ILLYRIS | xvi. "YOU'RE THE MOTHER OF MAGIC." SPILLING THE COFFEE BEANS
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THE NEXT DAY, Thea finally realized how much homework she had been missing. It piled on like a burdensome load, landing her and Bex in their booth at the Coffee Haus that sunny evening. Life was as normal as it could get for Thea who had told Bex everything she had found out. She watched her best friend read over the files that Tony gave her, wordless. She closed it, put it aside, and took Thea in her arms, giving her the biggest hug she could.
"You're not him. You won't ever be him," Bex had assured softly.
Moving on was a hard thing to do. It required not just the strength of the mind but also the heart, which may have been broken beyond repair. Thea tried to focus on her surroundings. Light chatter from customers getting their own work done filled the air as the strong, decadent scent of coffee beans enthralled their senses.
It made physics somewhat bearable.
However, Bex seemed more concerned with Thea's well-being than any assignments. She kept glancing at her friend, brows knit like she was trying to psychoanalyze the Valaryen girl who was surprisingly indulging in the novel assigned for her AP Literature class— Hamlet. She looked too pleasant, a clear indicator something was deeply wrong.
"You seem a little too into Shakespeare for a girl who almost died, got chewed out by Tony Stark... and kinda found out you have an insanity gene."
Bex was the only one who knew, besides Tony. Thea debated telling Peter and Ned, who have grown closer to her in light of their vigilante-teamwork shtick.
A small smile graced Thea's lips, her eyes trained on the yellowed pages of drama and treachery written in Old English lingo. "I'm fine."
"In the history of saying 'I'm fine', has anyone actually been fine?" Bex asked flatly. She restrained a yawn, although her eyes were dull with fatigue. Her pencil felt heavy in her hands that felt tingly all the time.
"Have you looked in the mirror lately? You look like you haven't slept in years," Thea chuckled.
Bex scrunched her nose, mimicking Thea's voice when she said, "I'm fine. With her foot, she prodded the girl's leg from under the round table dividing them. "Seriously, are you okay?"
Thea suddenly looked up, her book lowering on the table. She wore a bright expression on her face, like the storm cloud that rained on her vanished. "Yep, because I'm just gonna be a kid."
Bex blinked. "Okay... Thea, you know you basically re-enacted the Titanic. What are you—"
"I'm being serious," she sighed, taking a sip from her hazelnut latte. "Maybe getting our asses beat was a good thing. What do happy, cheerful people say when something shitty happens and they try to make it a little less shitty?"
