Yule Ball '77

[Calixto Elias Bailer]

AND THE STRANGE THING,
YOUR LIFE COULD END UP C H A N G I N G
WHILE YOU'RE DANCING THROUGH !

“Your Duke and Duchess are Calixto Bailer and Gabriella Rivera.”

To say that Cal had been taken off-guard when it was his name being called for this year’s Yule Duke was an understatement. He didn’t anticipate it at all- in fact, Calixto had sort of forgotten about Yule Court. Oh yes, he had voted and all but he forgot about the brief ceremony, forgot that other people could also vote for anyone they wanted. They could vote for him. That had voted for him! He grinned from ear to ear as he was propelled onto the platform to receive his prize. He had smiled over at Gabriella when she was pushed beside him as well. He was filled with happiness, truly, knowing that people had picked him. Sure, he knew he had a good bit of friends, but he didn’t think he would be recognized like this in front of virtually the whole school. He had beamed, entirely grateful, and clapped excitedly as the rest of the Court was announced (he even “whoo-hooed” a bit, happy when Emme’s name was called too). He was having such a good time that the next thing he knew, he was dancing elegantly with Serena, whirring around the dance floor just as well as everyone else (if not better, in his humble opinion). He smiled at Serena’s indirect compliment as they waltzed, “Thank you,” he said, not necessarily picking up on Serena’s slightly haughty tone. “Really, I am having such a good time! I am glad we got to go to the ball together.” He was, and he hoped the rest of his friends were having a good time as well. He blinked, suddenly wondering if they were – wondering, specifically, if one tiny Gryffindor was happy with the ball. He had thought he had caught a glimpse of Gracie’s curls in the crowd, but he wasn’t so sure. He told himself he wasn’t going to worry, but well, he kind of was worried. He wanted to make sure she was having a wonderful night. ”Ser- Miss Lovelace, would you mind terribly if I saved a dance later tonight for my friend? Just one, later, and the rest of the night I’m all yours.”

[nessarose]

When it came out, it was like an avalanche.

It had started when Gabby had left, and Vanessa was alone with Emmeline in the bathroom. She had never thought it an incredibly intimate setting before, but now that Emme was here alone with her, it seemed like a whole world unto themselves––even the faint pounding of the dance music outside couldn't shatter the illusion. Vanessa was floating and she couldn't find any way to ground herself. She was there, with Emmeline, and Emmeline had just called her pretty, and she couldn't even feel her knees let alone stand on them. Her breathing became shallow when her face flushed with pleasure, and she cracked a red-lipped smile, averting her eyes shyly from her companion and knotting her fingers together. "Thank you," she breathed, quietly. "I'm not as pretty as you, though, Emmie. You're beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen you more beautiful than you are tonight," she confessed, too timid to look back up at the girl, blushing like a fool. Her face must have been as red as an apple––she felt the heat reach her ears, too. "I––I––" she stammered, suddenly feeling the urge to ask Emmeline a question she'd only ever asked in her dreams. "If I had asked you to go to Yule with me, would you have said yes? I––I wanted to, you know, but I was so scared and––well now you're here with Luke but––but maybe if I had asked, well––well––would you have said yes?" It had to be a sign. The way Emmie was looking at her, the lingering touch. Was it all in Vanessa's head? No, it couldn't be––she knew this was real, she knew it. Maybe she didn't really like Luke, maybe she was just excited and––maybe she liked Nessa, because she was staring at her, and telling her how pretty she was, and touching her waist, and––it meant something, right? It had to. There was hope. There had to be, because Emme had never looked at Vanessa like that before.

Perhaps it was that hope that bubbled up through Nessa's throat and spilled out in a desperate, nervous, shaky declaration: "I––I've loved you for a long time, Emmie."

When it came out, it was like an avalanche.

"Please say you love me too."

Hope.

"Please."

Avalanche.

"You would have gone with me if I'd asked, right?"

And then, a pleading silence.

And she wondered what she'd done.

[/blockquote]

[Emmeline Vance]

Glancing away from her reflection as Vanessa replied, Emme felt her face soften at the other girl's words, positively gushing about how pretty she looked, and breathed out a soft laugh, flattered. It had been a while since somebody had been that nice to her, at least that openly, honestly nice to her like that. At least it seemed that not eating had been paying off, from what Nessa was saying, that she'd never seen her prettier than tonight. Emme certainly felt pretty. She'd been crowned Yule Princess and everything and it was absolutely exhilarating. She snapped back to reality, however, at her next question, raising her eyebrows a little at the other girl; go to the Yule ball with her? But why would she go with her if it was supposed to be something you went to with dates. She figured she meant like, if neither of them had gotten dates...? But that was silly, of course there would have been at least one guy in the entirety of Hogwarts that would want to go with them, so that was out of the question. Opening her mouth to laugh at the absurdity of what she was saying, thinking that maybe Nessa was just feeling insecure about not having had a date for a long time, and immediately thinking about reassuring her that it was fine and she was with Fehlandt now, who was awesome, so she licked her lips, but was interrupted before she could say anything.

And okay, that was a really kind of strange way to phrase it. Because Emme told her friends she loved them all the time; Gabby loved her, Jordan loved her, and she totally adored Nessa just like all the other girls, but why was she saying it like that, like 'I've loved you'? It sounded...it sounded off and Emme frowned a little for a moment, honestly confused.

'Please say you love me too.'

What... Emme frowned deeper, staring at Nessa's face, wondering what was going on; if something maybe had happened to her before they'd met in the bathroom. Had Fehlandt done something? Or maybe another guy? Perhaps somebody had said something to her that was making her so insecure like this, and the way she was saying please again... "Nessa, of course I love you," Emme replied quickly, reaching over to her friend's shoulder, looking at her worriedly. "Is everything okay? What's wrong? You know we all love you, right?

[/color]"

It didn't make sense that she was thinking about what would have happened if she hadn't gotten a date to the ball, since they were at the ball and they did have dates and it felt kind of pointless to be worrying about that now...[/color][/blockquote]

[nessarose]

This was wrong. "No, no, Emme––" she said, desperation creasing her brow, "I––I––I didn't mean it like that." Dammit, she was starting to cry again, and she felt as though her stomach might try and heave out her pain again, as if simply regurgitating it was an option, like she could just get it out and flush it down. Her hands were starting to shake and she took a step closer to Emmeline, her lips trembling as tears slid down her cheeks. "I'm i–in love with you," she finally confessed, grabbing Emmeline's hand from her shoulder. "Ever since I met you," she began, sniffling, "I thought you were so––so beautiful, a–and I knew that somehow, someway, I needed to be part of your life, to––to know you and say that a piece of you was just for me, just, mine." She took a moment to swallow and let out a few more gasps of air amidst her tears. "I've been hiding this for months now and I've been too afraid to tell anyone and I think if I have to keep it in any longer I might just––just––explode, and I saw you kiss Luke and then you came in here and y––you looked at me, and––and I thought––and I thought––that maybe, maybe you––" she broke off, unable to continue, and buried her face in her hands, muffling her sobs. She tried to lean forward onto Emmeline's chest, searching for some form of comfort, even though she wasn't sure what to expect from this. She was wrong, she was just, wrong, and how did this happen, and why had she done this? Oh, God, this wasn't her night, it was Emme's and she was taking it from her and ruining it, and––and––oh God, what had she done? She had just admitted it and now it was real, and she hadn't admitted it on paper, like she had with Lyle, she'd admitted it out loud and it was there and she told Emme and oh, oh God this wasn't supposed to happen like this––this wasn't supposed to happen at all.

She had just ruined everything.

[/blockquote]

[Emmeline Vance]

Then Nessa was crying, and Emme was really, really worried until she said that she was in love with her, and she blocked the rest of whatever she was saying out. Because she couldn't be in love with her. It was--what, she wasn't a boy. Neither of them was a boy, so she couldn't be in love with her. It didn't work like that. Girls loved boys and boys loved girls; that's how it was supposed to be and Nessa couldn't--Emme stared, her jaw hanging open a little, as her friend cried and kept saying something about Luke and keeping something inside and all she could do was stare at her, not really comprehending because that was wrong. It was so so wrong and she felt like she was stuck in one of those really weird dreams that seem like they're true but it couldn't be a dream because Gabby had been crying and Vanessa was crying and Emme took a cautious step back, putting distance between herself and that. The fact that Vanessa seemed to think she was in love with her. "No!" Emme managed to blurt out after a moment, eyes wide, jaw set. "Vanessa, you can't be. You're not--no, whatever you're thinking, you can't be in love with me. That's...I'm not a boy!

[/color]"

Girls couldn't be gay! It was only boys that could be gay; she'd seen gay boys modelling for her father and then--Lyle and Jesus, Stefan! And that was gross and wrong but girls weren't--girls were safe from that! Girls were not gay.

Vanessa couldn't love her because she was a girl. They were both girls and girls didn't love girls that way.

She took another step back. "S-stop it. Just...look, you're--you're confused or--you can't...[/color]" She felt like she was hot inside, very hot, and she didn't want to be here anymore. She didn't want to stand here and listen to a girl tell her she loved her because it was wrong.

Emme shook her head. "I have to go. You should...you should find Fehlandt,[/color]" she muttered, not looking at her in the eye before turning around and running out of the bathroom to go find Gabby again.
[/color][/blockquote]

[nessarose]

Three minutes and fifteen seconds. That's all it took to destroy the one friendship Vanessa was certain she'd have done anything to protect. The shaking started slowly at first, but then gradually became more and more pronounced until Vanessa's knees buckled and sank to the ground, not caring she was on the bathroom floor in a dress Fehlandt had bought her, not caring that her makeup was smeared all over her face, not caring what anyone would think if they were to find her like this. She was shivering and her face was blank, despite the tears blinding her and the constricting feeling in her chest threatening to cause her to lose consciousness. Vanessa needed to be held. She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, trying to get herself to calm down. Fehlandt would be upset. She rocked slowly back and forth, sobbing quietly to herself as images of Fehlandt, Emme, and Gabby swam in her imagination. She replayed the last few minutes over and over again in her mind until she thought her head might explode. Humiliation, fear, and a deep, reverberating sadness throbbed inside her and she suddenly felt the need to hide, to leave, to be left alone. She didn't want anyone to find her, to see her, to share in her pain. It was hers and it was her fault and she would keep it that way. No one would know about this, no one. She crawled into the bathroom stall she had left only minutes before and shut the door weakly, sinking back to the floor and putting her face over the toilet, feeling like she might vomit again. She waited and as she waited she cried. She held her sides, almost afraid that if she let go, she would fall apart.

She wondered if falling apart, though, would feel better than this.

[/blockquote]

[Gracie Marlow]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gracie gasped at the words coming out of Julien’s mouth. ”No you should not talk to him!” She protested loudly. Oh the awkwardness that would come out of that conversation… She didn’t even want to think about it. Her two best guy friends talking about how much she liked one of them… Ugh! No. Rolling her eyes, she looked away and waited for him to talk about whatever he was thinking. And then he did.

Hurt was apparent behind her honey-colored eyes and she was sure that she wasn’t able to hide it before Julien could catch it. Looking back at him, she whispered, ”I- I don’t know why, Jules… I mean, it’s not like I’m making the conscious decision to worry about him; I just can’t help but wonder why I’m not good enough. Why he chose her over me…” She felt like crying again, but Gracie held on strong. She was fourteen years old; she could handle this.

At his next comment, Gracie moved away from her best friend and looked him angrily in the eyes. ”Move on? Really, Jules? And just how do you propose I do that? I mean, it’s not like there are any other guys waiting to sweep me off my feet and whisk me away from this heartache…” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out into the starry night sky. All things considered, it was actually quite a beautiful night…

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[ambrosia]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Wait!” That was all she heard from Luke before Ambrosia made a mad dash into the crowd. Had she really just spilled the one secret she had been keeping for four years!? I am so incredibly stupid, she thought as she squeezed between couples slow dancing. I just ruined being Luke’s best friend… all because I was jealous. She would be hitting herself over the head for the rest of her life for the idiotic mistake she had made tonight.

As Ambrosia side-stepped through the crowd as quickly as she could, she found herself in a difficult place. There was a wall of people dancing and she couldn’t find any escape… Suddenly, a couple people moved just enough so the she could squeeze through. She threw all of her weight through them and ended up bumping into someone tall… someone even taller than her. ”Oh, wow…” She began, catching herself against the older male’s side and straightening herself, ”I am so sorry! Severus… right?” She glanced up at the Potions Assistant and wondered briefly what he was doing at the Yule Ball; although, stranger things had happened, she supposed.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Julien Cross]

Gracie wasn't really putting him into a better mood. He was already a bit pissed with Cal -- which, honestly, was a rarity because Cal genuinely was a good guy but he had upset Gracie AND FOR A PUREBLOOD CHICK, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE -- and that had to go and ruin the good time they could've had on the dance floor and now Gracie was getting snippy with him? It also was rubbing him the wrong way that she had been busy thinking about Cal when she was supposed to be focused on him. She rolled her eyes at him and he rolled his eyes at her right back. "Well are you going to talk to him about it, then?"

[/color] Honestly, she wasn't making any sense. Why did girls make things so complicated? Julien actually spluttered when she said that she wasn't good enough for Cal but Lovelace was. He let out a rather bitter laugh and stepped away from her just as she stepped away from him. He rubbed his hand through his hair and shook his hair. "Trust me, Gracie, it has nothing to do with you being good enough,"[/color] he said with a bit of a growl. He was trying to compliment her but that was getting a little overshadowed by his current annoyance.

Julien frowned. "Since when does Gracie Marlow need a guy to make her happy?"[/color] he asked, eyebrow arching up skeptically. Or, really, why did she need a guy in general? Julien had the tendency to let his temper get in the way of things and get out of hand. While he was getting irritated, Gracie was getting upset again which made him more angry but when he looked back to Gracie and saw how her nose was still red and her eyes were still glistening, there was a twinge in his gut. It was really hard to stay mad when she was looking like that, and Julien wasn't good at dealing with feelings. He was much better at expressing anger. So it was utterly unfair of her to be making him feel guilty like this. Sighing heavily, Julien crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring her stance. He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know, we could try doing some beater practice again,"[/color] he suggested, his tone less harsh and an attempt as a smile coming onto his face. Let the bludger knock some sense into you."[/color] He reached forward, cupping his hand against her cheek and brushing his thumb lightly across her skin. "I could also dye her hair a nice shade of crimson?"[/color] he suggested in a secretive tone, smirking. He really just wanted her to stop thinking about Cal. And more importantly he didn't want to see her upset anymore.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Serena Lovelace]

YOU'LL BE THE PRINCE &
I'LL BE THE P R I N C E S S
IT'S A LOVE STORY, BABY
JUST SAY Y E S

And just like that, the fairytale had ended. She frowned and immediately took a step backward from Calixto, her gaze hardening. "What?" she repeated, incredulous of what he had just asked her. "But––I'm your date," she stated, fuming. How could he possibly want to dance with another girl? What about Serena wasn't satisfying enough to him for the entire evening? She tried not to let it get to her, explained to herself that this was simply a fault of his own, nothing she could control. But it still hurt all the same, and was enough to ruin her evening. "Calixto Bailer, I revoke my prior judgment: you have failed the test of a true pureblood gentleman," Serena seethed, crossing her arms over her chest and taking another step back. "A real gentleman would never abandon his lady, not even for one dance!" With that, she rounded on her heel and turned for the other direction, her blond waves swishing behind her. She was more hurt than she was offended. What would her mother have to say about this? Oh, she––she wouldn't tell her mother. Not about this. It was far too humiliating, she thought, scornfully turning back to stare a dagger or two at Calixto, if he was still watching her (which he should be, seeing as she was a lady that he had just lost and––and wait––maybe she wasn't a lady after all, if he wasn't already chasing after her and begging at her feet for absolution). The thought that she may have possibly done something wrong made Serena's face crumple, and by the time she'd gotten to the other end of the ballroom, far, far away from Calixto, she brushed away a tiny teardrop from her cheek and sniffled, willing herself to remain strong. This was absurd, she told herself, shaking her head and soothing her pride. Calixto wasn't worth this. He may have been her prince this evening but––but she could find another prince, she decided, succeeding in consoling herself to a moderate level. Who else was worthy of being her prince? She surveyed the room and came up with only a few near-misses, much to her disappointment. No one here was the same as Calixto. There was something about his aloof attitude and utter ignorance of all pureblood customs that was exceptionally endearing to Serena and altogether difficult to find elsewhere and... she couldn't replace it. But she could make him wish he'd chased after her, she thought, stewing. She'd make sure he saw her dancing with someone else, that was it! A classic tactic. Serena looked about the room again and locked her eyes on a single target, the most perfect target ever: Lucius Malfoy. Alright. She had to be suave about this, cool, collected, firm. Serena marched right up to Lucius and looked him straight in the eye. "Dance with me," she commanded, staring up at him (oh, but he was inconveniently tall, wasn't he?). But then she felt perhaps that was too strong to be considered ladylike, so she added a quick and humble, "Please," eyes nervously (but guiltlessly, of course) darting to Narcissa in a silent attempt to convey to her that she was not a threat, that she only wanted to dance with Lucius in order to prove a point to her wayward date. She then directed her gaze back to Lucius and attempted to intimate that she was being quite, quite serious and that he agreed to her request was of the utmost severity.

[/blockquote]

[Calixto Elias Bailer]

AND THE STRANGE THING,
YOUR LIFE COULD END UP C H A N G I N G
WHILE YOU'RE DANCING THROUGH !

Bullocks. Serena’s face fell instantly and he knew he did something terribly wrong. He was caught off guard when she moved away from him and he jerked a little, his momentum off. “I- what? Serena, I know you’re my date-,” He took a step forward to try to explain after he had steadied himself. He didn’t understand why she was acting so offended, he didn’t mean anything personal by her whatsoever, he just wanted to find Gracie and had thought maybe Serena would also like time to see her friends but – but apparently Cal was dead wrong. ”I’m sorry! I- I don’t get it,” he tried but stopped when the little blonde withdrew her previous praises. “No! I-I didn’t mean to upset you, please! I don’t want to abandon you!” But she had spun on her heels disappearing quite away from him. He creased his forehead worriedly and tried to follow, gaining on her in a few steps before getting slowed down by the crowd. Geesh but petite people could vanish into a mob of people. He felt his heart sink with every way that he looked and didn’t see the little Slytherin. He was confused and disappointed in himself because he had been doing so well until now, and all he really wanted to do was make sure Serena and Gracie were both happy. He had hated the look on Serena’s face when she marched away just as he had hated the hurt on Gracie’s face at Hogsmeade. How did this happen to him? Both fourth years were his friends and he was ruining everything. He stopped in his tracks lost on what to do before putting his face in his hand. It was a royal mess (fit for a Duke, he guessed). He had to do something, though, because he couldn’t stand here for long – people were trying to dance around him but he was inevitably getting elbowed. He pushed his way through some more then, finally spotting Serena dancing with Lucius Malfoy. He approached them but wasn’t completely sure what to do. Stepping up so Serena would see him he pleaded, ”I’m sorry for whatever I said, I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything. Please don’t be upset, I am very happy that you’re my date, very happy, I just. I just wanted to get to see some of my other friends as well and- well, I don’t mind if you’d like to dance with Lucius. And I’d only be a moment.” Just one moment. One moment to try to please everyone.

[Gracie Marlow]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gracie’s eyes narrowed into slits when he snarkily asked if she was going to talk to Cal. Was he out of his mind!? He knew damn well that she was too hurt and afraid of her feelings to talk to the one guy she used to call her best friend. “You know I’m not going to talk to him, Jules. Cut it out.” She was referring to the fact that he was acting impossibly and he needed to stop. She was already feeling like crap and she didn’t need him to make her feel worse as well. Jules was supposed to be the one person she could talk to about anything and right now? He was grating on her nerves…

Bewildered, Gracie couldn’t figure out what he meant by his next statement. ”Well, what does it have to do with then,” she asked, stress and annoyance clearly drawn on her face. ”Because, last I checked, Cal wasn’t the kind of guy to look at blood status. He hasn’t been that guys in all the years I’ve known him, Jules…” Her voice dropped to barely a whisper and she tried to control herself and not cry again when she continued, ”So, it has to be me then, right?”

She looked back toward him, peeling her eyes away from the sky. ”I don’t need a guy, Jules, I was just stating a fact.” Smiling slightly at his next statement, she remembered their last encounter with beating practice and how badly it had ended- with her in the hospital. ”Yeah, I don’t think beating is quite my forte… I’ll leave that to you.” She snorted. As Julien cupped her face with his hand, she welcomed the warm, soft skin on her cheek and actually leaned into it, closing her eyes for a moment. How could he be so warm…? She wondered, opening her eyes again to look into his. Suddenly, she was smiling genuinely and it probably had to do with the image she had in her head of Lovelace waking up one morning to find her hair crimson; Gracie pictured she would look like a chicken running around with its head cut off. ”I’m not saying you should, but- aw, who am I kidding? That would be hilarious!” Honestly, that image had almost made her forget that Cal was dancing with her enemy in the other room.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Serena Lovelace]

YOU'LL BE THE PRINCE &
I'LL BE THE P R I N C E S S
IT'S A LOVE STORY, BABY
JUST SAY Y E S

And now, he was interrupting her?! "Mister Bailer!" Serena said as severely as she could manage, rounding on him and praying that Lucius and Narcissa weren't watching (as she wasn't about to cause a scene in front of them). "You go too far!" And truly, he did. First he asks permission to leave her for a short time during the night, and after she storms off appropriately and awaits him to come back and fetch her, he follows her and asks again for permission to leave, as if somehow, within the space of approximately forty seconds, she were to change her entire belief system regarding the etiquette at dances. This was absurd! "Hopefully this other girl––your friend, as it were––will be enough of a lady to keep you company for the rest of the evening, because as far as I am concerned, we are quite finished." He had grated her last nerve, and now, she needed to get away from him and make a proper exit. From all the things she'd ever read or seen, Serena knew that this would be her cue to either slap her male love interest, or to storm out of the party entirely. She glanced about uncomfortably and tapped her foot as she tried to pick which one she was going to do. This was a hard decision, how did any of the heroines she'd read about decide so quickly? "At least, I am finished here," she finally announced, coming to the conclusion that she would invent her own dramatic gesture by ripping off her corsage and throwing it at Calixto's feet. This being done, she stormed off past him and grabbed her handbag from the table she'd left it at, trying to remain quick so as to not allow adequate time for Calixto to chase after her. The point this time was for him to wallow in remorse and beg for forgiveness at a later date (probably two or three days should suffice, but by the time four days came around she would know to permanently blacklist him), not for them to solve this now––nothing good came of an attempt to resolve a situation immediately after it occurred, which was what mother always said. Serena thought of having to recount the events of this night to her mother and cringed. She would certainly need to leave out certain details. At any rate, she was halfway to the door now, and she had encountered no resistance. Part of her was pleased by this and another part of her, disappointed. But no, she soothed herself, this was all part of the plan. She reached the threshold into the hallway and stepped out into it, and now, the plan was officially enacted.

She'd have to see how well Calixto passed this test.

[/blockquote]

[Daciana Gamp]

Daciana didn’t really wait for Gabriella to respond before walking closer to the bathroom, having the sense to step out of the way reflexively as a blonde blur blew past her. Glancing quickly back before pushing open the door, she recognized the blur as Emmeline Vance and wondered where she could possibly being going at that speed. It was weird; there didn’t seem to be anyone in the bathroom anymore, but Vance definitely looked like she was fleeing. Daciana turned to the mirror to tuck a strand of her dark hair back into place and reasoned that well, Vance was a crazy bitch anyway so it probably just didn’t matter. She popped opened her clutch and dug around for her lip gloss, pulling it out to- what the hell was that. Daciana paused and sort of glanced around only with her eyes. She heard something, she could have sworn… It was sniffling. It was definitely sniffling, and that meant someone was crying in the bathroom. And they didn’t want anyone to see them, thus why they were apparently hiding in one of the stalls. Daciana continued to fix her lip gloss, pretending like she heard nothing not wanting to give her suspicion away just yet. She was quiet for a few more moments and…yes, those were crying noises. She left her things on the bathroom counter and took slow, silent steps toward the source of the noises, silently urging her heels to be quiet. Well, at this point it wasn’t as though the other person could escape anyway. She pushed at the stall door to find it unlocked, swinging it open to reveal one tall blonde Hufflepuff a mess on the fall. Daciana felt trapped; a part of her wished she’d walked out without seeing who was here, and the other part of her – she grabbed at the toilet tissue in the stall and pushed it into Vanessa’s hands. “What – who – I mean, what the hell happened?” She had never seen the other girl this way before, and it…it bothered her. She couldn’t tell why, exactly, but. Vanessa was usually so happy and even though yes, that annoyed Daciana, it was how she was used to seeing the blonde. ”Didn’t you- Why aren’t you with Fehlandt?” Hadn’t she come with the boisterous Slytherin? ”Who did this to you Vanessa?” She needed to know. She just did.

[nessarose]

Oh God, she wasn't going to do this, not now. She couldn't allow herself to become that––that whiny, pathetic type of girl who fell apart at a school dance and confessed everything to a passer-by. But... this wasn't just anyone random, this was Daciana, her friend. Ha. She sure did have a knack for constantly finding Vanessa in embarrassing and/or compromising situations (i.e., snowpile; i.e., bathroom stall). She raised her eyes to the other girl and grudgingly took the wad of toilet paper she'd stuffed in her hand. "It's nothing," Nessa lied, wiping at her eyes and trying to stand up. "I'm fine." Her heel caught on her dress, though, and she fell right back down, perhaps in a worse place than she had been prior. Fresh tears surfaced and the need to be held consumed her once more. Vanessa looked searchingly at Daciana, wondering why the girl wanted to know who had done this to her. It was nice, but it didn't quite seem in character for the brunette. Nessa bit her lip and let out a sigh, dropping her eyes from Daciana, unable to look at her. "It's my own fault," she admitted, dismissively, ignoring the tremble in her voice as she raised the tissue to her eyes once more. "I did something stupid and I deserve this, okay? Don't worry about it." So, she was really uncomfortable and humiliated right now. She didn't want anyone to see her like this, least of all Daciana Gamp, who she was trying to convince to be her friend (and this probably didn't help). She reminded her of Fehlandt though, and Nessa felt a pang of guilt. He must be upset with her, she thought, dismally. More tears squeezed out of her eyes and she shivered, burying her face in her hands again. How had she allowed this to happen? God, but she was a fool. And Daciana had to see it, to boot.

[/blockquote]