Chapter Text
Manon quietly closes the door behind her as she knows the others should still be sleeping. She knew it was well past curfew, but she’d wanted, no, needed to see her again. Flipping the light switch to her room, she’s startled when she sees a figure sitting on her bed and waiting for her.
“Jesus, Dani! What the hell?” Her hand jolts to her chest, almost causing her knees to buckle. It was clear that Daniela had been waiting for quite some time as her hair was already tied up and her makeup was wiped clean for the day.
Arms crossed and rising from the bed, Daniela yanks Manon into the bedroom and shuts the door. “Where the hell have you been Manon? Lara was about ready to call you in as a missing person because you weren’t returning her calls.”
Manon’s purse falls onto her bed as she sighs and plugs in her offending device, watching as the black screen dimly displays a battery and lightning bolt. “I was out and my phone died,” She mumbles before blushing and clearing her throat. “I may or may not have adoptedaninjuredcatifoundacouoledaysago…” The words whisk away just as quickly as they came. Trying to divert the conversation and distract her metaphorical twin, Manon turns to her small vanity to wipe away the dirt and oils from the day.
“You what?”
“I adopted an injured cat I found on the side of the road,” Manon blurts, covering her face just after the beans had been spilled. She peaks out after a moment of silence, Daniela’s expression unreadable. Trying to backtrack, she adds, “I just couldn’t let her stay stranded like that. She’s already a rough breed and I don’t want her to suffer more because she got abandoned. I can always just keep her at Kat and Sophie’s place. And since Spoon was badly injured, it’s not like she’ll be released immediately. We still have time to find her a new owner.”
sigh
Daniela’s pouty face tugged at Manon’s heart strings. The only thing more heartbreaking was hearing the words, “Clearly if you’re already named her you’re attached. But we just finished emptying our last moving box…”
Manon walks to her best friend and wraps her arms around her shoulders, resting her chin on Dani’s shoulder. Pulling away, Manon looks into Dani’s eyes to make her next words clear. “Daniela, you know I love you. And that nobody— no, nothing could never replace you as my other half, okay? Danon forever, hermana. We’ll figure it out.”
With a pinky promise and a silent nod, the two young women separate for the night. It would be a hard week, that was sure. But they could lie to themselves for the night to pretend everything is fine.
That night, Manon tossed and turned, her brain busied with second guessing and memorized cues. As her thoughts continued their paths, she kept circling back to the comment Dani made.
”Lara was about ready to call you in as a missing person because you weren’t returning her calls.”
It was almost normal, but she was hung up on the fact that doing that wasn’t Lara’s job to worry about her. It was usually Sophia being the ‘mom friend’ and calling nonstop when one of the girls’ wasn’t responding to their messages. But checking her phone, Manon sees 3 missed calls from Megan and Yoonchae, 4 from a Dani, 6 from Sophia, along with over 15 calls and 45+ texts from Lara. Manon’s brows jump as she sits up and scrolls to the very top to read them.
Each message felt heart wrenching as it was read. At first, Lara’s messages just seem to be concerned, playful even. "Manz, Fifi's trying to call you" or "Muthu [Pearl], please just answer the phone. Babe, we're-- I'm worried." But these were just the tip of the iceberg. The turn at message 30 turned Manon's heart to stage glass as Lara's voice carried far more emotion than before.
"Meret, this isn't funny anymore. Where are you? You'd better be sick or dying, dammit. Just- Just be safe... Please."
The text that broke the glass was the last one. It'd been sent when Manon started reading the messages, but she hadn't read it yet. Seeing that Lara wrote in Tamil, Manon's eyebrows sharpened. "என் அன்பான முத்து, தயவுசெய்து வீட்டிற்கு வாருங்கள்." Some of those words, she'd seen before, but Manon could only translate "please" and "come home". her heart pounds as the message seemed to be too strong to be written in English. Sure all the girls had picked up on each others' languages, but it was still taking time for them to read past cuss words and common phrases in Tamil. Accidentally taking a screenshot, Manon blinked and the text disappeared. She stares at the screen again, confusion running further around her as she taps the application to look at her photos. With the text in a translation app, Manon's heart flutters and the corner of her lips rise.
"Oh, that's new..." Manon thinks as her eyes fail to open and slumber devours her.