Right Now, You're the Enemy (Lani.)

[Elisia Lark]

Poor Adrian, gosh it was like she couldn't catch a break. Between her mother calling and trying to act all happy, to her dad trying to get back in her life and all of the problems she was having with Lani to add on to that. She came home the other day bawling her eyes out and Ellie didn't know how to help. The older girl used to be happy all the time and constantly dancing around the dorm room, but lately all she did was cry or sulk. She didn't dance, she hardly drew and all of her personality was drained from her. It was hard living with someone so unhappy and not being able to get the slightest smile out of her. It made Elisia feel useless.

Sure, she knew that Adri had her own friends that knew her better, but Ellie was a helper. She needed to make everyone else around her happy because it made her feel better. All of the depressing music that played in their dorm was messing with her and she couldn't keep it up much longer. She loved Adrian, but her music choice was physically affecting Ellie. Elisia didn't have that great of control over her power so she couldn't just shut it off when she wanted. It felt like she was drowning in her own dorm room. One of the worst feelings she'd ever encountered was when she was listening to this type of music.

Due to that fact, she spent a lot of her time outside of her dorm. When Adrian was sleeping or off doing her own thing, Ellie took a break from watching her and headed out to do something for herself. Sometimes it was hanging out with Guy, but at the moment, Guy was on Adrian duty so instead Ellie was out for a walk in the nice weather. That was the great thing about summer, it was always bright and happy outside. It gave her a reprieve away from the darkness that had engulfed their dorm room. She could even get in some of her reading she wanted to do!

Ellie walked through the courtyard until she came to the giant tree that was perfect for reading and settled herself there. A slight breeze ruffled her hair and she breathed it in with a smile. This was nice. Pleasant. And she wasn't the slightest bit stressed out.

Yet.

[Lani Hunter]

One last trip in the courtyard. Was it hard to say he would miss this place? So many good memories, so many bad. He couldn’t quite keep track of all of them but he did have to say as he was glad to go he was also saddened. Friends, enemies, friends turned enemies. Adrianna, Odion. He had met all of the people he cared about here. And now that Adrianna wasn’t speaking to him he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay much longer. It wasn’t supposed to work like this. They were supposed to be best friends. They were supposed to help each other and tell each other everything. His heart still clenched as his memory called the sound of his voice. It had been the comment about happiness that had done it. He hadn’t meant it to be hurtful, but the more he thought about it the more he wanted to cut out his tongue for its foolishness.

He sighed and dressed in a pair of shorts and a dark colored t-shirt. He kicked at a rock and his power caught it as it got airborne. He caught it and tossed it into the grass wishing he had some way to relieve all of this frustration. It helped that Odion was there. He didn’t know what he would do without the redhead. As frustrating and pushy as he could be. He kept failing. That blonde girl was right. He wasn’t worth a lick when it came to protection. Lani’s heart clenched and he closed his eyes against the harshness of the sun. Try as he may to push their fight from his mind it was ever present. He kept hearing his voice over and over again. He almost wished he had the courage to ask Odion to go back and make him not say it. Then maybe he and Adrianna would still be friends.

It was then he caught sight of Elisia. Smiling he paced toward her giving her a wave. “Hey, how’s it going? Glad to be done with Physics?” He asked pleasantly. If he recalled correctly she was one of Adrianna’s roommates. Maybe he could convince her to spy for him. He needed to know that Adrianna wasn’t still cutting herself. He needed desperately to know that.

[Elisia Lark]

Of course, she just settled and someone comes over to talk to her. Social as she was now, talking to people got a little exhausting when she was constantly doing it. She didn't even know who it was that was coming towards her, but whoever it was, was interrupting her free time. Only to stress her out further. Couldn't she have an hour without this? Elisia wasn't one to really complain about people talking to her, or meeting new people or even putting up with all of this stress, she just had a lot on her plate with Adrian. She didn't need anymore. It was a full time job taking care of the older girl as it was. And just as she looked up, caught the wave and figured out who it was, she sighed and closed her eyes. Well he couldn't have worse timing.

And to sound so nonchalant about it all. Didn't he know she was Adrian's roommate?

But she put on a happy face regardless. Opening her eyes and looking up at her, she gave him a smile and waved back, setting her book down for a later time. At this rate, she'd never finish the book and move onto the next one in the series. Bah. "Hiya, Lani...it's Lani right? I'm sorta terrible with names," of people that she probably shouldn't be talking to. "Oh gosh yes! That class...worst thing I've ever taken. I can't even...just no. I'll stick with my earth sciences." Huh, as long as it didn't lead to talking about Adrian, maybe it could work. He honestly should know that if he asked her to spy on Adrian, she'd tell him to shove it because she was friends with Adrianna, not him. Even if he had helped her with that stupid Physics lab.

Besides, she didn't need to spy. Elisia knew for a fact that Adrian had stopped cutting. She resorted to Nair, the gel stuff that doesn't need a razor and it seemed to be working well enough for her. It was all thanks to Lani's jerkness that Adrian was doing so well. She was proving to him (even if she wasn't talking to him) that she could do it without him. That she had a support system that worked and didn't have to yell at her constantly to get through to her. Guy was doing a pretty fantastic job and it only made Elisia like him that much more. And she sort of stopped thinking that Lani was a nice person. In fact, she thought he was sort of a tool now.

[Lani Hunter]

“Yeah,” he said verifying it with a nod of his head. “You’re Elisia, right?” He didn’t doubt he knew her name but he had found some people can tend to feel rather bad if they forgot a name and the other person didn’t. It happened to everyone, nothing to get upset over. Not when there were bigger problems at hand. Lani ground his teeth behind his smile. Like Adrianna’s mother. Lani wished he could help her, he knew how badly she was hurting, how afraid she was. He’d felt it too. It had been the one thing they could both relate to. Perhaps that was why they had fallen apart. It was perhaps one of the only things they had that they could both relate to. They had lived in different worlds, then Lani had dragged her into his and him into hers. Lani was really starting to wonder why he couldn’t seem to do anything right.

Lani laughed in turn. “Don’t get too excited, earth sciences use a lot of physics. Especially if you get into physical oceanography and the atmosphere and stuff.” He wasn’t sure about Geology. Who cared about rocks anyways? Well, he supposed they had a lot of good uses and such. “But you did well in it didn’t you?” He asked honestly not sure how she made out in the class. It couldn’t have been too bad. When Lani had helped her with that lab he had noticed she was brilliant. She just needed a little help with her thinking. Physics really was about looking at the world as though wearing glasses to examine the way things worked. It was different than a lot of different ways of thinking. It was fascinating. A lot of times one had to be a philosopher to explore the roots of the meaning of the world for discoveries to be made.

“Do you have any summer plans?” Lani asked conversationally his hands slipping into his pockets with nothing much else to do. He wasn’t sure how much Elisia knew about his relationship with Adrianna but he was glad her opinion of him hadn’t changed, or so he thought. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. And Lani could really use a pleasant conversation after he had royally screwed things up. He was almost impressed with himself. He had not only managed to piss of Adrianna, but also hurt Odion and all on his birthday. Not to mention he banged up his hand rather well. But the pain almost made it all bearable. He could see why Adrianna had chosen it as her preferred stress relief.

[Elisia Lark]

Ellie nodded and chewed on the inside of her cheek. So this was super awkward. After that day when Adrian came home, a complete and total mess, Elisia really couldn’t see Lani the same. She’d heard so many nice things about him before when the two were friends, but now that they weren’t, well everything he said seemed jerkish. Acting like she didn’t know how stupid cutting was, making her feel even more worthless and pathetic than she already did. Didn’t he see that she already thought so lowly of herself that him screaming had only done more damage? Yelling wasn’t the solution when dealing with someone as unstable as she was. Honestly, Ellie had been tempted to send her to Dr. Neville a few times. She needed a professional to help her.

His laugh and response about earth science had her frowning. What a jerk, ruining science for her altogether. Okay, so that was irrational thinking, and she didn’t really dislike him, she just was sort of irked at him. Still, he didn’t have to ruin earth science for her. “Oh joy, I’m looking forward to that so much…” Elisia rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed. This would be a long few years of science to come. Physics could just go away now for all she cared. “I did alright, stupid B+ by a fraction of a percentage. If the teacher would have put my frackin’ extra credit in it would have been an A.” Yes, she was really complaining about this because that fraction of a percentage kept her from a 4.0 GPA.

What was with all of the questions anyway? Was he trying to be polite or just figuring out a way to bring Adrian up? Well, here was his chance because the only way she could answer honestly (and that’s all she was capable of being) was by saying what she really had planned for the summer. “Oh, not really. I’m going home, spending the summer with my dads and Adrian since she’ll be staying with us until she moves into the dorms at U of V.” There, no mentioning of the California trip and no mention that she knew how bad they were fighting. Seemed like enough to answer the question without lying or giving too much away. She just hoped it didn’t lead to a conversation topic based around Adri.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was starting to get an odd vibe from Elisia. How much did she know about the fight that he and Adrianna had had? He couldn’t imagine there was much she didn’t know. With the pure volume they were shouting at each other Lani would be surprised if anyone in the dorm didn’t know that they were fighting. He had brought it upon himself and it had only taken him the time it took to calm down to realize that. He shouldn’t have yelled. No matter what Adrianna was spouting off. He shouldn’t have yelled. Well, he wouldn’t take back the shouting he’d done for Caroline. No one messed with his sister. He shared Elisia’s temptations. He might not want to chat with the telepath all too often but the man knew things and he was gentle. He wouldn’t start screaming at her like Lani did. Geez, Lani was like a drill sergeant telling her to man up.

Lani chuckled at her reaction. “Don’t count them out, that’s what makes them fun. And nothing is ever as bad as pure physics.” He wasn’t sure why, maybe because the rest of it actually had a point. Fluid physics was a much different thing than actual physics because one could see the processes occurring and it wasn’t just a ball rolling down a hill. Honestly with that, who cared? Lani blinked at her and smiled. “B+ that good though, you made out better than I did. But you should go talk to him, I’m sure he’ll put it back in.” That would have had Lani raging. Lani hadn’t done the extra credit, why would he, he was passing. He managed a C which was a full letter grade higher than the rest of his classes, save math, he’d actually pulled a low B in that one. His parents were surprisingly ecstatic when he told them he was able to graduate. Even more when he was planning more school.

There is was. The opening he was waiting for but his mouth ran dry. He nodded. So Adrianna was going to school around here. He wondered if he could track her down or if that would count as stalking? The last thing he needed was for Adrianna to get some sort of security involved. No that wouldn’t do at all. If this trip to California didn’t work it might just mean Lani would have to call it quits. The thought alone was enough to damper his mood and he wasn’t sure how much of it showed. He nodded again. “Oh, I see, you’re not graduating this year are you?” He asked conversationally, he’d never actually gotten what year she was. Lani paused for a moment and then looked down at his feet he nudges the pebbles with his toe and when he looked up he looked something like a lost dog. “Hey, uh… how’s she doing?” He wasn’t completely sure he wouldn’t get the third degree for that question but it wasn’t anything he didn’t deserve. He bit his lip waiting for it to break over him like a wave.

[Elisia Lark]

Lani didn’t want to know how much she knew about the whole thing between him and Adrian. It was a lot and though she had nothing personally against Lani, she was seriously irked with the way he treated her roommate. He had been a jerk, she got hurt and lashed out. It was to be expected from someone going through so much. Her dad was hounding her, her mother wanted her to give him a chance and she was just getting stressed out over all of the planning she got stuck doing because he offered no help to her. The funeral wasn’t something she wanted to plan and she didn’t know who to invite or exclude because she didn’t know all of the people that knew Amelia. Sure, her mother wouldn’t care once she was gone, but Adrian didn’t want to disappoint her mother with a sucky funeral service. Adrian was on edge and the way Lani dealt with it was not that great.

“To you maybe, not so much to me. Any kind of science can go far far away. Whoever thought of putting it in school should be slapped repetitively,” Like him. Wait, no, that was mean. Still, he did sort of deserve to be slapped for some of the things he’d said. Scrunching up her nose as he tried to tell her what a good job she’d done receiving a B+, Ellie shook her head. “No that’s not that good. And the only reason you didn’t do better is because you chose not to show up to class. And I did talk to him, he claims he put it in already. But he hasn’t and I don’t want to argue, so..” Because she didn’t like fighting with anyone let alone an authority figure.

Elisia shook her head, “Nope, still got two years. I’m only sixteen.” Wow, he hadn’t asked about Adrian when she gave him a clear op- and she spoke too soon. He looked nervous or maybe unsure. She couldn’t quite figure it out, but either way he seemed to know he didn’t have much right to ask about her. At least that was how Ellie saw it. If he wanted to know, he could ask her himself as far as she was concerned, though she knew that was a bad idea. Adrian couldn’t handle fighting with him anymore. She was already going through withdrawal from cutting, she didn’t need something that made her want to cut more. “She’s fine. She quit you know? Cutting,” Ellie answered quietly. She shook her head and looked down, “I really shouldn’t be telling you anything about her though. You’re sort of the enemy right now.”

[Lani Hunter]

Lani know how he dealt with it wasn’t great. If he could take it back he would. He’d been horrible to her, saying horrible things. He closed his eyes a little pushing the voice that agreed with him further back in his head. Though Lani still had a sliver of a thought that if she had just told him from the get go how bad things were getting they never would have gotten this bad he refrained from saying so. He should have made the time to check on her but he had been off with Odion in bliss. Even though Odion and Lani fought a lot they always seemed to make up somehow. It was usually hard and revealing on both sides. Lani needed to say the things in his heart to Odion more often. He lowered his eyes, forgiven or not he still felt horrible about the way things happened on his birthday.

Lani laughed, not offended by her comment. Most people had that kind of outlook, science was too hard and it was really the math that got people. But science was beautiful. The way that everything combined and flowed seamlessly only to be rocked by a new theory. “You need science though,” Lani debated pleasantly. “Even if it’s just to know how something works.” Lani stopped himself, if he started going on and on they’d be here for hours. He cocked his head at her confused. A B+ was nothing to snub her nose at. Lani ducked his head. “Fair point,” he said sheepishly then turned back to the teacher. “I think you should go talk to the department head. There’s still time, grades aren’t finalized until a few days before graduation. Don’t let him screw you over. You worked hard, you deserve that A.” Hell if she asked him he’d probably do the fighting for her.

Lani barely listened to her answer but filed it away for later. For a moment he didn’t think she was going to answer him. He bit his lip worried and when she answered it did a great deal to ease his fears. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. She had stopped. Thank God. He didn’t even care if he had done something or if she had talked to Dr. Neville. He didn’t care who talked sense into her, even if it was herself! He was just glad she’d found it. “I’m so glad to hear that.” He whispered and lowered his eyes to the ground. The enemy. He nodded knowingly. “I know,” he said with a sad smile. “But thank you for telling me anyways.” He didn’t add in anything. Adrianna was doing fine. Stopped cutting herself. That was enough to bring joy to Lani’s heart even if she never spoke to him again.