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Post by ANABEL BAILEY on Dec 6, 2013 7:47:25 GMT -8
For once, Ani was glad that her lunch break was only an hour long. It meant that she could get this awkwardness out of the way and would have an excuse to bolt right on the dot.
The girl scrunched up her brow as she leaned forward in her chair, resting her chin on her hands. She was normally the social one-- the girl in the middle of a party as people flocked around her, chirping and laughing as she led conversations and laughed and smiled.
Pouty lips parted to say something. How are you, how's it going? How have the past few years been? But she shut them once again. It didn't seem right. It didn't feel right. Not after they'd been separated for so long with little contact, when Elle had vanished without a word. Somehow, a "how are you" didn't cut it, not when this was the only biological family she'd ever had left and then she'd up and gone, left her like her parents had presumably done. It was a miracle she didn't have some sort of abandonment issues with all of this that had gone down.
So she smiled, actually smiled even though she didn't want to, smiled even though it was most definitely lying. Brutal honesty was normally her policy, but she'd never said that she would keep that when it came to her dealings in the IS. And now she was speaking to another IS member. That was it. Related by blood or not, Elle had been doing a pretty terrible job of being a sister to her for the past few years. This was partly work, this was probably business.
Ani had no idea what Elle wanted from her after so many years, and she had no reason to suspect it was anything connected to family.
"So. What do you think you're going to order? I'm looking at the spaghetti, man. Spaghetti with meatballs. I've been craving it for the past few days."
(Would Elle realize that she was lying?)
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Post by ELISE MILNER on Dec 7, 2013 9:08:32 GMT -8
How awful was it to look at your sister and see a stranger?
Elle had known when she got word that she was moving back to LA that this was going to happen- that she was going to see Ani again, whether she wanted to or not. She had been conflicted about it for days. On the one hand, she was dying to see her sister, but on the other hand... after the silence that had marked their relationship for the last several years, she found she was absolutely terrified by the prospect of finally coming face-to-face with Anabel again. She could only imagine how her sister must feel about her, and it was all her fault. There was no one to blame but herself.
Which was why she had decided to at least try to set things right. The first thing she did when she arrived in LA was get Ani's number and text her that she was back in town. She was going to find out eventually, after all; it'd be better if she found out directly from Elle, rather than heard it through word of mouth, or even worse, they ran into each other at HQ. It was like ripping a band aid off- the quicker she got it out of the way, the better for everyone.
When Ani didn't reply something along the lines of 'I hate your stinking guts, never talk to me again, why didn't you just die in Brazil,' Elle took it as a good sign. Maybe all hope wasn't lost after all? She desperately wanted to mend their relationship; they used to be so close as kids, and she felt terrible about ruining that. She just didn't have the slightest clue how to fix it... or if Ani even wanted to fix it. Elle couldn't help but wonder.
That was actually part of the reason why she was currently seated across the table from Ani, about to order lunch; she wanted to see if Ani was at all interested in reconnecting, or if there was now no place in her little sister's life for her. So while the sense of unease at the table seemed to be suffocating her and Elle was scared out of her wits at what could result from this lunch date, she wasn't letting it show. Her entire demeanor seemed to radiate cool calm; no, of course she wasn't worried in the slightest. Even though she had been rereading the same menu item for the last five minutes.
Ani broke the silence first, asking what she was ordering and talking about spaghetti. Okay, food. Food she could talk about. Elle smiled slightly as she replied, eyes quickly scanning the rest of the menu, "I'm not sure, I'm kind of starving. I might get the bacon cheeseburger or the grilled cheese sandwich." She paused to sip her water for a moment, then asked, curiously, "Have you eaten here before?" She would assume the answer was yes, but she didn't want to assume- she couldn't really assume, since she knew next to nothing about Anabel apart from what her parents had told her.
(Would Ani realize how scared she was?) |
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Post by ANABEL BAILEY on Dec 10, 2013 16:15:15 GMT -8
"I've been here about a million times."
Ani grinned, and almost nobody would have been able to tell that she was lying. After all, she'd been professionally trained in acting and little white lies, groomed to be able to come up with believable stories on the spot. You had to be good at that, when you came back from an IS-related task and reported that Fate's destruction had been a car crash, divine intervention had been a freak accident. She knew about how a real smile would be every little bit lopsided, how it would crinkle up the corners of her eyes. She was a skilled actress, and she sometimes wondered who she would be if she hadn't told herself that she was going to try her best to be honest.
She lied enough as it was, even when it was to save naught but her own skin. That had carried over into her other life as well. It wasn't as though she could tell her friends that she was working for a secret society, though, and it wasn't as though she enjoyed doing it. It wasn't pleasant, always being the ditcher, always being the person to cancel on plans last minute, and she'd had to learn how to keep her friends and keep her cover fast.
But that wasn't going to work on Elise. Elise worked in the same place as she did. Elise could find out her work schedule, her lunch hours, even track down where she lived if she batted those lashes and asked the right people. Good, pleasant Elise who everyone loved, Ellie who could charm the pants off anyone with just a demure little smile. Hah. Funny how they would never know that this was the same girl that had shut her only blood kin out so many years ago.
Would they love her so much, if they knew what she was really like?
"I don't know about you, but I'm ready to order." Stay calm. Stay cool. Don't ask too many questions. You don't want to show her that you care. You don't want to let her win. Ani turned around, waving the server over with the raise of her hand.
"One spaghetti with meatballs and a Diet Coke float, please!"
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