Affairs Amongst Immortals {POLY}

☆Heart Palpitations (pt.9)☆

‼️MINOR TRIGGER WARNING: brief skin cutting‼️

(Carasein's pov)

"I don't know what to do," Maizie said.

Maizie wasn't looking at me, her head was drooping off the end of the bed. Her legs were sprawled out behind her as she lay. I sat in a chair across from her.

We were trying to brainstorm.

"Bigger problem than you thought, huh, cutie pie?" I offered a small smile, trying to lighten the mood. It was the least I could do. Because, really, I hadn't been doing much.

I was more of a friend than an extra partner in crime. But the friendship was mostly one-sided.

It wasn't that I didn't consider us friends, but I didn't think we were close enough for it yet. There was plenty we didn't know about each other. And honestly, I didn't think she was ever going to get the hint that I didn't particularly enjoy being spontaneously touched.

"I wish Vrena was here. She told me she'd help me, but she's never here," Maizie mumbled.

I frowned.

That was typical of Vrena. But when I'd gone into the vampire market just for a look around, she wasn't around there, either.

I wasn't sure of her habits though, so maybe she didn't go around there too much, in the first place.

"Do you have any special talents?" Maizie asked.

Her chin was resting on her arms now. She looked bored out of her mind, and I didn't blame her.

"I don't think so. Never really got any opportunities to gain them," I sighed. "I'm average. What about you?"

She shook her head. "N-not really. I crochet sometimes, but it's all kinda expensive to do."

I nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, I get that."

Now we were back to square one. And that was never good, because we were still in that stage of friendship where any sliver of silence was incredibly awkward.

I swore I could hear her breathing, and it sounded like she was intentionally trying not to.

After we'd gone hunting, we'd gotten a bit closer, I could tell. But it was kind of still bad, like being stranded in the middle of an ocean. Because we didn't know anything about each other, so there was nothing to pull me to shore, nothing for me to talk about to interest her in conversing. "Conversing" was probably too fancy of a word.

Conversating?

Having friends was a lot of damn work.

Every once in a while I'd catch Maizie staring at me, probably hoping I'd say something.

She never did. I was always the one to save us.

"We could always meet up later," I tried.

Her eyes immediately shot to me, wide like a newborn fawn. So that definitely was not what she wanted to hear.

"N-no, I don't want to go home."

Something in the soft strokes in her voice didn't hit me right.

I paused, thinking, before looking at her for a minute. "Is...everything okay at home?"

"Oh...I'm moved out," she said quietly. But it hadn't sounded like a reassurance towards me, more like she'd had to remember it, herself, so that didn't make me feel better about it. I did care about Maizie, so the last thing I wanted was for her to be getting hurt by something back home.