☆Glory☆

"Mom, don't go."

I'm at some place that I assume to be an airport. I can see a figure next to her- her husband.

Blonde hair, cold blue eyes. "Jambu- perfect family- Europe."

Don't go. I'm trying to shout the words, but nothing comes out. No. They can't go. No matter what she says, she must love me. I'm her daughter. She has to feel something for me, she can't just leave me like this.

She yanks her arm away, her mouthing tilting up into a sneer. "Did you think I loved you?" She's coming closer, whispering softly into my ear: "You were an accident."

I can see her husband next to her- Jambu's nowhere to be seen. He keeps pushing an uncooked piece of meat at my face.

"Think of what they will say when a girl with cancer-"

Anaconda's voice quickly increase until so many people are talking at once.

"Leukemia-"

"Accident-"

"Ruining my family, my fame, everything-"

"GO AWAY!"

"I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

"I have decided- to go- Europe-"

"GLORY!"

"GLORY!"

"GLORY!"

I wake up with a fever, my entire body wet with cold sweat.

~

"Ma, I want to wear Scarlett's green dress to the ball."

That's the one line that I say in every practice. It is also the line that Kestrel mocks me for, also in every practice after school. She mocks me so much that I find my head hurting even more. Add that to Scarlet Sky coming up to me in the morning asking me if I'm natural blonde with eyes that say, I want to pluck out all your hair and make myself a wig. Which makes me say yes, it is natural. Which leads her to ask me about my cancer with taunting eyes.

Tsunami says her lines almost emotionlessly. Although she does fit her role- Scarlett's as fiery and brave as much as she is- she just looks like her heart isn't in it.

"Ashley can't marry Melanie Hamilton! Ashley loves me! Maybe he just doesn't know." Tsunami clears her throat. "I know! I'll tell him that I love him at the barbeque tomorrow. Then he can marry me, instead of that boring girl."

"Very good, Tsunami." Kestrel's eyes are darting back and forth between me and her. "Bright! Glory Bright! You're supposed to go out after that scene."

No, I'm not, we're supposed to say our prayers. The words don't quite come out from ym mouth. I want to say something back, but then I look at Deathbringer below the stage, giving me a thumbs up when he meets my eyes. There's Riptide, who drove to our school just so he can see Tsunami for a few minutes afterwards. So I let it go.

"Go to page 7, when Scarlett's confessing to Ashley."

I hear Starlight's sigh as he comes up to the stage.

Tsunami's looking at him with unbidden discomfort. "Do I really have to confess my neverending love to Starflight before the entire school?"

Kestrel doesn't laugh, but she doesn't exactly scold, either. That woman. "Just do it."

"Ash-ley." Tsunami's dragging out the words. "I have something to tell you."

Starflight's trying to look down at her, although they're pretty much the same height. "Is it a secret, Scarlett?"

"Yes- I love you."

That I love you sounds so strange that I can't help but look at them. Oh- that's why. Tsunami's tilting her head so that she can see Riptide. And then her face goes completely red, and everyone laughs. But not everyone knows the reason behind the blush- that she had basically confessed to her boyfriend that she loved him. Starflight's pressing his lips together so he doesn't laugh, and looks at his script.

Starlight's good at that line- it's clear he practiced. "You're chasing after every man's heart in the barbeque, aren't you, Scarlett? Well, you know that I have always adored you...dear."

Even love can't keep Tsunami in character more than five minutes, and she makes a disgusted face. "So you have! I knew it."

"This is just a freaking play, in case you forgot," Starflight replies with a disgusted expression on his face. I go down the stage and sit next to Sunny, who's sitting next to Deathbringer.

"Starflight's been practicing, I think." Deathbringer whispers to Sunny. "Isn't he good?"

Sunny's staring at Starflight with a smile on her face. "Yeah, he's really good."

Deathbringer catches my eye, and he gives me a boyish grin, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "The famous Scarlett's Sister 1."

"Shut up." I look at Tsunami at the stage, and I have to admit I am a little jealous. I do want to play Scarlett, have so many lines to memorize and place all kinds of different emotions in every word. "She isn't appreciated enough. So much that she only has one line in the entire play. That's ridiculous."

"Tsunami really shines, doesn't she?" Riptide says randomly. And then he blushes. God, he's so cute. Not in a lover way. Like, in a favorite fictional male character way. The one that I have always liked in romance novels, the cute, kind boy that always got pushed out by the bad boy. "Sorry."

Just freaking marry already. "Yeah, except on stage," Deathbringer mutters.

"I don't think her heart's in it. If she tried, she probably could do it," Sunny says. But she seems a little tired, too. "Where's Clay?"

"Talking to his future wife," Deathbringer says lazily, leaning back on his chair. "Is actually blushing? God, he is."

"They'll grow up and have little redhead babies," I agree with a snort. "Peril, Clay. Clay, Peril. Cleril."

He doesn't miss a beat. "Riptide, Tsunami. Ripnami."

"Hey!" Riptide protests, but everyone knows he likes it. God, that cinnamon roll.

"Glory, Deathbringer. Glorybringer." Sunny's smiling in the dark, and I actually gape at her. That little devil.

"NO." We both say it at the same time, and Sunny finally bursts out laughing.

"Sunny, you've destroyed EVERYTHING." I am hiding my face with my hands because everything's too awkward. "Me- and him? Eww."

There, I have said it. Take your hands off your face and look at him. Tell them you don't like him.

Yeah, like that would be so freaking easy.

"You're right, Glory's so in love with me that everyone except her knows it," Deathbringer whispers with a smirk.

"Actually, I'm in love with myself."

His dark, dark eyes and the jet black hair that's falling over them. And me, unable to reach out and brush them to the side because the line of friendship is impossible to cross. Everything about him is sparkling. "That actually makes more sense."

Kestrel's voice: "GREATNESS! Come on up stage. Tsunami, we're done for today. And do something to your blue hair, for GOODNESS'S sake. Jg looks like freaking Dory pooped on it."

"Yeah, yeah, alright." Tsunami's rolling her eyes. Her hands go up to her hair immediately after, and I can tell it does bother her. Maybe the careless, sparkling Tsunami does care about what everyone else thinks. Maybe their words do bother her. Maybe she's so loud and smiling because she wants to hide everything that people might not like about her.

But then she sees Riptide next to us, and her doubting eyes light up. And they're walking towards each other like nobody else exists.

I always thought love was passionate, like a fire in your chest that got bigger, hot and beautiful and scary. But maybe it's not just that. Maybe it's just staring at someone's face and softly realizing that what everyone else thinks doesn't matter as long as that person loves it. Maybe it's meeting their eyes and unconsciously feeling yours sparkle. Maybe it isn't that much of a big deal, but even a bigger deal at the same time.

God, their vulnerability. It's like they don't even care if anybody else look at their eyes and know what they're thinking. They're just so open, so full of something I can't understand.

I watch them disappear in the darkness, and stand from my seat. My heart's starting to throb for no apparent reason, and I hate it. It makes me think of her, of Jambu, of Grandmother. "I'm going to go drink water."

"Let me go with you."

"No, it's alright." I am walking faster, my heart beating in tap tap tap beats. It's like someone's hammering my heart over and over again, and I don't exactly know why. My head is starting to lightly hurt. "I can go alone."

His voice. God, his voice. "Glory, are you alright?"

That's too frightening. Risking your entire bring for someone else. "Deathbringer, did you love her?"

He doesn't ask who, because he knows. I can hear from his voice that he's taken back, but he replies softly. "Yeah. I- I do."

"Didn't-Doesn't it hurt?" We're going out of the room. Surprisingly, I'm not thinking of him, but my mother. Anaconda. Because it hurts too badly to even try to trick myself that she didn't matter to me. It's too great, the darkness and the voices.

I'm leaning against the wall, wrapping my arms around my knees. "Loving someone. So-so risky."

Deathbringer sits down with me, leaning on the wall, mirroring my own movements. I'm looking into his eyes and his black bangs that gently hide them.

My own hair is falling into my eyes. I wonder what he sees in them, if he see the things I see in his. "It's is. It's so freaking hard and it's easy to mess up. And sometimes the circumstances are so hard. The people involved aren't always trying to hurt the other, sometimes it just flows that way."

"I'm so scared," I whisper. So scared to look at someone with everything you have and realize that they don't care about you.

Deathbringer gives me a smile. "It's supposed to be scary. Your every step has to be so careful, and they're so daunting. But look at Tsunami and Riptide- they're together and that's all that matters. In the end, it's about trust. So you do the best you can hoping they grow to know it."

"You sound like you've been into a lot of relationships." I mean, he has been. "But thanks, Deathbringer."

"I have. I mean, who can resist such a gentleman?" He reaches out and tucks the loose lock of blonde hair behind my ear. "See?"

I can't help but grin. His touch is electric, and although his fingers are gone the moment I realize what's happening, the magical affect takes place right away. His touch is soothing and aching at the same time.

"Sir, you are no gentleman," I say, with my best impression of Scarlett O'Hara. I reach out, too, and push the bangs to the side. His eyes are gentle and clear, and he's looking at me, only me. His lip tilt to one side, and he shows me one of his rare dimples.

"An apt observation," he replies, stroking his imaginary mustache. "And you, Miss, are no lady."

His lips, his eyes, his dimples always ask the same question. Maybe they always have, and I was too stupid to not realize it. It's a perfect scene- the sunlight from the big windows is shining on us, promising something. And his dark eyes are almost turning into this hot chocolate color, warm and comforting. Do you trust me?

Do I trust him? The charming boy that doesn't like to cry before anyone. The boy that flirts with every girl he meets, and unknowingly take their hearts. The boy with dark, dark eyes that seem brown when the sun shines on it. The boy with dimples. The boy that lends me a shoulder, that puts his arms around me when I need them. The boy that brushes my hair when he's feeling sad, the secret Gone with the Wind geek.

Do I trust this boy?

Yeah, I do.

My heart's thumping, and I'm thinking of Tsunami's vulnerable blue eyes and know that my own eyes are probably reflecting hers right now. The floor seems to be shaking- or maybe it's just my legs, thumping the floor along with the beat tap tap tap of my heart.

I'm thinking of Helianthus's advice of dropping subtle hints if I'm too scared to confess. But then, maybe Deathbringer is Helianthus. Maybe we have been exchanging emails all this time, talking about each other and not knowing it. Maybe.

Then I realize that I don't want to be a coward anymore.

I look up from the floor and stare at his face. I trust you. I don't feel my mouth opening, but before I know it, I'm telling him something in a whisper.

"I like you."

Tap.

"I like you, Deathbringer."

Tap.

"Do you- like me?"

...

Tap.