Bitter-Sweet Things [closed]

"You don't know?!" Back to attention. The fire was once more stoked in her eyes, and she stood up at her full height, which actually allowed her to stand face to face with her believed destroyer. However, she was caught up on what exactly to respond indignantly with next. She had never heard what had happened between the two, but she just assumed Alicia of all people would know. Did she legitimately not know, or was she covering up? She stayed angry, but there was no real outlet for it to go, so it just ate her up inside instead. Still, she had gone this far... Might as well finish it off.

"He... He came back, without telling any of us." Her words were a bit more clear, and her return to anger temporarily stopped her from sobbing, though tears still formed and fell from her eyes as she spoke. "He showed up in my hospital room. I... I tried to ask him why he was there, but he only told me... th-that he wanted to make me better." For some reason, she had hoped that her little two year stay in that hospital wouldn't come up. Of course, she was the one who brought it up, but still: this was supposed to be easy to do. It was supposed to be easy to talk and be sociable and finish things for him, but it wasn't. It hadn't been, and it was worse to find her here, still happy, still known while he wasn't. "That's why he was here... t-to find a way to use his powers to take away my illness. But..." She didn't know how to explain it. It seemed incredibly farfetched; would she even believe her?

"I don't know why it happened... H-his powers were working, at least I think they were, but... M-my body accepted too much. I-I-I took them..." Her voice dropped to a whisper, but soon she was shouting again, grabbing Alicia's arm and squeezing it hard. "I stole his gift! I-I didn't mean to... I-it just transferred from him to me! And now he's gone, and I could barely even thank him before he left..." She felt worse. Every word that left her lips drove a dark pain through her heart, and she knew this wasn't right. Alicia didn't choose what anyone else did, but it felt like it should've made her feel better to blame this girl instead. "I should have died! And he should still be here! With... w-with you! It's your fault he's gone!" Nope, it didn't make her feel any better to say it. The realization didn't stop her from saying it, but it was something... maybe. "If you had... done... something, a-anything! Distracted him from thinking about me... H-he would be here! It's your fault!"

Alicia flinched for a moment at the girl's sharp, sudden words. She didn't know? She didn't know what? The Summer glanced down at the ground, biting her lip. Obviously almost nothing. She knew far too little about any of this, and the guilt was starting to gnaw away at her because of it. And that was only before she'd even started starting explaining anything to her. The more and more that Grace talked on, the more and more guilty that the young woman had begun to feel.

The young woman stared down at her feet as she listened to her, curling her fingers into fists and biting down on her teeth, taking in every word. Even as Grace grabbed at her arm, she didn't move. She only stood, surprised as ever to hear that this girl had managed to "steal" his gift away from him, somehow - in some way... The thing that hurt the most though was when that she said that he was the one who was gone, that she should've been the one that died. A sharp pain stabbed at her chest, and suddenly she'd felt colder than the shadows had been before. "He's... dead...?" The words came out only a whisper, and suddenly she felt weak in the knees.

She suddenly felt stupid, so incredibly stupid. He'd done everything he could to help her while he could, and what had she ever done to really repay him? He'd given himself up to help his girl, and now he was gone... "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know, I..." A few tears fell down her cheek against her will. "He never said... I should've cared more..." Words seemed to fail her then.

Something seemed off though...

She had never had a clue. How on earth could this all be her fault?

Grace let go of Alicia and backed a step away, her tears finally starting to cease. It felt worse though; an empty, gnawing feeling that left her feeling cold and and ill. "D-dead? N-no, h-he's not dead!" She was shouting again, and she quickly bit down on her lip to forcefully quiet herself before trying again. "I-I mean, h-he wasn't dead when I last saw him… I haven't seen him since h-he saved me, though. H-he was weakened when his powers were transferred to me, a-and now I-I can't contact him." At least she had stopped crying, but she still looked extraordinarily miserable, and she wasn't able to look Alicia in the eye.

"W-why…" Her hand curled up into a fist, though she didn't make a move to start throwing punches in Alicia's direction. She just looked exactly like she was: a sad little girl who missed her older cousin. "I-I miss him so much… H-he would know what to do, and I just c-can't do this…"

A sick wave of relief washed over the Summer, as she took a few steps back, rubbing her arms and trying to calm herself down. So, he wasn't dead after all, and out there somewhere - only God knew where exactly, where her gift couldn't find him at least. He frowned, shaking her head and trying to think on it. What would make him want to disappear, though? Why would he just save his family and then disappear off the face of the earth? It made no sense to her, and she figured then there was no way she knew him as well as she'd thought she had. "So, he's still out there..." The girl tore at her shirt sleeves. If that was the case, then there had to be something wrong with him... Someone had to find him.

What made even less sense was how this girl seemed to blame everything on Alicia, like this situation was all her fault. Panic and confusion slowly turned to anger as she stared back at Grace with a sharp look of her own. "But you!" The girl's brown eyes narrowed as she took a few steps forward, "How can you blame this all on me? I - I mean, of course I cared about him, but you can't just - You can't blame me for caring for you too! That's so -" She shook her head, unable to find the right words.

Grace took a step back in surprise, eyes suddenly going wide and fearful as anger began soaking Alicia's words. That was a shocking turn. The young girl also couldn't figure out what to say, tears once more returning to her eyes as a sick wave of nausea washed over her. "Y-you… B-but wh-why wouldn't he stay i-if you… d-did nothing? Y-you did something!" She was shouting again, causing a scene in an empty hall. She didn't care though; it felt better to shout, even if the opposite was actually the case. She desperately wanted answers, even if none were forthcoming. "H-he didn't h-have to come home! Wh-why did you let him leave?!"

A fire was starting to spark in the Summer's eyes, and it wasn't often at all that had happened with her - in fact, she could hardly the last time that she'd been so truly angry with someone that wasn't Montare, and even that had happened years ago. "First you say you're upset with me for not doing anything to stop him, and now you're mad because you think I did something to make him leave?" She shook her head, thinking that this girl was making no sense at all. She tried to speak up again, but she had to pause, a lard hump in her throat choking her words, threatening to make her tears spill. Still, she kept a low voice compared to the girl's yelling. "I thought that he'd just left me, after that night - I had no idea..." This was coming at all wrong, but she didn't care. This never made much sense to her to start with. "He left for you..." The words left a whisper. She was just trying to wrap her head around it all.

Her frown found graces again. "What do want from me?"

Huh... That was a good question. Grace just stood and gaped at Alicia, at a loss for words. Tears continued to fall from her eyes, but it was like she was disconnected from her emotions. Really, what could either of them do? Maybe he was unwell, and had to find somewhere to recover... because of her. It was her fault. Alicia barely had a clue what Grace was talking about; how could it be her that was at fault? Suddenly she was thrust back into her emotional turmoil, and she let out a choked sob, her eyes looking down at her feet. "I-it's my f-fault... I-I got sick, a-and I t-took his powers... I-I'm s-so sorry." She pressed her hands against her face as she cried, feeling sick and guilty. All that time wasted disliking this one person... and for what? He wasn't here, and being so accusatory wasn't going to help.

Alicia clenched her fists together, watching as the girl broke down into tears in front of her again. A part of her wanted to get back at this stranger, for screaming in her face and wrapping her hands around her neck, but she knew that she didn't have the heart for that. This girl was clearly torn up over what had happened to her cousin, maybe even more-so than she herself was hurting over Jacob's disappearance from the school. She could do nothing else in that moment but let out a heavy sigh. At least she'd known now what had happened to him, and that he still had to be out there, somewhere... At least for now. Why wouldn't he come back, though? His gift couldn't have been completely gone, could it?

Whilst she was known for being one of the calmest students in the school, she was still a Summer none-the-less, and in that moment a new resolve was forming quickly in her head. "Crying about it won't help, trust me..." She muttered, still staring Grace down. "He... has to be out there somewhere, right...?" She glanced out the window. "We have to find him."

Grace dropped her arms to her side and looked up at Alicia in surprise at her sudden decision. She wanted to... She wanted to find him so bad. But how? She didn't have a clue where he was. "H-how?" she murmured, voicing out her concerns. "I-I don't know wh-where he c-could be." Was she giving up that easily? Finding him was of tantamount importance, but she just didn't know what to do, and it hurt so bad. Alicia was right: they had to do something, but what could they do?

Alicia bit her lip, crossing her arms and glancing in the other direction thoughtfully. "There has to be some way. The school would know, right? They keep files on all the students..." There was no way they'd simply let him leave on his own accord without any other knowledge, at least that wasn't how she thought the school worked. They seemed completely uptight about everything, to keep the school a secret. "Or at least a hint or a lead that they could give, would that be enough?" She thought aloud. If she had something to go on, maybe her gift could do the rest? How would she get to it, though? She didn't know anyone who worked in the offices, the best thing that she could think of was the prefect election coming up.

"You really don't know anything?"

Grace whimpered softly when Alicia's attention was turned back on her. It had seemed for a moment that the older girl was lost in her own thoughts, but that didn't last long. "I-I don't. I-I've tried calling him, but he w-won't respond. Y-you don't think he hates me, do you?" That had to have been the stupidest thing she'd said yet. Why would he have saved her life if he had hated her? The look of misery etched upon her face did well to convey the immediate understanding that she realized how utterly idiotic that sounded. "I just want him to be okay..."

Alicia didn't bother to say anything about that. If this girl had no clue about anything, where he could've been hiding, or what had happened to him, there was no point in talking to her any longer, was there? Her fingers traced absentmindedly to her neck. It was all too easy to remember the ghastly chill that had been there not too long before. Every part of her wanted to get back at this girl. She had the worst history with these sort of run-ins than anyone else on campus, and she was so tired of it...

She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles had lost all color, before letting out a deep sigh, letting lose her grasp. "Are you going to help me this?" The summer asked quietly, "Or do I have to do it alone...?"

For a moment, the thought crossed Grace's mind that Alicia would hit her. The white knuckles were not exactly hidden, causing her face to nearly match the color. Her first instinct was to run, to just escape from a bad situation that she had admittedly caused by standing there for too long. However, maybe this was the best chance of finding him... and if that was the case, then she couldn't just freak out and hide from maybe the only person who could help.

"I-I want to find him..." She whispered softly, looking down at her shoes. "M-maybe th-the front office knows, o-or the h... h-hospital. Th-they w-would have s-seen him c-come and see me." The last place she wanted to go was back there, but if anyone knew something, she would have to explore that possibility, wouldn't she? Things had seemed a lot more 'in control' when she had been yelling at Alicia, but now the shaking Spring felt like the little kid she admittedly was, looked down upon by a very annoyed senior.

Pissed would be a better word than annoyed, but Alicia wasn't going to be the one to make a larger point of that. She instead glanced out the window, nodding absent-mindedly at the girl's quiet words, passively adding them in to her own collective thoughts. "Then it's settled, that's where we'll start." She murmured, glancing at the girl once more before wiping the last few tears off her cheek and raising her chin stubbornly. How did things like this happen so suddenly? "We'll start looking soon. Please, don't watch me anymore." She tried to say the words sternly, though they didn't come out as strongly as she would've liked. Still, the Summer figured her point was made and began to walk away down the hall, leaving Grace behind.

Well, that was that. It had definitely gone very horribly, though maybe there was a glimmer of hope that he would be found. If they, you know, worked together. They were not off to a riveting start, though. At the very least, it did not appear that bodily harm would come to her, causing Grace to let out a quiet sigh of relief. That relief was immediately replaced with embarrassed indignation at Alicia's last comment, admittedly not instantly following her demands as she watched the Summer start to walk away. "I-It wasn't on p-purpose!" She shouted this, though there probably had never been a meeker shout in existence. Another sigh escaped her lips as she realized she had no other reason to be here now, so she just turned around and started to walk the opposite direction... before realizing that Alicia was walking the same way Grace had come in from. ... Maybe there was a loop in the opposite direction.