wrapped possessively around my own. After a few short seconds, her breathing shifted and she stirred...
My cheeks reddened at the memory.
"My head is killing me," she groaned, digging through the refrigerator.
"That would be the cognac."
"You let me drink cognac?" She cradled her head in one hand, her voice breaking on the question.
"Let, no. Mournfully watched, yes. I tried to stop you, but you wouldn't have it."
"Fuck. Quiet—be quiet. Inside voices," she whined, still digging in the fridge. "Where's the goddamn cold brew?"
"Okay. You—sit," I said, steering her away from the fridge and onto one of the stools on the opposite side of the kitchen island. The pitcher of coffee was tucked toward the back of the refrigerator. I poured her a glass, stirring in an obscene amount of sugar before topping it off with a splash of almond milk.
"Take these." I dropped two ibuprofen into her open hand and she took the glass.
"Thanks, Lees."
"Always."
"Any chance you've seen Dari?" Jas asked, cradling her chilled glass between her hands.
"She ducked out about an hour ago coloring book in tow. Should we be worried?" I reached for my mug of tea.
"No," Jas sighed. "I have a feeling I know where she went. Let me make a quick call."
Jas shuffled back into the room a few minutes later, her relief obvious.
"She's at the school. Dad popped by the practice rooms. She's locked in her usual space and is completely dead to the world."
"I'm assuming by expressing this is a good thing?"
"It means I don't have to listen to the same goddamn progression five hundred times while nursing a hangover. And, we have the house to ourselves. So yeah, I'd say it's a good thing."
* * *
Jas wasn't able to properly function again until well into the evening. She had insisted upon lying in bed all day—swearing up and down that classic Disney movies were the ultimate hang-over cure. I watched as she followed along to what had to be every movie from the Disney Vault. She knew each line word for word—it was adorable.
"How many times have you seen this?" I asked, laughing as she animatedly sung along to The Lion King.
"To date?" She'd asked, grinning guiltily at me.
"Gods I don't think I want to know anymore."
"I used to make Dari turn it on every night. It kept me from having bad dreams."
"Even though the kid watched his father die?"
"I made her fast-forward through that part..."
"Of course you did." I could see the hurt that still haunted her gaze at the thought of her best friend. Frowning, I did whatever I could to keep her talking—she truly loved Disney and the more she talked the less the hurt seemed to show.
We'd just begun our eighth movie when a knock sounded at the front door. Jas looked helplessly towards me, jutting her bottom lip out pitifully.
"How Barney put up with you for so long, I have no idea." I heaved myself up, off of the sofa and trudged toward the front door. I'd just begun to open it when I caught site of the familiar head of curly hair rushing down the stoop. Bemused, I leaned against the open door, watching as he stopped at the bottom of the steps. He shook his head, muttering under his breath. Nervously, he twisted a brown bagged bottle in his hands before coming to some sort of conclusion. His chest heaved and he spun back around, his eyes going wide the second he saw me.
"That bottle better be made of unicorn tears and sunshine or you're not making it through this door," I warned. Over the past few weeks, we'd finally made it past everything and resolved the issues that his relationship with Darien had caused to form between us. I wasn't particularly in the mood to pick yet another fight with one of my best mate's, but I wasn't sure of the consequences his presence at the McKenney household would cause. I'd spent the day struggling to cheer up Jas and I wasn't particularly looking forward to cleaning up yet another of his messes.
"Sadly, no, but it's close," he promised, "Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon."
"Year?"
"1994." He must have seen my frown because he continued, "It's from the year she was born."
"Clever."
"I'm pulling out all the stops." He gazed insistently at me, willing me to sympathize.
"She's not really in the mood for another drink. Come back next year."
"Leala—"
"You realize that it's going to take more than a bottle of wine? The other day was the tip of the iceberg. If you go in there, you won't just have to make amends for what you did to her, but what Ren did as well."
"I never meant to hurt either of them."
"Doesn't matter. Damage is done."
"What am I supposed to do?" In that moment, he looked just as broken as I knew all of us to be. Everyone even remotely connected to the fall out at Christmas had been impacted in one way or another. I'd temporarily lost my best friend. Jas had lost two of hers and Darien.. to her it had been as if she'd lost her entire world. Her dependency on Harry had been a difficult thing for me to grasp in the beginning. The more time I'd spent with Jas and the McKenney's though, the more I began to understand. They hadn't told me much, but it had been enough to understand that what had happen had broken her—shattered her through to the core.
I still believed that both Darien and Harry were in love with each other—that much was painfully obvious. I'd despised Darien's relationship with him because I could see their connection ran far beyond what anyone else realized. The had the ability to lift each other up higher than ever before, but each also held the power to send the other careening back down. Harry and Darien had been made for each other. There had been a time when I would have believed Eirwin Bach was that person. So much had changed since then—he'd changed. Darien had changed Harry as surly as he'd changed her.
"You're not coming in," I said, still leaning protectively across the door frame. Harry's eyes darkened and he pulled his free hand through his hair. I sighed. "But, I will pass along the message."
I held out my hand for the bottle of wine and he stared at me, confusion plain on his face.
"Without that girl's help," I nodded back into the house in reference to the blonde within, "you won't stand a chance."
"You think that there's a chance?"
"My opinion doesn't matter."
"But you'll talk to her?" He asked, moving one step further up the stoop.
"I'll pass along the message, what she does with it—that's out of my hands."
"Lees, who's at the door?" Jas called, her voice echoing from the den.
"You've got your work cut out for you, Harriet. Don't screw it up." I flashed him a sympathetic smile before closing the door behind me.
This should be interesting.
A/N: Hello my angels! Welcome back!!!
And we are slowly building.... but what do you think? Should we give our darling Professor a chance?
What do y'all want to see happen next?
Also, just wanted to throw a little reminder in that all new characters will be based on you, my friends. That's right. You can be a part of Darien's world, because honestly? Y'all are the best part of mine. I read every single comment left on every single chapter and seeing y'all's love for the characters and your dedication to my s.hit upload schedule is d.amn near magical.
So do me a favor, pop on over to the So You Want to be a Character section of this book (I've posted it toward the front for new readers). Fill out all of the information listed there and comment. I will be picking the names of the most engaged readers and you will get a special shout-out at the end of the chapter. I have my first guest character popping up in Chapter 15, so we still have a bit of time, but I'm on a bit of a binge when it comes to writing at the moment. I'm stocking up on new chapters.
So please, please, please... COMMENT AWAY! If you don't comment, I can't get to know you, and if I don't know you, I can't do your character justice.
Finally, a little shoutout to my two favs:
1. The Famoux and The Classix by famouxx It has to be one of the most well-written duos I've ever read. Not to mention, Kassandra is heaven sent. So please, pop on by and give 'em a read! The Classix updates every Friday! #FMXFriday
2. THE AROTTIR by hannahgrowe It's got swords. It's got drama. AND, it's got some romance. TRIPLE THREAT. Updates every Tuesday! #ArottirTuesday
Anywho, that's all for now, folks. See you next week, my loves!
Loads of love,
--xE