Chapter Text
She couldn't sleep that night.
She usually couldn't, to be fair. The doctor said it was insomnia. But she knew better. She said, that she felt like something awaited her outside. Like something was waiting for her to crack, waiting for her to make a move so it could snatch her away. The psychologists called it paranoia. She called it vigilance.
So when she heard her roommate Susan getting ready for school while she was getting her much needed sleep after a whole night of wake, she was so, so pissed.
"Susan, do that a little quieter please." She said, her voice still raspy from sleeping.
"Nalan, love, it's breakfast in a few minutes. You have to get up anyway."
"Whatever, I don't care, I don't need it."
Before Nalan could react, Susan reached out to snatch her blanket from her.
"Fuck! Susan, what the hell?"
"Get up, the attendance teacher will kill us otherwise."
"Ugh." Exclaimed Nalan, slowly getting up to almost sleep again, this time sitting up. Susan fixed this by hitting her with a pillow over her head.
"God, you are unbearable." Susan said, dragging her by her arm so she can finally get up.
"Mfine."
It took a few minutes to get Nalan to fully wake up, but after a few scoops of cereal she was back in her old, sardonic, bitter ways.
Ms. Harold's math class was as usual. She'd pop quiz literally everyone every two minutes.
It was fine for Nalan, who was literally the embodiment of an academic weapon, but for Susan, it was hell.
"What do you mean, tan 45° is 1? How does that even make sense?" She complained after class. Nalan had an answer for that.
"Well, trigonometric shapes are-"
"Nalan stop. I don't want to think about that right now." Susan brushed it off, and kept walking.
"Your choice." After a few minutes "Hey, you said you were going to act in a play at the boys' school. how's that coming around?"
"Well, apparently they need a stage manager."
"I can be a stage manager."
"Really?" Susan was almost jumping in joy.
"Sure." Nalan shook her shoulders in a detached, cool voice. "I don't mind being a stage manager."
Susan looked like she was on cloud nine. "We'll go together then?"
"We'll go together."
Susan almost squealed. "Let's go tell Ms. Rogers!"
***♤♡***
On the day of the rehearsal, after Josh's death, Nigel snuck up on Alex, who was currently watching Susan shine on stage.
He started with leaning into his ear, whispering, "I'm very sorry about your friend."
"Fuck off, freak." Alex replied, quiet, not taking his eyes off Susan.
Nigel seated himself. "That girl's really something, isn't she?"
Alex didn't reply, just kept staring at the golden haired girl.
"I'm not talking about her. Look at your left."
Nigel was pointing at a girl working in the backstage, taller than the girl on the stage, with short dark hair and slightly sunkissed skin. Nigel seemed to look enchanted by her, just like how Alex was enchanted by the other girl. She sorted candles, tied the ropes, as every actor waited for their turn, she waited for her cue.
She looked beautiful as the sun hit her golden brown eyes. She looked tired as the light illuminated her undereyes.
Nigel wanted to keep her in his heart, as one kept a photograph in their locket.
"I don't care." Replied the other boy.
"Fine." Said Nigel, leaving the church.
After the rehearsal, he didn't forget to go backstage to see the dark haired girl. She looked like something he wanted to have. Someone he'd want as his Maraclea.
When he arrived, he found her sleeping.
Truly, sleeping on one of the seats offered in the backstage, leaning her head on one of the stacks of crates.
She would be late to the bus.
But Nigel stayed to look a little closer. Freckles dotted her skin, dark jeans and a band shirt hugged her slim frame. She wore a leather jacket and dark red lipstick.
She looked dangerous.
She looked mesmerizing.
Nigel could not bear to look much longer, as he felt his heart getting electrified every second in her sight. His pupils blown wide and his breath quickening, he had to leave. His fingers yearned to run themselves through her hair, his lips yearned to kiss hers.
He had to leave his Maraclea alone.
For now.
***♤♡***
Nalan was almost missing the bus, had Susan not hung onto her shoulders like a sailor anchoring, and forced her awake.
"Do you always have to do this?" Asked Nalan, her voixe sandpapered again by the little nap she took.
"Yes! You were going to miss the bus, idiot!"
"Ask me if I care."
Susan smacked her on her upper arm.
"Ow! Okay okay, I'm getting up."
The road back to the school was a drag. Nalan could almost feel the monotone and misery prickling under her skin. The two M's that were most prevalent in her life.
Susan whispered to her as the girls on the front were gossiping.
"You seen that ginger guy that was watching me?"
"No. How did he look?" Asked Nalan, engaging with her friend when frankly she didn't care.
"Tall. Handsome." Susan looked like a giggling schoolgirl. "And he kept looking at me."
Now she was interested. "Girl, maybe that's because you played the main role, don't you think?"
"But like, even when I wasn't in the focus. In every scene. His eyes were on me."
Nalan could feel the happiness of her best friend, she couldn't help but smile.
"Well, just maybe this one won't be another heartbreak for you after all. But if he does anything wrong. I'll cut off his cock."
Susan giggled. "But there was another guy."
"Who?"
"Dark haired. Pale. Totally your type. Kept staring at you."
Nalan was more interested now. "How?"
"I don't know. What I do know is when the play was over and you were in the backstage napping, I saw him exit from there."
This filled Nalan with dread.
"What? Was he watching me sleep?"
"I really don't know. What I do know is that I saw him. But I'd guess he just got in to retrieve something from backstage."
"Huh."
Nalan was a little more paranoid now. She didn't know how to feel or to react. She was just sat in the bus. She fell quiet, and so did Susan.
When their bus hit the cobblestones on the floor of the schoolyard, she was still thinking about this.
This had to be fixed.