The Young Ones

Chapter 2 Feeling & Falling

"Do I look okay?" Gabie inquires and twirls in front of her dear friend. Looking up from her laptop Allie squints at her outfit and smiles. It's a lovely blue dress with dark tights and black ankle boots.

"Amazing! You are going to crush at this art school," Allie says excitedly and pushes aside her laptop. "Gosh, I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks. Now before I go you should know there's ginger ale in the fridge along with a sandwich I made for you. You better eat it! Don't get too involved in looking for a job, remember to relax and have fun. We are in Los Angeles after all. And don't watch any scary shows you know what happens," Gabie lectures, and the other girl grumbles.

"Yeah okay."

"Have a nice day buttercup!" With that, she's out the door leaving Allison to her own devices.

Pushing the laptop aside she jumps up and dashes to their shared room. Yanking open the closet she starts sifting through outfits. The excited girl brought all her best clothes and she now has to decide what to wear for meeting Alaric Sharpe on Thursday.

~~~

After an hour of throwing her clothes around, she then spends two hours scouring Los Angeles for jobs that would pay enough so the pair could afford the apartment their parents had put them up in. Without an education getting a job that pays enough is difficult.

Sometimes Allison wonders if she could just use a little of her advantage to help but she quickly dispels the idea whenever it comes.

~~~

Idly sipping a Dr. Pepper the writer flips through want ads and occasionally checks the time. Gabie isn't due back until two pm and it's only noon.

Promptly her phone rings with the ringtone picked for Gabie as if she knew her friend was bored and missing her.

"Hey, you miss me?" Gabie asks and Allie imagines she's smirking.

"Yes I do in fact miss you but you knew that," Allie replies.

"I always know. You could tap into the bond too if you wanted to." Oh yes the bond, that connection they’ve had since the accident.

"I know I could. Anyway forget that for now, how is art going?"

"Amazing, I really like it here. They give us pretty free rein to create what we want. How is job hunting going?"

"Not good, I'm honestly considering becoming a sugar baby or a surrogate," Allison jokes with only the tiniest bit of seriousness. "How do you think I'd look pregnant?"

"Glowing as always but I really don't think it'd be good for you. You get sick too often," Gabie replies casually. She's used to her friend’s weird behaviors by now.

"Good point. Okay, you get back to arting," she says.

"Try not to get pregnant while I'm away!" Gabie teases.

"No promises," Allie retorts and hangs up.

Allison Hollden and Gabrielle Trent could live like this happily for a while.

~~~

Days pass and Allison stews anxiously waiting for the time to meet Alaric Ender Sharpe, possibly Sentry, and stand in what could be the new base for Aegis.

Wednesday comes and still no job but she has found an outfit to wear.

~~~

"Gabie!" Allie calls frantically making the brunette appear by her side in seconds, finding her friend in the bathroom with anxious purple twinkles in her hair.

"What?! What's wrong?!"

Wordlessly she points at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

"My eyes," she whispers.

Allison’s reflection stares back with shining pure white eyes lacking a defined iris. Next to her, Gabie looks to her own reflection and finds her own eyes in the same glowing empty state.

"Mine too," Gabie hisses and blinks furiously.

That's when the sink explodes, water pouring out at the same time that wind starts to whip around them.

"Gabie stop!" Allie shouts and suddenly it all goes still. The wind dissipates and the water stops. Gabie stares at her friend with wide eyes and inhales sharply.

"It's still happening."

"I don't think they'll go away anytime soon. Gabie, I think they're permanent. I think it's time we discuss-"

"No! I can't think about that. Allie, we have enough happening in our lives we can't-"

"Gabie, this is real and it's happening! We need to talk about the possibility that we're-"

"Variates," she finishes. "I know." Silence settles over them and Allie crosses her arms, with her magic hair it is much harder for her to deny it.

"We have to keep this between us don't we?"

"Yes, we can't give our families another reason not to accept us and we can't flaunt our abilities. The world is still unsettled about V-us. Just try to keep it reigned in," Gabie suggests lightly, a near-impossible feat with the constant mood rings going off in her hair.

"I'm not the one you should be saying that to. You are the one who has to keep yourself in control," Allie counters and playfully shoves her.

"Says miss 'I can't watch horror movies because if I scream I could kill someone'," Gabie retorts and they both laugh, feeling lighter for the moment.

"What about our soulmates?" Allie asks suddenly and Gabie goes quiet. They both have multiple soulmarks and haven't yet met any of their soulmates.

"They'll accept us," she insists, though a little unsure. "They have too, I mean they are our soulmates. They're supposed to be perfect for us."

"Yeah...right."

Nervously Gabie rubs the words on my wrist and thinks of the other sentences scrawled on her body while glancing at her friend, knowing Allie has more soulmarks than her.

~~~

Sitting on her bed by herself, Allie mindlessly pokes around colored shards on her sheets and catalogs each emotion in her mind. The basics break down to this: gold is happy, blue is sad, red is angry, green is disgust, purple is anxiety, silver is shock, and pink is amorous. The colors can mix for more complex emotions, as well as darker tones of each color, signify feeling the emotion more tensely. Allie has never seen white before but she has seen black when the blue got too dark.

Allison sighs and gathers most of the little glimmers into her hands and dumps them into the bedside table drawer; she's never really felt okay throwing them away. The shimmers are too beautiful and remind her of stardust.

~~~

Wind is rushing past her body, her hair whipping around her face, stomach is in knots, and limbs flailing desperately.

Allison is falling.

Tears spill down her cheeks and she forces her mouth to stay shut.

She will not scream.

The last thing she wants is to hurt anyone.

Allison Hollden will not scream.

The blonde girl’s eyes fly open and she bolts up. Hand flying to cover her mouth so she can muffle a scream trying to escape her lips.

The glass vase on the bedside table shatters, sending shards everywhere. Glass landing on her bed, scatters in her hair, and sprays on her skin. Terrible inky purple sparkles fall everywhere the glass does with the same abundance, she’s terrified.

She goes completely still, petrified in fear and shock. Slowly her eyes move over to Gabie and she cries in relief when she finds her groggily waking up, unharmed. Allison quietly thanks the universe and herself for not killing her best friend.

"Allie? You saw that? Gosh, I didn't mean for you to see that. That's a recurring nightmare of mine," Gabie murmurs and stands up.

"Don't!" Allie snaps suddenly and Gabie stills. She feels guilty immediately, she hates doing that. "There's glass! I didn't mean to, but I broke a vase." Allie pauses and stares at Gabie oddly. "Wait, why are you having nightmares about me falling?"

"I'm always afraid you'll fall and there'll be no one to catch you because you didn't scream." Gabie's eyes bore into her dearest friend’s and her concern and worry seep through their bond. Tears fill her eyes and Allie’s. "Allie I know you don't want to hurt anyone but please if you are ever falling or in danger just scream. Please just scream so I can hear, so I can help," Gabie pleads. Absent-mindedly Allie brushes glass and sparkles off herself and the bed before carefully getting up.

"I'll try," she promises. "I'll try."

Deep down they both know Allie is too empathetic to ever put herself before any other living creature but Gabie can hope.