Winchester, England
United Kingdom
July 2002
Lysette remembered meeting her. The finer
details were fuzzy, like the weather and what she was wearing, but the general
concept was there: Aether was brought in during autumn, and Lysette immediately
thought that she was the shyest girl she had ever come across.
Their room in the orphanage changed
throughout the years, but things like the creamy walls and the dark, wooden
floor remained. Lysette had drawings carefully framed in crayon, others in
pencil, her bed sheets stained with watercolor while the other one across hers
was neat, untouched.
When Aether was brought in, Lysette wasn’t
sure if she had ever seen anyone as sad or as exhausted she did. The words said
to her were a blur; all she remembered was it being said that this new girl
with tired eyes would be her new roommate.
After the door closed, she blurted out the
first thing that came to mind—
“I, uh, I’m sorry for the messy room.”
“It’s okay.”
“I can clean some of it up if you want…”
eleven-year-old Lysette stood up, about to make her way to one of the walls
which had clumsily been covered with different pieces of her own art. “I mean,
we should be sharing a room, right?”
“It’s okay. I…I like your art.”
“Oh—thank you.” She paused, fully taking in
the sight of the other girl. Dark hair that went past her shoulders, a pale
face and an expression that seemed like she hadn’t slept well for days. “…do
you need an extra pillow or anything? I’ve got an extra since I asked, but I
think I can ask for you too.”
“It’s okay.” Lysette watched as the girl
opened a bag—a backpack, maybe—and take out a stuffed animal. It looked a
little grey; Lysette thought that it must have been pure white. “…is it okay if
I go to sleep? Sorry,” Aether apologized in that same quiet voice, “I’ll talk
to you tomorrow, I promise, I’m…just tired.”
“Yeah! You can sleep—and you know what?”
Lysette found herself acting impulsively, immediately going back to her own bed
and (messily) pushing off the papers with sketches and drafts. “I’ll rest with
you!”
“You don’t have to—”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted. She looked at
Aether and smiled a little bit herself, “I promise. We can talk more tomorrow.”
* *
* * *
July 2010
“You’re finally leaving, huh?”
“Don’t be like that.” Lysette can’t help
but grin at the semi-agonized look on her roommate’s face. “Come on, Lys…you
know we’ll still keep in touch.”
“Of course I know that. But it’s a little
hard to let go, you know?” the redhead went over to where Aether was, the
latter attempting to zip down her luggage. “I know we’ll still be in contact,
but come on. We’ll pretty much be
thousands of miles away from each other, on opposite poles—”
“I’m just across the pond,” Aether
interrupted. She shot Lysette a wry smile and the other assisted her in closing
down the bag. Eventually it was all zipped up, and both of them sat on Aether’s
bed in comfortable silence. “At least you’ll stay here,” she admitted quietly.
Lysette glanced at Aether; she was staring off at the wall with her thumb and
pointer finger rubbing against each other. Lysette knew that tic; it was her
nervous one.
So she settled her hand on the other’s
shoulder, breaking Aether out of her reprieve. Lysette shot her a smaller smile
of her own, “Shh. I know you’ll be doing great things over there in America.
You’re smarter than I am, and they’re extremely lucky to be getting you.”
“Are you sure about that?” Aether
questioned. “I mean—isn’t street smarts the more important thing? And to think
I need to adjust to so much.”
“You’ll manage. Come on.” A nudge from her,
“You’ve been living eighteen years, around eight of them in here. If you can
manage that and me as your roommate, then you can handle anything.” With that, a more comforted look came to the other’s
green eyes.
“…you are super messy.”
“And you won’t have to deal with that when
you get there! Come on,” Lysette urged, standing up and pulling Aether to her
feet. “Come on, A.”
“W-What—”
“One last look around before you leave.”
“I’m leaving in two days, Lys, there’s no
need to rush this,” Aether started, but Lysette shook her head and firmly took
the other by the hand, already making her way to the door.
“I’m taking the opportunity, A. Come on,” she urged. Finally, without
much argument, Aether let the other take her out the door and down the hall.
For the next hour, the redhead brought
Aether to all the parts of the orphanage they could reach. They spoke in
whispers and laughed at random tidbits either of the two would bring up; at one
point, Lysette smirked and nudged Aether when they reached the music room. Her
ears burned pink and Lysette laughed while Aether slapped her shoulder.
There was much to explore. They went around
the residential areas, greeted a few friends, eventually crossed over to the
classrooms and finally landed in the garden under one of the larger trees.
Aether had snorted at a joke Lysette had made, and the two eventually embraced
silence.
Somehow, no one else bothered the two.
Lysette assumed it was because they knew; they knew Aether was leaving for the
States and that Lysette was going to lack a partner-in-crime when she did.
(After all, they were inseparable.)
“Hey,” Aether spoke quietly.
“Hmm?”
“You shouldn’t act like I’ll be leaving
forever.”
“Is that how it feels like?” Lysette asked.
She sat up slowly and faced Aether, who remained lying on the grass. “I
mean…does it come off like that to you?”
“It’s not a bad thing. It just feels to me
that you think we’re not going to see each other again.” Her green eyes
flickered towards Lysette’s hazel ones, “But we are, okay? We’ll see each
other, no matter how long it takes.”
Lysette tried her best to smile. “You
better hold on to that promise, A.”
“I will. You’ll see.” She sat up too,
regarding her with a fond look. “You’re my best friend. Don’t think that I
won’t come back for home—for you.” It was at that when Lysette let out a small
laugh, shaking her head slowly.
“And I thought that I was the wordy one.”
“What can I say?” Aether gently nudged the
other’s shoulder, smiling herself, “I learn from the best.”
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