The Lonely Hearts Club

12 / steel

- trigger warning

"OKAY, SO do you get it now?" Verona asked Emilia with a furrowed brow.

Emilia nodded, her mouth poised on the end of the pencil as she thought, "Okay, I think I do."

Verona glanced at her phone, checking the time, "Okay, so that's pretty good for an hour. You're really improving."

"It's all because of you." Emilia said with a wide smile, "I couldn't have gotten it without you."

Verona just gave a tight-lipped smile in reply.

"I think that's enough for today. You're almost up to speed with the rest of your class." Verona commented before standing from her kitchen table, stretching leisurely.

Emilia continued to smile, "I really can't thank you enough." She said genuinely, "Verona, you are a life-saver."

Emilia reached over the table to gather her few things- a translucent pencil case, a variety of chewed on pencils, her calculator, some wrappers from the snacks the two had consumed in their math tutoring time.

That was when Verona caught it, the bruises lining Emilia's wrists. Verona glanced up sharply at the sight of them.

"What happened to your arm?" Verona asked, her gaze sharp but her voice gentle.

"I fell down doing gymnastic stunts."

Verona pressed her lips together, unsure if she should continue.

"Emi-"

Emilia's phone buzzed, and she pounced on it with a mixture of relief and anxiety.

"Hey, Roman?" Emilia greeted, her tone switching to a bright and chipper one. Verona wondered how many times Emilia had done this before- pretend that everything was fine when everything was crashing down on the inside.

Roman began talking, and Verona couldn't make out the words he was saying, but Emilia replied, "Mhm. Okay, you can pick us up. We're at Verona's house."

Emilia clicked off her phone before turning back to Verona, "Roman is going to pick us up for dinner. He said that a Leo is back and that we are all going to a welcome-home dinner, I guess."

Verona nodded quietly, her apprehension of seeing Leo again overshadowed by what she had discovered a few moments ago.

"Emilia." Verona's voice cracked with empathy, not something she let herself feel very often.

Emilia glanced up, her eyes brimming with tears that she tried to blink away.

"It's not what you think." Emilia insisted, "It's not that."

"Emilia, it looks-"

"It's not that!" Emilia said with a surprising amount of force.

Verona didn't reply, her head tilted as she regarded the girl in front of her.

"You won't tell Roman, right?" Emilia pleaded, "Don't tell him."

Verona's gaze was solid as she took in the desperate girl in front of her.

"Promise me you won't tell him." Emilia grasped her arm with fervent force.

Verona gently tugged her arm away from Emilia, "I don't make promises that I don't keep."

Emilia's face fell, "Then promise me, and keep your promise." Emilia insisted, "It's not that. It was just-"

"It's never just that, Emilia." Verona said firmly, "It's not a just that, it happened, and it's going to continue."

"It's my life!" Emilia pleaded, "You're not going to tell him." Tears began slipping down Emilia's face as she hastily wiped them away.

Verona felt some of her resolve slip away before she gave a reluctant sigh.

"Fine." She bit her lip, not sure if this was the right decision, "But if anything gets bad, you're going to call me or text me or whatever." She said sternly, "I'm going to put my number in your phone. Do you understand?"

"Thank you." Emilia breathed out, relief encompassing her delicate features.

Verona silently began gathering her things, getting ready to go out.

"You can wait here." Verona told Emilia, throwing her hair up into a loose bun, some tendrils of hair slipping out. Verona was jealous of those who could put their hair up in a bun quickly, but it always took her several tries.

Emilia gave a nod, sitting down into a seat at the kitchen table and pulling out her phone.

Verona ran up the stairs to her room where she quickly slipped on a pair of socks and pulled on a jacket on top of her other clothes.

She sat in front of her mirror, regarding herself as she began to pat on makeup. Verona swiped on some lip balm and giving her eyebrows a quick coating of eyebrow gel. She liked the feeling of makeup against her skin.

Verona leaned backward, her face gazing back from behind the mirror, solid and unashamed.

She could almost pretend that she could see the steel that ran through her veins, and for a brief moment, she could picture the same steel running through Emilia's blood.

She and Emilia were one and the same- forces of nature, made that way by the storms brewing outside.

Verona stood up, catching in the corner of her eye out the window, a car parked in her driveway.

Roman was here.

~~~