Chapter 16
They got along well, surely they would make good friends. Surely.
Monday morning broke and the breakfast bell was rung. Gloria rolled over in her bed, feeling like she didn't sleep nearly enough. She'd spent the final moments of Sunday video chatting with Seneca, committing his face and voice to memory. It would be five days until she saw him again, moving and laughing, saying ”I love you.”
Then the internet had been cut off, and an audible grumble came from the neighboring rooms. Gloria would have laughed if she didn't agree with it so much. Last week, she'd hardly missed the internet and screen time because she'd been so busy and she'd filled the off-times with her hobbies, but now she was going to miss it that much more.
Rolling out of bed, she remembered what Alex had told her. Not only was Ashton a father, but he was as well. Who else had secrets they weren't sharing? What if Aquila was walking into a trap with Arhun? What was his angle anyhow? What if he wasn't sharing something important? Then again, the closeness that Aquila and he seemed to share seemed more than promising. In just a week, it already seemed like Gloria was going to win the bet with Alex.
Gloria walked down the steps to the dining room where eggs and bacon were waiting for them. It must have taken forever to cook that much bacon in a single frying pan, but it wasn't the bacon she was looking at. Her gaze kept darting to one person in particular.
Ashton shifted in his seat, glancing at Gloria and swallowing his mouthful of food. "Can I help you with something?" he asked, his accent lilting as he spoke. He was handsome enough, easy going, Gloria guessed. She hadn't seen him as the passionate type, but that didn't mean that he wasn't. And maybe someone found him attractive enough to sleep with. Not that she needed that picture in her mind.
Oh no, now she was thinking of him with no clothes on. She blushed. "Oh, no, nothing. Sorry." She walked around the table and sat next to Alex. It was her usual spot by this point, and she had no tangible reason to switch, only the uneasy feeling left by dreams. She'd have to bring it up with Aquila to switch spots with her.
Alex smelled good. He reminded Gloria of Seneca, still rumpled from sleep; not a dirty smell but not a squeaky clean one either. She thought about bumping Seneca's shoulder, feeling him next to her. How she craved to be near him again, to have his arms around her and to be at home, their home. To breathe him in and never leave, never doubt.
"Good morning, Gloria," Alex said, a small knowing smile on his mouth. The previous night's conversation hadn't seemed to shake him the way it had her, but why would it? He didn't learn any new information, only shared it. Nothing had changed for him besides Gloria knowing his secret. "Did you sleep well?"
Like you said to? Gloria thought. She gave a small, self pitying laugh. "No, I didn't. I was talking to…someone before the internet was shut off. I knew it was coming, but I wasn't ready not to see him until next weekend yet."
Alex's fluid motion went stiff. His fork stopped moving and he eyed his bacon suspiciously. "'Him?' Who were you talking to? Your brother, perhaps? You seem to come from a big family. What's he like?"
Aquila sat down next to Gloria, having heard the conversation thus far. "No, she was talking to her boyfriend," she oozed. "Kept me up half the night. You should hear how many times they say 'I love you'. If It wasn't so sweet, it'd be sickening."
"Your- boyfriend-" Alex parroted as Gloria went red. "This is the first I've heard of it, is it serious?"
"We have a cat-"
"And a house! On the water in Brindleton Bay! I've seen pictures, it's quite charming and colorful. Oh, and the best part is that he's the Prime Minister's son. Seneca Galant." Aquila chattered on, not feeling the death wishes coming off of Gloria.
"Is he now?" Alex's head had sunk down gradually, and he was no longer looking at his plate, but the table before it. Gloria's stomach sank. She hadn't wanted him to find out like this, in front of everyone, with no way to properly speak about it. He couldn't ask the questions he wanted to ask, instead being forced to be polite about it. He seemed so defeated, like he'd been struck through with ice.
"I hear he's a pretty private guy, but he seems upstanding. Good for you," Ashton said as he eyed Alex. "I'm happy for you."
Conversation carried on past the topic of who Gloria was dating, and for that she was relieved. She never liked attention about her romantic life. Her relationship was between her and Seneca and no one else had a say in how they lived their lives together.
And yet as Gloria looked at Alex, felt the disappointment and shock radiating off of him, she wanted to tell him it wasn't true. That she wasn't involved with someone else. She wanted to lie so that their flirtation could continue for a while longer and not hit the road block of her not being available.
Listen to yourself! Gloria scolded herself. Seneca is the love of your life! He isn't a road block, he's the one person in this world you feel completely at home with! He loves you, don't dream of throwing that all away. Alex never asked if you were taken, it's his own fault for not considering it to be a possibility.
But I didn't tell him myself, either. Aquila had to do that.
"Well, we'd better get going on our chores for today!" Timothy rose from the table. "We'll see you all here at dinner time!"
Gloria stood up from the table as well, grabbing her half eaten plate to put into her lunch bag. Alex stood up beside her. He cleared his throat and wiped his hands on his pants. "Ready to learn about animals? No spells are going to help you this time.” He cracked a smile, hiding whatever he was really feeling. "I hope you're ready to get dirty."
"This whole fellowship is dirty." Gloria rolled her eyes and followed after him.
She slipped up the stairs and changed into regular clothes, walking past Aquila on her way out. She wanted to talk to her- ask her why she brought up Seneca when she knew it was a grey area for her, or if she would switch places with her at the table. But looking down the stairs where Alex was already waiting for her, she knew that she didn't have time to talk to her. It would have to wait.
~*~
"- And I just don't know how to fix any of this!" Seneca vented to his teacher. He's been thinking about all of the aspects of the hell he was currently in, how grim things could look if he looked at it too deeply. His girlfriend was hours away, his housemate was infatuated with him, and his mother was shoving his old, well-to-do friends at him.
"The way I see it, there is no fixing it, only enduring. Have you tried calling your mother?" Nora asked.
"I have, she denies any knowledge of it, saying it must be nice to catch up with old friends after all of these years. I wouldn't mind if it was Krista, we get along swimmingly, but Ethan and Velma just set my teeth on edge."
"Have they tried getting back a hold of you?" she asked while taking a sip of her drink.
"No, but having Deliah in the house is enough of a stressor." Seneca sat back in her chair, feeling defeated.
Nora nodded, thinking. "I think you shouldn't let it get the better of you. What your mother doesn't want is you to be at ease, to be relaxed without doing as she plans. It may be hard at first, but I'd say to try and carry on as usual and don't let the actions of others bother you as they have been."
"That's easier said than done," Seneca said, thinking, "but there is some sense in it. It'll piss Deliah off for sure if I'm aloof," he gave a nervous chuckle.
"That's her problem, not yours. You've refused her, told her that you have a girlfriend, that should be enough. Let her stew, but don't rebuff her if she can put it all aside and you can be friends. There's no reason to be cruel."
"Understood," Seneca gave a mock salute, grabbing another cookie.
~*~
Arriving at the animal pens, Gloria couldn't help but notice the vacant and disappointed look on Alex's face, as if he had forgotten to paint a smile on. She could see the greenhouse in the distance, shining brightly in the midmorning sun. The weather was impeccable, and their day should be a good one.
"How much do you know about animal handling?" he asked, breaking out of his daze. they hadn't spoken as they walked, and Gloria felt a tension growing between them, and it was uncomfortable.
"Nothing, really," she said, wiping her hands on her jeans. "What's that big building there for?" she asked, looking over to an ancient looking building. It had large windows and a glass roof, but the walls were old brick, an odd combination of old and new.
"That's incase of an emergency, we have everything that you'd need right there. If there’s a snowstorm or a sick animal, it's supplied for a few nights of food and fresh water, and it holds a few tools. It's a secondary house, practically."
"That's interesting..." Gloria said, turning back to the animal pens. They were colorful with banners and signs and each chicken coop was painted a different color. It was functional but still had a small creative flare, and Gloria could get behind that.
"We have to feed the chickens," Alex said, walking to that pen and grabbing a handful of seed. He threw it in, and the chickens looked both annoyed and excited at the same time. Alex stepped into the pen and Gloria followed. There were little chicks running around, and she bent down to look at one. It seemed to like Gloria, and she pet his tiny head, cooing at him. Alex looked on from behind her, quietly admiring her gentleness. She acted without a care and while it normally took him a while to calm down enough with the animals. She seemed to radiate peace.
Next to do was taking care of the two cows. "Have you milked a cow before?" he asked.
"Nope, we didn't have any cows on our little island, it was too small," Gloria said casually, trying to relieve some of the pressure she felt between them.
Alex raised his eyebrow. "No livestock? I thought the Western Islands were supposed to be rural. You really didn’t have any animals?"
"People had them, sure, but we didn't. We had a vegetable garden and bees, but that's about it."
"Uh huh," Alex said, holding open the gate for her. He took his place on the other side of the cow. "I hope you can see this, but you need to have a firm grip." He placed a stool down and began to pull on the utters of the cow. It looked uncomfortable. "It doesn't hurt the cow at all, it actually feels good for them."
Gloria had heard all of this information from her cousins back on the Islands. Their neighbor had a cow and they let the kids of the neighborhood have a crack at milking her once a day. They'd been too pleased to share their experience with young Gloria.
The fond memory brought a smile to her face. "Looks simple enough," she said, walking over to the other cow and placing her own stool. With a firm grasp like she'd seen Alex have, she began to milk, and she laughed the first time milk actually squirted out. "Oh my!" she said.
"Did you get sprayed in the face? That happens to everyone at least once!" he called from where he was finishing with his own cow.
"No, I just wasn't expecting it, that's all!" Gloria called, trying to not spook her cow. The cow didn't seem to mind the noise.
Gloria picked up a brush and started to brush the cow once she was done milking. "What a pretty cow," she said. "I had a cow like you on a video game once, I've never been near one of you this close. You're so big! Look how big you are!" she complimented. Alex looked over to her and saw her feeding it from her hand, something he hadn't even thought to do. They were going to like her more than him, he just bet. He chuckled to himself.
They finally walked over to the llama pen. "These ladies give us wool, but we need to make sure they're clean first. So we brush, then we shear. Here's a set of brushes," he handed her an old bag full of well used brushes.
Alex took his place beside the cream colored llama, and Gloria took the hint and went over to the white one. Glancing over at Alex once in a while to make sure she was doing it right, they brushed and cleaned the animals until they were able to be sheared.
"You gotta hold it firmly, you're not going to hurt the animal by shearing it," Alex said as Gloria watched him so she could learn. Words bubbled at her lips and she felt like she should really say something about what had been said at breakfast.
"Alex, I- I'm sorry you had to find out about Seneca this way, from Aquila," she said, trying to find her words.
"Are you sorry you didn't tell me yourself or are you sorry I found out?" he asked, looking her in the eyes. "Because you could have told me for nearly two weeks now, but you didn't. Not once,"
"And I should have, I know that, I just-" she fumbled for words that were true but was coming up dry. I wanted to keep up the facade? I liked the attention? I missed the excitement of a new flirtation?
Alex raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Look, Gloria, it's ok. I'm not going to hate you because you have a boyfriend. We can still be friends. And we still have that bet between Maria and Arhun, though I think he's only got eyes for Aquila now. Bummer, I was really looking forward to winning that bet."
Gloria let some of the tension in her chest go. "I told you there was no way they were going to end up together. Maria is too self-involved,"
The pair finished up their tasks and walked home, talking about their classmates in a light way. She wasn't going to flirt with Alex anymore, nothing was going to happen, and she still got to keep his friendship. No more secrets. They were going to move on and simply be friends, nothing else. They got along well, surely they would make good friends. Surely.
Suprise chapter! I'm still trying to get the next few plot points lined up in my head, but they're slippery and won't stay still. Writing is hard 😅.
As always, there's a few bloopers! Please enjoy.
^Why does the sky need to be so pretty? so pretty...
^Gloria's making sure no one feels lonely at the house! She feels compelled to hand out hugs like free candy.
^A few unused pictures from breakfast.
^ Gloria blinked.
^ Today on You Move The Camera an Inch to the Right and The Illusion Is Broken: Tourist photobombs an isolated area.
^ Cute chicky is cute!
^ I'm going to put my tea RIGHT NEXT TO my fancy custom computer. Where it will certainly get bumped.
In celebration of the Holiday, I took a few pictures with the extended family, and it took a while to get it right. It's been a while since I've gone through all of my poses, and I should probably remove some of the obscure packs I don't plan on using any time soon, but here's a few behind the scenes pictures. Also I'm thrilled at how well Anwyn and Liam match.
^ Started out, the kiddos were off center because I wanted them to be over on Anwyn and Liam's side, but it really off balanced the picture with so few people on Rosa's. And yes, the baby daddy is that guy.
^ Then I moved everyone together. Looks so much better.
^ Here are the little kiddos! You've got Lana, Skye, Patrice, and Otto. I'm really suprised that the red hair gene stuck out so much. Gloria was actually born with brown hair, but I turned it red for plot reasons; she had to believably be Liam's daughter. So half of Liam and Anwyn's children have had brown and half red. Six kids.
^ Robin isn't sitting at the kids' table anymore! And I had a tough time finding a single pose that work for him. Also, it's hard to see, but I wanted to dress-down Seneca, and he's wearing a shirt with an undone tie. I'm sure his mother doesn't approve.
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