The Terrible Twelve

Chapter 21: A Swan And A Rabbit Converse

"Hey sweet girl." Nadia walked into Rivka's armory and found her cleaning a couple of weapons at a table towards the back of the room.

"Hey girl." Rivka smiled up at her friend. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much I just wanted to come find you."

Rivka closed her eyes and waited for it, "Any particular reason?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing." And there it was. Rivka sighed.

"Is that so?" She tried to keep her voice level but she was sure that her frustration was showing.

"I'm sorry. I just I know who much he means to you!" Nadia explained. She had taken a seat near her and had started fidgeting with her bullets.

"why does everybody think that I can't handle Christian being in a relationship with someone else?" She screamed in frustration.

"Because we know you." Nadia laughed. She laid a hand on her friend's shoulder, "We know how much he means to you and how long you've been with him. We know you Riv."

"I wish he did."

"He cares about you, you know that."

"It doesn't seem like it. A new and shiny toy comes along and all he cares about is her." Rivka was still dissembling guns and cleaning them but her mind was somewhere else completely.

"Rivka, he's in love." A tear slid down Rivka's face but she wiped it away quickly. "It's not that he doesn't care about you because you know in you're heart that he does. You just can't go on pretending that he cares about you as more than a friend. That is all you'll ever be to him and you have to come to terms with that."

"I don't know why!" Rivka yelled. "There's nothing special about her. She's just your typical human girl."

"She's not human any more Riv."

"You know that's what irks me the most about her. Why'd did he have to go and change her? Why did he have to bring her here?"

"Because he saw something in her that he liked."

"Why couldn't he have just stayed home?"

"Home with you?" Nadia smiled sadly.

Rivka didn't look up at her but inside she was reeling. She didn't want to give him up. She didn't want anybody to come between them and that's all Viridian was doing."

"I will say that I applaud you for not stooping low and sabotaging their relationship." Nadia laughed.

"Oh don't applaud me yet. I definitely thought about it a couple of times. I figured Christian would hate me for it thought."

"Oh yea. There would be no coming back from that."

"You know I would just love to cut of all of that stupid blonde hair of hers off. It would be so pleasing to throw it in the trash." Rivka laughed.

Nadia joined her, "I have to say blonde is a little generic. Christian definitely could have gone with something a little more exotic considering he is almost 100 years old."

"Right! That's exactly what I was thinking!" Rivka shouted. "I'm so glad you agree with me. I'm so tired of hearing little miss goody two shoes Sophia telling me to be nice and act like her friend. I don't want to be nice! I'm not her friend! If I want to ignore her for the rest of her time here, then I should be able to. This house is big enough for me to never see her. Unfortunately that means I never see Christian either."

"Maybe you should ask him for some alone time? You know. Just explain to him that you've been feeling a little left out and you want to do something with him like hunting or go to an all night shooting range or something. You guys used to love competing together." Nadia laughed thinking about the friendly fights the two would get into.

"Yea that would be a lot of fun. Honestly anything is perfect as long as that blonde bimbo doesn't pull herself into it."

The two continued to laugh and joke and their laughter drifted down the hallway where someone sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and tears on her face. Maybe this wasn't the home Viridian thought it was.