Ephemeral

Head Mathis

I was sitting stiffly next to Bella, taking the moment to really feel the sore muscles that were aching my entire body. 

I did my best to lightly roll one of my shoulders to ease the tension while at the same time, attempting to not draw too much attention to myself. My head was still pounding, and the stitches on the top of my head were very noticeable – I could feel exactly where they were without verifying it with my own reflection.

My gaze was cast down on to the table that I was sitting at – it was an abnormally large wooden table. I didn't want to make any eye contact with the other inhabitants and instead settled on looking over at Bella, who -- in turn, was glaring hard at Aidan.

Aidan, however, was staring over at me seeming in thought, while Xavier was looking between all three of us with a stern smile placed on his face. Xavier then clapped, startling me, and causing Bella to turn her glare over towards our half-brother – most likely angered that he had managed to tear her attention away from the man that she wanted to kill the most.

"Let's not all speak at once!" Xavier announced in a somewhat teasing manner. "Well..." Xavier continued with a nod of his head, the gesture being intended to include all of us that were sitting at the table. "Now that we have all of us in one spot," he leaned back with his arms crossed smugly. "And not trying to kill each other..." He muttered loudly to himself, though we had all managed to hear his words. "How about we all start to say some things we want to get off our chest?"

The room was silent, but it wasn't silent for long before Bella decided to be the first one to speak.

"The next chance I get -- you're fucking dead," Bella informed Aidan, who shifted his eyes over towards my twin.

His eyes didn't hold any emotion inside of them, which wasn't uncommon when Aidan was threatened by someone. It only meant that he was making plans inside of his head that he would carry out in the near future. It was Aidan's unpredictable thoughts and plans that were considered the most dangerous, and a great pain in the ass when attempting to try and stop them.

It was impossible to stop what you didn't know was coming –

"Ari won't stop me, either," I perked up as Bella mentioned me into her threat. "She knows that it's for the best if you're dead..." I watched as Bella narrowed her eyes down, avoiding her gaze from Aidan's fixated one for a few seconds. "...Even if she does carry strange feelings for you."

I glanced off to the side –

Only feelings of disgust and hate that you warped into thinking that meant love, Bella.

I knew that it would be useless to bring that up into conversation right now. My sister was too fueled be her anger that I had abandoned her when that entirely was not true. I would have to reiterate my point when we were alone together and she had lowered her defenses some.

"Hmm," Xavier half cleared his throat. "Well, it just so happens that I have a couple of things that I need to get off my chest-!" Xavier spoke, placing his hand up to his chest for emphasis.

I watched Xavier with mild interest until Aidan let out a sharp exhale, leaning forward on the table with his arms – his forearms resting on its surface.

That didn't take long --

"You're welcome to try, Isabella," Aidan spat out her name with severe distaste. I flinched at the animosity that he was sending towards my sister, causing him to flicker his eyes over towards me. "Vienna, you should do well to say your last goodbyes to your miserable, waste of a space sister."