Interlude: The key to happiness

Eline's POV

All the laughs at Thea's shop had at least taken my mind off things for a short while. Thea had given me a lot of little tips here and there to make my pictures better. It was a shame Elodie had not joined us. That thought brought everything back. In our talk last night, I felt that Elodie got really angry with me, but she did not tell me why. I think she was angry because I said we could not be together if we could not get married.

But I wanted everything to be perfect. I did not want to end up like mom and dad. Stuck in a hasty marriage with a child that nobody really wanted tying them down. No, if everything was perfect, I was sure I could avoid a gruesome fate like that for our relationship.

While I was reaffirming my views in my mind, Claire's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “Let's go to the gym, everyone should be rehearsing and Ms. Stick will be there soon. I think everybody will want to see the pictures of our outfits Eline.” Claire was doing her best to sound upbeat, but I realized already some time ago that she really loathed the idea to get on stage. Well, at least it was fun to tease her, by pretending not to know.

We went through the dressing room and entered the hall to witness a sight I would not have believed if I had not seen it for myself.

Elodie lashed out with her prop sword on Fien. Fien collapsed instantly. Elodie then moved to follow up with another strike only to see her hand being held by Mia who had luckily interfered. What the hell was going on?

Mia insisted that she would talk with Elodie, but I wanted to go. She was closest to me, wasn't she?

Anna said something to Claire, which made Claire decide to send Elodie with Mia. I saw them go out of the room and wanted to follow them, but Claire said “We need to have another talk first.”

I looked Claire in the eyes to see if she was being serious, but there was no doubt, she was very serious.

She said: “I can tell something happened after Anna and I left yesterday, and I am pretty sure that that is what is at the root of this.”

Claire was pretty observant, wasn't she? We clearly had become really close if she could read us like that. Yesterday I told her she was my best friend, and today she is showing me that it's really true.

I nodded sheepishly, and the both of us sat down to talk.

“Elodie is mad at me because I don't want a relationship where I can't get married. She says that we could find a way to be together.” I sighed. “I knew she meant that in a romantic sense, but to me it felt like she was telling me to just put my head down and go with the flow.”

I felt my heartbeat go up.

“Well, I refuse that! I won't let that happen to me! I will not end up like them!”

Claire looked at me thoughtfully, and said “Well, that is how you feel, but have you really thought about how she feels about this situation?”

I wanted to get angry, but I knew Claire was only trying to help me. She was right, wasn't she? I had been way too egoistically about this whole affair. Elodie had tried broaching the subject by telling me we would find a way to be together. She wanted me to choose for love and for her, even if that meant abandoning my ideal future.

“Do you still love her?” Claire then asked.

“Of course I love her!” I answered her.

“Don't you love her so much, you would want to be with her, no matter what the odds are?”

I nodded. Claire just made her point, didn't she?

“Then, you should tell her that, and soon.”

Ms. Stick arrived and demanded Claire assist her. “Catch you later. I should not keep the demon waiting, or her vengeance will be even worse.” I laughed at her joke.

“I heard that! You better not make any mistakes today, you hear me. I will forgive you once because I owe you for that dinner you made last week!”

I laughed but noticed I was alone again. Ever since I started hanging out with Elodie, I had gotten used to having her by my side, and not having her there instantly sparked feelings of loneliness.

I decided to watch the rehearsals and film them. There was a commotion on stage when Fien crashed a scene between Valerie and Maria. Now they were improvising. It was really funny material, I was glad I got the idea to start filming. Ms. Stick even said she wanted their improvisation written out and added to the play, so I immediately volunteered for the task.

Finally, Elodie entered the room again. I wanted to go talk to her, but she said

“I'll come to you, but I did something terrible to Fien, and I hope to fix that first.”

At least, it seemed things weren't beyond repair. She took Fien out of the room. There I was alone again. I decided to help as much with the rehearsal as I could, just to take my mind off things. I did not want this swirling mass of insecurity and loneliness that was rushing inside of me to get a hold of me. So I did like I had been doing all day. I acted as happy as I could and tried to be as jovially and upbeat the whole time.

When Elodie finally returned, I abandoned my post and rushed toward her, with the same vigor as she was rushing toward me. I noticed something had changed in her, she looked really determined, I jumped in her arms, she hugged me back, and the both of us said at the same time “I'm sorry!”

The both of us started laughing.

“Come.” Elodie led me away, into the school building. Where was she taking me? Elodie led me to my old classroom, which was abandoned at this hour, and Elodie took out a master key and let us in. “Where did you get that?”

“Mia lent it to me.”

Elodie then closed the door behind her.

“Let me go first,” I said. “I'm sorry for the insensitive things I said. Of course, I will choose for you no matter what. Just promise me, we will not end up like them.”

“I'm happy you said that, but I decided that is not how we will do it.”

I looked at her questioningly. Since when did Elodie get so much power. I felt like I was falling in love with her all over again while she said her piece full of conviction.

“We will fight to get married and leave no stone untouched to make it happen. I realize that that is something you need to be happy, and I am willing to fight to get it for you. Your happiness is after all my happiness.”

When did she become such a smooth talker? I wanted to interrupt her, but she shushed me with her finger on my mouth and said “But if we have done everything possible and we can't get married, I want us to do everything possible to stay together. That is what matters most to me. I don't want to let our relationship be dependent on this. If we work to be happy together, I am sure we won't end up like them.”

I felt tears running over my cheeks. I hugged her, Elodie then lifted me up in our hug and kissed me. Oh, how I love that big puppy of mine. These last not even 24 hours had been excruciating. I hoped we never had a fight like that again.

Then Elodie put me down on the teacher's desk.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“This has always been a fantasy of mine,” she replied with a sweet tone in her voice.

She kissed me and then moved her kisses toward my neck while one of her hands explored my breast and the other one caressed my inner thigh.

The heat was rushing through my veins. This was the first time that Elodie was taking the lead like this, and I decided to let her. I melted like putty in her hands while I basked in the sensations that were going through me. Her hands slowly started to unbutton my shirt. There was no doubt where this was leading. I looked a bit scared at the door, but immediately heard the reassuring words, "I locked it."

A while later, when we arrived back in the gym hall, we went to Mia, and Elodie returned the key and said “Thank you, you really helped me.”

Mia laughed, gave us a knowing wink, and said:

“That key always does the trick.”