It's Been So Long (Closed)

Classes were finally done for the day, and the sun had already started setting. That was one thing that was always great about the winter, it got dark quickly. No, but really. In Keirsta's eyes, the more time it was dark, the better. Sadly though, it was spring... And that luxury was fading. Flinging the bag of books down as soon as she walked in the door, the girl quickly took to opening up the dark purple curtains in her room to allow the light to softly illuminate her room. Of course, the Autumn quickly flipped on a lamp beside her to allow some more light as she flung herself onto the bed with a phone in her hand. It wasn't very late at all, and she knew if there was something that she wanted to do then she could. But for the time being, she just wanted to relax. But the girl couldn't help but chuckle as she took a drink of a just-opened bottle of the Corona branded brew, all the other hundreds of unopened bottles hiding underneath her bed. Since the girl had been practicing illusions, the bottles hadn't ever been really noticed. Which, was a good thing, as it kept her happy, even though she put herself onto a restriction for two of them a week. It wasn't long before it was empty, and the bottle was then stashed where the other empty ones were. Amazingly, the Autumn had done a great job of keeping it hidden with the air freshener that was constantly sprayed, and constant uses of mouth wash. All of the others in her dorm didn't really know her at all, as the girl kept to herself lately. But as her phone rang, and seeing who it was, she had made a mad dash for the tissues before answering her phone.

"Hello?"
Sniffles and sobs were all that she could hear from her mother. Which, was odd, as crying was something she hadn't ever seen unless something bad had happened.
"K-Keirsta...I'm sorry to disturb you but..."
The poor woman couldn't even her sentence before she burst out sobbing again. Yup, the Autumn was right to grab the tissues.
"W-What?"
"Y-Your father.. H-He... He... He died..."
The words rang in her head as she almost dropped her phone, a hand coming over her mouth as tears began pouring.
"I-I... I need a moment... I'll call you a little later..."
Keirsta's ever-so-knowing mother understood, and with a simple 'okay' their connection had been cut as they hung up. Throwing the box  of kleenex across her floor, the poor young lady just curled herself into a tight ball. The long, pink hair fell around her as she rested her head on her knees and wept. The man who had blessed (Or cursed, either way..) the Autumn with the wonderful gift had died, and all of a sudden she felt as if half of her had gone along with him.
With at least a half an hour of sobbing, it had taken her that long before she stopped. Brushing the tears from her eyes, finally calming down, the girl leaned against the wall that was to her right, sitting there and just staring. It had really happened... and Keirsta knew that it wouldn't be long until she'd be shutting everybody in her life out to leave herself depressed with the death of the figure she had been closest with.

But Keirsta was pulled away from the depressing moment she had to deal with when there was knocking upon her door, and quickly trying to straighten herself up, before saying anything she kicked the stray empty bottle under her bed and made sure that the over-sized blanket she had covered that side before spraying the air freshener. It didn't take her very long, maybe around ten seconds or so, but it would have to do. Leaning back against the wall, the Autumn let out a small cough before finally saying anything.
"Y-You can come in."

A foot stepped into the room, and blond hair popped into the room. "Hey! You wa-" The voice stopped mid sentence. Blue eyes met puffy blue eyes. Something had happened. That much was easy to see. His excited demeanor slipped away into a careful and sad one. "Are you alright?" His voice was soft and worried. Of course she wasn't alright. It's not like she'd by crying for no reason. Actually, some people do that, Leo remembered. But this didn't seem like that situation. Why was she upset? A worried frown was set on his face as he examined his friend. The angel boy took another step into his friend's dorm room, which had the scent of air freshener heavily in the air. To be honest, the smell of air freshener hurt his nose, but even then, there was another smell he couldn't place...

Staring at the student who had just walked into the room, a completely blank and lifeless expression was all that seemed to appear on the girl's’ face, as if she hadn’t recognized him at all. It was quickly passed when he asked about her condition, as to which she just waved a hand away. ”I-I’m fine…” A sniffle had interrupted her words, indicating otherwise. Heck, the way she looked just about plastered the giant ‘I’m lying’ tape to her skin. Which, would honestly be very hard to shake off.

Looking towards Leo one more with a heavy sigh, she motioned him over to her bed. Hoping to the high heavens he didn’t place his finger on the fact that she had been drinking, she stared at her nightstand for a moment and was ready to burst out crying again… This time for the fact of shear instability. A half-empty bottle was sitting on the small square table, and if she knew Leo she was going to get chewed out as soon as he had seen it.

Plopping back onto the mattress covered softly with an obsidian comforter, she grabbed her pillow and hugged it tightly. ”M-My… My dad died…” Her blue eyes glanced longingly at her phone, despair also filling the aqua gaze as she thought on how she had never been able to say goodbye.

The blond hesitated when she motioned him over, then deciding to follow her motion. Sitting down next to her on the mattress, at first he missed the bottle of alcohol, his only concern being Keirsta. Blue eyes followed her tearful gaze to her nightstand. 'Thats...!' Alcohol. He didn't need to finish the thought. The angel boy turned to speak to her about the offending bottle, before he had a chance she herself spoke. Needless to say it wasn't something he expected to hear.

Her father died? Any anger he had due to the alcohol disappeared as he heard her news. A sullen look matched his friend's own look. Without thinking, he brought her into a hug, his own tears in his eyes. It hurt. All he knew was that Keirsta had a strong relationship with her father. He didn't know what to say, so he stayed silent incase his pink haired friend wanted to say something. He wasn't too angry about the alcohol. He'd chew her out later.

Whether Leo would chew her out later or not, at the present time she needed time to grief. Even though, deep down she did know that her habit was certainly wrong. It went against her morals, it broke the law... Practically, it broke herself even. But the taste... It always made her come back. It was always so relieving to feel the cold alcohol run down the back of her throat, the slight burn only adding to how much she loved it. How the hell she ever got addicted to alcohol was something that even the girl herself couldn't remember... Strange as it was. Normally, that would be right on the top of someone's head. But nope. Not for her.

Keirsta's eyes widened slightly when she had been pulled into the hug by Leo, but even so the hug just brought her back into a fit of tears and sniffles. Honestly, at the moment, she was shaking from the sheer grief of the news, but also from the physical aspect of her sorrow. Pulling away from Leo's embrace after some time, she crossed her legs on the bed, grabbing her pillow. Hugging it close, she didn't care how childish she looked at the moment. "I-I'm sorry for you having to see me like this."

Leo sat back once she pulled away from his hug. His eyes trailed down to his hands, absentmindedly feeling the callouses set at the base of his fingers due to his training. Slowly blue eyes made their way back to his friend, who was curled up with a pillow. Then, glanced between the bottle and Keirsta. Lips pressed together, Leo stood up and moved to where he was in front of her. After some consideration, he found something to say. With a sympathetic look, he spoke honestly, his eyes and tone sounded concerned. ”There are many ways to go about grieving for someone, Keirsta,” He paused, picking up the bottle. ”but this,” He held up the alcohol. ”is not the best way to go about it.” Leo kneeled to the ground, looking up into her sad eyes. ”Your father wouldn’t want you to drink, I am sure your mother wouldn’t, and I certainly don’t either.” He wasn’t too sure about her parents, however he decided assumed that they wouldn’t either. What kind of parent would want their child to drink?

Keirsta looked up at Leo, almost afraid as he crossed in front of her. Wincing as soon as he picked up the bottle, her anxiety of people finding out about her habit hit her... Hard. Listening to his words though, she was somewhat relieved that he was mislead by it... But it also made it worse. She couldn't keep the truth from him, now that he knew the baseline of her drinking problem. Unable to avoid from looking into Leo's eyes, it almost made her burst out again. Man, she was a complete and utter wreck. "I-It's worse then that, Leo... R-Right before I came to Beata it started..." Stammering over her own words was something that wasn't typical for her, at all. Standing up, with a heavy sigh she crouched down, pulling up the black comforter and tossing it onto the bed, taking out all of the empty glass bottles from under her bed. They all sat in the cartons, all opened and gone. Give or take, there was six empty ones under there... And a lot more of unopened bottles. "I'm such a wreck." Pulling her knees close to her chest, Keirsta buried her face as she waited for Leo to shout at her.

What started? What got worse? Was it the alcohol? He didn't have to ask as Keirsta lifted the covers to her bed to show Leo. His breath hitched as he viewed the mass of bottles. That was a lot of bottles. Blue eyes wondered over the sheer amount of bottles. Hell! She was killing her liver with all of these! With a deep frown he leaned forward and began scooping the alcohol cases from under the bed. With every case or bottle he pulled out, he felt tears build in his eyes. Why would she do this to herself? How did she get into this habit?

It took a long while, but once he was sure the empty and full bottles alike were gone from under the bed, he turned to his friend. His soft blue eyes held unshed tears. "Damn it, Keirsta!" He cried out, biting his lip to hold back a sob before continuing. "You are killing yourself!"

Keeping herself bundled together tightly on the floor, she watched Leo intensely. Noticing how his eyes would get slightly puffy with each case he pulled out, it only made her bury her face into her knees once more. She hated herself for doing this. She hated herself for having gotten wrapped up in the grips of alcohol, to struggle to stop. She hated herself for making Leo so upset over her actions... It beat the girl up so easily to see that her friend was so distraught by what she had done... To harm herself. How could I have done such a thing?

Staring almost blankly at the dozens of bottles scattered out across the floor, it only then hit her at the horror of her addiction. She seriously could kill herself at any given time from she sheer amount she had drank, dulling the notable affects with her gift or not... They still wrecked an extreme havoc on her liver... And possibly even more of her body. Looking back up at Leo when she heard his words, she couldn't hold back from the stream of tears pouring down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry Leo... Y-You shouldn't have to worry about me... I made this mistake..." Picking one of the bottles up, she rolled it around in her hand before throwing it into the trash can by the door of her room, the glass shattering from the impact of hitting the metal bucket. "I-I don't mean to be killing myself... I don't want to loose any of you... All to this..." She was weeping at that point, back on the floor and sobbing in her knees.

Leo flinched as the girl threw the bottle, and the glass shattering. Her words made Leo relax a small bit. At least she knew her problem. All of this must have been hard on her. First her father, then the insecurity of Leo finding out about her problem. They sat there for a while, a stray tear dripped down his cheek as he looked back down at the bottles. Pushing himself toward Keirsta, Leo pulled her from the ground and held her in his arms. "I think I'll always worry about you." He whispered, something said both to Keirsta and himself.

Now that he learned about Keirsta's problem, his latest statement would apply. Even if she didn't want his help, he'd most likely still help. It has always been a habit of his to help other people, even if people didn't want it. It had gotten him in more than a few arguments as a kid. Leo just hoped that this wasn't the case.

During the time they had both been sitting in her dorm room, Keirsta had stayed curled up in her ball-like manner. The normally bright blue eyes seemingly had dulled, the gaze itself just being held in the distance, captivated by practically nothing. Even if it seemed like the girl herself was lifeless, her mind was racing. Thoughts scattered to the point where it seemed she didn't even register the fact of her thoughts, all of them just seemingly whizzing by without a trace. After awhile the conscience of them did return, only to find herself thinking solely about her pro- no, addiction. Her addiction. Looking at every single empty bottle, and every single full one... Her gaze even trailing up to the half-empty one still sitting on her nightstand.

How could I have come to this?

When she suddenly felt Leo's arms wrapped around her, a short gasp escaped her lips. It wasn't that she protested against it, no. Just the fact that the hug sent her back into reality. Hearing his words, she looked at him with a slight frown. "Leo..." That was all she could say in response to his promise to look out for her.

Leo looked down at her, and gave her a small smile, one that reached. "I promise." A smile and his words, he hoped would bring confidence that things would get better. Now that she had someone to help her, Leo was certain she could get better. "The first step to getting better, Keirsta," He started, rubbing his eyes. "is getting rid of all the booze."

With that he slowly picked her up, then set her feet on the ground. Once he was sure she was steady, the angel student began picking up the cases of full bottles, carrying several at at time. Carefully, he made his way to the bathroom and began the tedious process of opening the bottles and pouring out their unhealthy contents. He positioned the bottles to pour out on their own. The smell of the booze made the blond wrinkle his nose in disgust. He couldn't quite understand how Keirsta could drink this.

Looking up at him with uncertainty when she heard the words 'get rid of', she could only reluctantly nod. The addicted side of her want to jump out and guzzle all of what she could before it would be gone, and as hard as that would be to get much she somehow held back from doing so.

As Leo carried the bottles of the unopened Corona, she managed to grab herself a bottle. Quickly downing the open one on her nightstand, and throwing it away, she looked at the bottle in her hand and sighed. So much for stress relief... Walking into the bathroom to where Leo was, she popped the bottle cap on the one in her hand, took a swig, and then started pouring it down the drain. She almost wanted to cry at the sight of it. Turning on the water to somewhat dilute the smell, it was so hard for her not to take another gulp of it.

Quickly popping the rest of the bottle tabs that Leo hadn't taken care of, she turned all of the bottles upside-down that she had, once more about to cry from the sight of all of her beer going down the drain. Once those were taken care of though, she grabbed as many empty bottles and caps as she could... Pouring the caps in one trash bag while putting all of the bottles in another. Recycling will have a shit ton of metal and glass now.

Sighing when only empty bottles were left, she started putting those in the trash bags too. Somehow, with everything, it only filled up two bags in total. Wiping a stray tear from her eye, she set the bags in her closet... The one place she always put the trash. (Somehow, she always remembered to take it out with it there.)

Looking back at Leo once the clean up had been completed, she went back to her bed. Flipping the cover down, she jumped back onto it. Hunching over slightly, she put a piece of gum in her mouth before looking once more towards the blonde. "You know, the story on how I first got into drinking is really bad."

Once the cleanup was over, Leo stretched, his past upsetness gone, and a confident and energized vibe was around him. Watching Keirsta finish throwing the bottles into a trash bag, and the closet, he stood across from the bed, arms crossed. When she spoke, his confident air disappeared into a frown as he listened. "You can tell me, ya' know."


ooc;sorry crappy post got to go

Sort of gazing off into the distance, she pushed herself backwards to lean against the wall behind her bed. Patting the spot beside her, she decided that him standing throughout the long story wouldn't be too wise. Sure, it was better then just sitting down, but she knew what could happen from just standing. Once he took his spot, Keirsts sighed softly before running her hands up and down her thighs, recalling all of the details.

"I had to have been about ten or so... So about five or so years ago. My family had a party, we were all gathering around for Christmas. We had all opened our presents, I had gotten my first phone, and so I was sitting back on the couch playing some World of Warcraft like game on it... I can't really remember. But my dad had been sitting with me just a bit ago, teaching me how to use it and such. My dad... Well, he drank. A lot. Mom always said that he drank soda that was bad for kids, so I never touched it. But when I was sitting there, I had absent-pin deadly reached over and thought I had grabbed my cup... But when I took a drink it didn't taste right. Heh... I had taken a giant gulp of my dad's Corona. That's all he ever drank. My mom when she found out was mortified, and my dad was scared half to death. Since then I'd always sneak a sip of his beer whenever he had it out, even after that incident he still drank, but not as much. He never found out about me sneaking drinks until I came to Beata when I had stolen a bottle of it... I guess that's just how it's always been. I'd sneak a sip or two and it lead up to this."

Tears wanted to spill down her cheeks for the seventh time, the memory of her father in that way still stinging. Running her fingers through her hair and pulling it back, her blue eyes locked with Leo's. "Pretty bad, isn't it?"