Briarfeather and Cinderblaze - Complete 2017

Silent suffering.

Cynthia buried her head under her pillow, shoving it over her head as an attempt to block the voices of Isa and her sisters. Paige and Haliah had dragged their disowned sister over to have a sleepover with them, Isa, Ivory, and Holly. Right now Cynthia, Ivory, and Holly were cooped up on Cynthia's bunk, hoping to not get dragged into the popular girl's conversation. Ivory was leaning back against the wall, her socked feet propped up on the railing, black hood covering her face as she lightly snored, obviously asleep, tired from something or other *cough cough Dark Forest a cough cough* while Holly was trying not to be too green in the face and attempting to cheer up her best friend. The reason for the need of cheering up? Simple. Isa was gloating to Haliah and Paige about how Leon had kissed her yesterday. Despite how many time Leon reassured Cynthia that he wasn't doing that and had no intention of doing that with Isa when he'd rather do it with her Cynthia couldn't get rid of the doubt and it was starting to wear the athlete down.

"Cindy, I'm sure he's not doing that," Holly tried to reassure, "I'm positive he wouldn't break a promise like that."

Cynthia uncovered her head to sigh and wince at a particular descriptive phrase from Isa, "Holly, I'll never know so he could and would do whatever he wants, just because I'm scared and didn't want to try anything for two years doesn't mean he doesn't, he's a guy for goodness sake, a guy with a normal thought process. It's normal." She shrugged slightly, forcing away the urge to go hide in a corner and melt into the ground, "Who he does it with isn't my issue."

"Sure it is!" Holly exclaim in a half whisper, "He's been kissing only you for almost two years! Then he suddenly starts it with Isa? That isn't right and you're part of it so it's your issue!"

"I figured it was going to happen, Holly," Cynthia whispers in return, blue eyes tormented but relatively calm with no anger. "He's not my boyfriend, we're just best friends, nothing wrong with that, I can handle being plain friends again."

"Cyndy come on!" Holly whisper yelled she did not want her brother to get together with Isa, that would be her and Cynthia's worst nightmare. "You have to do something, doesn't it mean anything to you?"

Cynthia recoiled like she'd been slapped, "Of course it means something to me! But it's never been solidified and we've never used titles!" She shoved away any memories sneaking into her mind as she continued, "Yes, I'll probably miss the whole thing but if that's what he and Isa want I can deal with it."

"What about the whole dance fiasco?"

"What about it?" She shrugged, "I showed her kindness and got it thrown back in my face."

"Cindy, you can't just forget about it all!" Holly said desperately, "He handcrafted a silver locket! Just for you! Not for Isa, or me, or Hannah, for you!"

"Holly, I love the necklace don't get me wrong, and I can't forget about it," She blinked rapidly a few times before clenching her hands into fists hearing the other three giggling at something Isa said, "But I can let it go and stop forcing Leon back because I'm afraid of titles."

Holly scrutinized her friend's face and sighed, her shoulder slumping, green eyes dulling to understanding, "You aren't even going to try and fight back?"

"Not anymore," Cynthia replied with a quietly defeated tone, blue eyes gazing at her friend.

"Don't do anything as drastic as I did, though," Both smiled weakly at the remark, remembering Holly's three-year long sewer trip.

"I'm not going anywhere, I can't with this." Cynthia gesture to her right leg, "When it gets cold I don't want to chance my blood freezing again, that was easily the worst experience in my life." Then her entire body stiffened at Isa's next words.