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chapter eighteen
"THIS IS YOUR LIFE"
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She had been wearing a dress that was yellow from the waist upwards, with pretty sleeves that flared out and a black skirt. You could tell what house she was in, but then, you could always tell that. Some people wore their personalities on their sleeves, as part of their aura, and Emilia was one of those.
It wasn't a bad thing, really. It made people incredibly confused and worried when she stood up for Dinah, but then, she felt like the personality she radiated had been changing since the start of the term. Since Halloween, maybe.
Dinah stood next to her, in a pretty black dress. The Slug Club was something that Em didn't particularly like, but, it had been drilled into her head that it was rude and wrong to not go to these sort of things. And, anyway, it's not like she could make up an excuse, because she lived in the school most days of the year.
So, Em decided to just ask Dinah, which resulted in Carmilla — another member — asking Melanie so their whole group could go together. And she looked forward to it, really, just being able to spend the evening messing about with her friends. The Christmas holidays were coming up, and Em wanted to have some nice, new memories of her friends to get her through it.
She dreaded the holidays. She knew that the thing with Chandler would be blamed on her — and this time, it made sense, because she felt responsible for it — but the rest of her siblings didn't know that. They'd still find a way to blame it on her, though, even if they didn't know what happened.
But, with that, she didn't care if they blamed her. She deserved it. She somehow made her godfather think that it was fine, that she agreed to what he had done to her brother, so she had a part in it. She dreaded seeing her siblings and her family, but she felt as though it was part of the punishment. She somehow agreed to her godfather trying to kill her brother. She deserved every second of her siblings blaming her, making the guilt gnaw at her insides even slower.
Em and Dinah showed up together, and exchanged a glance as they walked into the room. It had been decorated for the holidays, with gold-coloured lights twinkling above students-turned-waiters carrying about silver plates with Christmas-themed foods. Dinah grabbed a couple of the pastries as the student passed them, handing one to Em.
"This is, um—"
"Boring?" said Em, an eyebrow risen. Dinah nodded, and Em smiled softly. "It shouldn't be that long, and there's free cake, if that's any sort of consolation..."
