Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 16 Madness pt.3

Dahlila brought out a blanket and a cup of hot tea when she couldn't get shivering Ava to come in from the portico over the lake. The portico was on the side of the house on stilts above the water, and when you sat at the edge of it, it felt like being on boat, floating through the waters. This relaxed Ava and soon the shivers lessened.

After a long drought of silence, Ava asked as she looked out over the water, "Do you ever feel like you spend your whole life chasing something?"

"No..." Dahlila replied thoughtfully. "I do spend a lot of time forcing myself to be something I'm not though." She pulled the blanket tighter around her, and Ava looked at her.

"What's that?"

"Perfect. Nothing less is acceptable, you know. And I just don't believe in failure."

"Perfect? You must have a field day with me around then."

"You can say that..."

If she only knew what Ava was trying to conceal... she'd probably chase her out with a rifle.

Ava looked away from her. "We're all human, you know? We're not meant to be perfect. There's too much complexity for that. And that's an awesome thing."

"Try telling that to my mother." Dahlila sucked in her lips and looked at Ava with crossed eyes.

"Maybe I will."

"Shut up." Dahlila smiled. "You know, I am well aware that my optimism bothers people, sometimes, and inside, I'm saying, don't hate me for it; can't you see I'm only faking? But I need it!" Her laugh was more of a sigh and her head went down as she stared into her tea. "I do a lot of hiding, pretending."

"We all are, aren't we? We all are characters. Split personalities struggling to find which is the real one. Maybe there is no real one." Who is Ava? "What is real?"

"What did I put in this tea?" Dahlila laughed and so did Ava. "I was such a bitch before, though... A spoiled brat who thought she knew everything and liked — cross that — loved to boss people around."

"Were you now?" Ava was intrigued but not exactly surprised. "What changed?"

Dahlila took a calm breath. "It was great once. Me and my friends. We had money, popularity, fabulous connections, opportunities to the sky. We had it all. I thought. After my father died, I couldn't see their views anymore; I couldn't see my views anymore. He did a number on me before he passed, and I was thinking things I've never thought before and caring about things I hadn't. And you're right, there's too much complexity in the world; I was just seeing it for the first time, and it was downright terrifying. So, I stepped back from everything and everyone to simplify it."

"Except Danny."

"Well, Danny..." Dahlila rested her head. "Danny's hard to explain to someone who doesn't know him well."

"Try me."

"Okay... He acts faithfully for himself is the big key here; he's the only person really that he trusts, that he believes in, and he's solid in what he believes in. He's a solid person. So he's set in his ways and not easily steerable. If he wants to do something, he'll do it, almost to a very selfish degree. If he feels he needs to say something, likely he'll say it, and he's blunt about it. Being trapped down in a relationship with one person is not for him, so he's never been in a monogamous one."

There goes a likely reason they're not together, Ava noted as Dahlila continued.

"And that has driven a lot of girls crazy as long as I've known him, but he's never pretended to be anything he's not. You can say he's not exactly sensitive in how he handles some problems, but that's the way he wants to live his life and no one is going to have a say in how he lives and how he dies, simple as that. He has no tolerance for it. He's untouchable, almost. A rock. And that quality alone made him a desirable Elite." She smothered a laugh. "Jordan used to call him Rocky Balboa because he was a such a rock and he could easily knock people out."