Defending the Mask

Bloggers and Wishes

She can't help her smile as she watches Carlos and Dude chasing each other across the courtyard.

It was a welcomed distraction from everything that had happened in the last few weeks.

And God, if a lot hadn't happened.

She was pretty sure half of it hadn't even registered yet.

The video chat.

The ceremony.

Maleficent.

Mal turning into a dragon.

Running away.

Jay being so hurt.

Being found.

Being in the hospital.

And now, to top it all off, the letters.

The letters.

That had been bitter-sweet. Well, bitter-sweet and confusing.

She rolls her lip between her teeth.

It was like having a piece of home.

The good pieces.

Filled to the brim with reassurances that everything on the Isle was okay. Well, as okay as it possibly could be.

It was as if she could hear them whenever she read over them.

And she couldn't even count the number of times she'd done that since receiving them.

She already had them memorized, and they'd just gotten them yesterday.

They were just so painfully them.

Not that she knew three of them- She frowns, four.

Not three. Four.

Faustina.

She still wasn't sure what to do with that. Like at all.

The girl was so at odds with T it was-

She didn't really have a word. The closest she could come to was absurd.

It was absurd to think that a well-spoken, well-written girl could be lurking in T somewhere.

Or-

She closes her eyes.

-rather, T was lurking in her.

Just how?

Why?

She gives the barest shake of her head.

Best not to go down that horrid rabbit hole.

But seriously, how!?

T was just so... So, not that.

How could that girl have- come up with? Created? She bites her lip harder.

She hated both those descriptors.

T wasn't-

T was real.

Real and a boy.

But, the other, Faustina...

It hurt her head just thinking about it.

Like the pieces just couldn't click.

Nothing about it made sense.

She startles when she's gently knocked forward. "Wha-?" She turns to find Mal looking her over in concern.

Oh. That's right.