I am Daria [18+]

fifteen

This is a long one. Sort of. And not really edited. You have been warned. Also, kinda long a/n at the end. Happy reading!

I promised the girls I would keep contact with them. Barbie cried as we all embraced. Even Riley, the least affectionate out of the four of us, seemed emotional.

Lena suggested we could even visit each other during the holidays. I didn't have the heart to tell them that that would not be possible, at least not in the near future. There was no way my father would agree to that since I'd spent almost two years outside of the kingdom.

I felt a pang of heartache when I watched my friends leave. I knew I wouldn't see them for a long time, if not ever again.

I stood hunched over the kitchen counter, my palms moist against the surface. I already texted Taylan to come over and now I was waiting, almost impatiently, for his arrival. As much as I dreaded the conversation, I needed him near me, simply because having him close, someone more familiar to me than my family had been for the past year and half, would calm me.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" a soft voice asked from behind me.

I opened my eyes and turned to see Mrs Forbes, Alice's mom, standing in the doorway, looking concerned.

"I'm okay," I offered her a weak smile.

Mrs Forbes was the closest thing I had to a mother while being here. She was a kind and gentle woman. She and Alice shared the same wild hair and strikingly beautiful blue eyes.

She stepped into the kitchen and joined me by the counter. "Now why don't I believe that?"

I took a shuddering breath. "I'm. . . I'm not really okay," I said, sounding pathetically weak. "But whether I am or not, doesn't really change anything."

Mrs Forbes placed a hand on my shoulder and rubbed in gentle circles. She didn't say anything, didn't try to toughen me up with a speech or talk some sense into me. I appreciated it immensely, because she understood that no words could calm my mind or mend my heart.

Several heartbeats of silence followed, during in which, I lowered myself on a stool and Mrs Forbes, knowing exactly what I needed, wrapped me up in her warm embrace.

I allowed myself to be comforted for the first time since the entire ordeal about the entire ordeal. She stroked my hair and rubbed my back.

"Hey," someone else made an appearance. Alice.

I lifted my head off of her mother's shoulder. "Hi."

Mrs Forbes patted my back and said, "I'll leave you two alone."

Alice smiled appreciably at her mother. I hadn't really seen much of her that day nor the previous. After my parents and 
he arrived, they kept everyone out of sight that I could potentially harm. Alice and Taylan being two of them.

"I'm-"

"Are you-"

She and I started simultaneously. We made eye contact and I noticed the red tinge in hers.

"We'll. . .We'll FaceTime, okay? And-And you can even figure out a witchy way so that we can see each other face-to-face," she said, her tone sounding optimistic, the sad kind.

"Of course," I told her, grabbing her hand. "Of course."

"Just don't forget about that when you're all high and mighty, alright," she responded with a little laugh.

I, too, grinned, "Never."

"I'm really gonna miss you."

I swallowed back a lump. "Me too."