Vol.4 Ch.11 – Honesty
Chapter 11: Honesty
Aurora opened the door hesitantly. Mariana had sounded flustered and the last thing Aurora wanted was to make her uncomfortable. Still, though, she had been invited in.
And as she opened the door and stepped inside she was met with an unusual tableau. Mariana was in bed. With Elaine. Mariana had clearly hastily thrown the blanket over herself and except for two bra straps her shoulders were bare and the girl was beet red.
A less reasonable person, Aurora felt, might have jumped to conclusions and run away but she prided herself on being a reasonable person and so she regarded the scene more closely instead of making assumptions.
Elaine looked deeply uncomfortable, which meant that Elaine probably hadn't demanded Mariana strip for her. More to the point, Elaine was still fully clothed. Her clothing looked rumpled so she had clearly slept in that bed but she also clearly hadn't done more than sleep in that bed. Not that it really mattered to Aurora whether Elaine had. Elaine had multiple girlfriends and the two of them weren't in a relationship so it didn't matter to her whether Elaine slept around.
Although this left the question of what exactly this was, then. Was Mariana simply so oblivious that she'd tried to change in front of Elaine? Or had she tried to seduce Elaine? If so, why was Elaine so uncomfortable? She clearly found Mariana attractive, at least physically. Had Aurora ruined a moment the two of them had had? No, it didn't seem like it. The air in the room was far, far too awkward for that.
So, overloaded with conflicting inputs that didn't make sense Aurora decided to simply skip her schedule ahead a couple of points.
“I was wondering when we could leave.”
**
It was one of the most mortifying moments of Mare's life. Being caught masturbating by a parent couldn't possibly have been more awkward than being interrupted during her in hindsight incredibly stupid attempt at seduction. Being interrupted by Aurora of all people made it worse. Anyone else, anyone else, she would have simply told to get lost, even if she'd have regretted it afterwards but not Aurora. The girl was too precious to treat like that and Mare wanted nothing but good things for her. But, at the same time, there was nothing good about this situation. Then again, compared to what Aurora had been through, this situation was child's play. Breathtakingly awkward but not horrible. She would just have to woman up and say something.
**
Elaine felt like facepalming. The moment Aurora had stepped through that door she'd feared the worst, that Aurora would misunderstand the situation horribly, but that hadn't happened. The girl had calmly looked both of them over, a thousand thoughts clearly flashing across her face, before she'd settled on simply ignoring the situation. Which was just about the best possible way she could have handled that.
It had also managed to interrupt whatever Mare had been going for, which was good, but now everyone knew she was awake and so she had to respond to the situation somehow. Thankfully, with whatever Mare had been going for thoroughly diffused Elaine could properly respond to it. And so first to answer Aurora:
“Let me get freshened up and get some breakfast, then we can go.” The girl nodded and Elaine turned to look at Mare, who had turned quite an intriguing shade of red in the meantime. “We're going on a short outing. If you want to come with?”
“Y-yes, that's great,” Mare stammered, much faster than her usual cadence. “But what about...”
“Alejandro?” Elaine asked. “We can go tell him right away.”
The girl looked away from her.
“I can do it on my own if you want me to,” Elaine said gently.
“I can't really ask that of you,” Mare replied.
“What is this about?” Aurora asked quietly, as if she didn't want to intrude on the conversation.
Mare stared resolutely down at her blanket so Elaine explained: “Mare wants to join our team.”
Elaine had expected Aurora to ask what Mare's Awakener thought of that but the girl stayed quiet. The girl had a lot of tact, although Elaine was sure that finding out where she learned that would break her heart.
“Of course,” Elaine added, “if you don't want her along for this, then I can understand that.”
“No, this is fine,” Aurora rushed out. “I...” she paused.
You can talk to me, Elaine wanted to say but before she could she noticed Aurora's fingers dancing over an imaginary keyboard.
Elaine gave the girl a soft smile. So she'd noticed that, too, huh?
Either way, she looked back at Mare and said: “You really don't have to come with. But if you do want to come along then don't worry, you won't have to say anything.”
“O-okay,” Mare squeaked out. “I'll come along.”
Aurora gave them both a smile and then went ahead, closing the door behind her to give them, to give Mare, a chance to get changed.
Elaine and Mare got out of the bed, Elaine trying to brush the wrinkles out of her outfit so that it wouldn't look quite so much like walk of shame clothing. Mare was picking her pants and sweater up off the floor and as she shimmied into her sweater she asked quietly: “Did you see?”
See what? It was the perfect excuse. Those two words would remove all the awkwardness from the situation. But Elaine couldn't bring herself to say them. It would remove the awkwardness from the immediate situation, yes, but the underlying problem would still be there. And so she instead said:
“Yes, I did.”
“I-I see,” Mare said.
“I'm not a randy mutt that can't control itself around a pretty girl,” Elaine said, trying her best to soften her tone for the harsh words. “If you want me, then ask me on a date. I won't refuse. But I'm not going to jump you because you flash me some booty, okay?”
“Okay,” Mare said, clearly chastised. “I'm sorry, I just... I'm sorry.”
“It's hard to ask someone out when you've never done it before,” Elaine said softly.
“How did...”
Elaine just raised an eyebrow.
“Right,” Mare said. “That obvious.”
“Don't worry,” Elaine said, “when and if something happens, I can take the lead if you want me to. But I'm not going to just jump anyone I'm not in a relationship with.”
Mare considered that for a moment, then said: “Thank you.”
Elaine nodded. And then sighed as she realized that it was time to talk to Alejandro.
**
“I want to poach Mare from you,” Elaine said bluntly as she approached Alejandro in the cafeteria.
He raised an eyebrow at her. All the Awakeners were attractive, especially after the treatments. Elaine might have been hit hardest by side effects but all of them had gotten more attractive over the course of them. Jordan had gone from a scrawny nerd to a chiseled portrait of masculinity, Marcus had gone from a moderately good-looking jock to a male model and Tracy had been a cheerleader before, sporty and lithe, and now she was all hourglass figure and legs for days. Brandon, may he burn in hell, had gone from a roided-out jock to a roided-out jock with a slightly stronger chin and Elaine had gotten buffer, her chest had grown and, well, there was that one other little detail. But Alejandro was special.
The guy had been a handsome bastard from the very start. A runner's physique, chiseled jaw, perfectly coiffed hair, everything. Becoming an Awakener had barely changed anything about his physical description but it had made everything more. The guy practically glowed. There was a pure magnetism to him that even Elaine couldn't help but feel. If the Professor told her that Alejandro had Soul Shards of Freyr, Apollo and Aengus Og inside him, she would believe it in a heartbeat. He was that radiant.
He was also gay, which meant that most of the attention he drew was completely pointless.
His gaze flicked from Elaine to Mare behind him and he simply asked:
“Does she want to be poached?”
Elaine turned around to see the girl giving a slight nod.
“I've been neglecting you, have I?” he said gently.
Mare looked down at the floor.
Alejandro let out a breath and rubbed the back of his head, careful not to ruffle his perfectly styled hair. Finally he looked back at Elaine and said: “Treat her better than I have, yeah?”
“Of course.”