love

v.

AN:

AHHH! So umm, this story is coming to an end soon! I felt like this chapter is a good place to stop because I mean just read it. But to everyone who read this, thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you all so much and appreciate you :) I hope to stay on a consistent cycle of posting like this one but we'll see! After all, I have to deal with this bullshit called school so yeah XP One final thank you to @Malice66 for being such a lovely internet friend and being with me on this short one week journey <3 Love you all :) 

Three years, two months, twenty seven days Anadil left Hester. Three months, one day, from that, Dot had mailed back some of her things along with a note, begging her to come back. Anadil's whole body wanted to jump in her car and race back to Hester, to her old life. But then she remembered the still-healing cuts on her heart. And then the man's face would re-appear. Each time his face would twist. It started as a white man with a cold stare. It then morphed into someone with tan skin and a sharp smile that reminded Anadil of Hester. Whoever he was, it made her go cold every time she thought of his hand slipping past Hester's shoulder. Down her hips. Right past- She didn't want to think about it.

She had her new life. A new life with Vex. He loved her more than anything and she was sure she did too. Life went back into usual pattern. She still had her same routines as before just with a new person. As much as she tried to convince herself everything was okay, the truth was always there, spread out like a map right under her nose. But she didn't dare look down. If she did, she would want Hester. And Hester meant pain. Hurt. Fire. Envy. Illicit. Too many things at once. 

To Anadil, Vex was the solution to that. He called her Ana and made her favorite dumplings when she was being paranoid. But each time the name slipped off his tongue, she wanted Hester's Ani back. Ana wasn't her. Ana was a shell of the person she once was. But she kept convincing herself all was well. After all he held her while she cried at night. That was true love wasn't it? Continuing to obsess over Hester was like playing with fire. Hester was fire. Vex was water. He was calm. He was quiet. He was peaceful. He didn't run off with random women the moment he got drunk. Unlike Hester. 

As the rays of morning broke through the sky in a piercing  array of colors, she felt a cold hand on her hip. "Good morning Ana." he whispered into her ear. A single tear dropped down her face. Ana. Ani. Ana. Ani. 

"Good morning." she yawned though clenched teeth. The truth was she had been awake for hours. As she slid a T-shirt over her sports bra, a part of her brain instinctively wondered what Hester was doing down. To some extent, she worried about Dot. Despite being only 1 year younger than both Hester and Anadil, the two always considered Dot as a younger sister (though they would never admit it out loud). 

"You want to grab a coffee at Starbucks?" he asked, turning his face to hers. Vex wasn't good looking by any means. His eyes were squinty and small and his ears pointed at an unnaturally sharp angle, ending in a vertex. He was nothing compared to- No. 

Hester. 

Hester. 

Hester.

Just thinking her name drove Anadil crazy. "What?" she asked, snapping out of it. 

"I said, do you want to have coffee. Ana, you aren't thinking of her are you?" he asked. He said her as if Hester was the dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It made her blood boil with fury. 

"Vex, don't say that. Hester was my best friend before she was my girlfriend you know? It doesn't  mean you can fucking put her down like that. I loved her once like I love you." That was a lie. She could love no one like she loved Hester. 

******

She was out buying groceries when the sky cracked and rain poured out in streams of never ending panic. Thunder grumbled in the distance, an ominous warning of the storm that was about the some. People all around scrammed, hurrying to get home before the worst of this weather struck, Anadil being one of them. As she grabbed her bagged grocery, tote bag in hand ready to go home, she saw her. 

 Hester looked exactly the same with an air of indifference as if saying I-don't-give-a-fuck. When they locked eyes for the first time in three years, something just happened. It wasn't magic. Nothing in life was but it certainly was close. Grocery forgotten, both walked to each other, unsaid words on the tips o their tongue, ready to spring out any moment. 

"Anadil?" Hester mumbled. She never mumbled. Her voice was loud and unafraid to make a point. Never in a million years unsure. "Ani?" she asked again as if Anadil might disappear any minute. Just one word made her feel whole again.

"Hester?" she croaked. She had done everything in her power to get away from this very girl, move to the suburbs, date an ugly ass man who she hoped would make her forget about this girl. Only for that barrier to come down in one blow. 

Sometimes, time seems to freeze. All of a sudden the two were running to each other, rain splattering all over them. The storm had moved over to Roch Briar now. Lightning flashed before their eyes, blinding their vision. But Anadil didn't care. The only thing she was aware of was Hester's lips on hers, the rhythmic throb on her lips. Three years yearning for this feeling. She was home. 

"I love you Ani. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I really am, I just don't know how I could be so fucking stupid. I was a bitch to you. And I mean, I know you might have moved on already but, I just want you to know I love you, I miss you and-" Hester's  voice was caught off my another kiss. Anadil's world was on fire, restless flames, embers, and ash flying around her like a perfect storm. 

"I love you, you idiot." she replied with a smile. It was like coming home, one beautiful cycle. 

Love. The most beautiful thing in the wretched world of humans.