Twin Souls: The Story Behind The Broken Roses

Chapter Twelve: August 20, 2014

Tegan Seech

There was always something so beautiful about fire - not in the way that Tegan would want to burn something down, just in the way of it having an innate beauty to it - she'd leave the pyromania to someone who could get away with it... Moreover, she'd leave the pyromania to Emma, the only person she'd ever met that could get away with arson. She literally had, that was something that Tegan couldn't get out of her mind as she stared at the flickering flames.

She wondered absently if Emma was allowed to come to the fire, if there were any stipulations against it, if it was going to be a problem... But the way that Emma sat next to her confidently a moment later told her that her worries were completely unfounded. She glanced over, returning the wide smile that she was given.

"Hey there, superstar." Emma said, resting her head on her shoulder. Tegan turned her own head, resting her chin lightly against Emma's head... Being casually affectionate with Emma felt comfortable - she'd always liked touch, but with Emma it felt completely impulsive, like there was no other way to be. "How're you doing?" She asked, and Tegan sighed, pulling away from her with a shrug...

She felt a bit alone, a bit left out... And it wasn't by any fault of anyone else, she just felt that way. She knew for a fact that she was perfectly allowed to go hang out with Penny and Esme, that she wasn't going to get sent away, but she didn't want to interrupt... She'd been watching them laugh and talk all night, inching closer to each other, seeming almost drawn to do so...

She couldn't interrupt that, it felt wrong... They deserved to have time on their own, everyone needed to develop individual friendships, right? Plus... Now Emma was here, she'd be fine.

"I'm... Eh, I'm alright. How about you?" She asked, and Emma shrugged, fiddling with her fingers with a grimace, one that she wanted to hide... Tegan wasn't sure why, Emma was allowed to have feelings around her...

Did she not know that? God, she really hoped that Emma knew that, because she wanted to know a completely unfiltered version of Emma... It was odd to think that this was her closest friend in the world and they'd only recently met, but it was true. She wanted to know everything about Emma, she wanted to spend her life getting to know her, and she was pretty sure that she would never get bored of her...

It'd be scary if it wasn't so comforting... She liked being around people who actually wanted to get to know her as much as she wanted to get to know them...

But that's not the point... Why are you grimacing right now?

"What's up?" She asked, and Emma shrugged, trying to wave her off - but that was never going to work. She didn't know exactly how a hand motion was going to make her shut up, but she did know that it meant that Emma didn't want to talk about it...

Or that she was going to take a moment to get to it, one of the two.

"I just... Uh..." Emma glanced across the fire, the thinly veiled sad expression reflected in the yellow glow of the fire as she gestured vaguely to where Esme and Penny were talking, clearly in their own world. "Esme and Penny seem to be... Close? I don't know." She mumbled, and Tegan nodded slowly... Yeah, they were close... Wasn't that a good thing?

Wasn't that a good thing? What am I missing? I'm so fucking confused right now...

"Yeah... Are you... Is that not good?" She asked, wanting to clarify, and Emma looked at her, clearly startled as she shook her head... Okay, so it isn't good? I need you to be aggressively clear with me right now, because I don't know how I'm supposed to absorb this information properly.