Behind the Lace and the Lies

6 - Thinly Veiled Lies: Luna

Luna knew that Bella needed help. She needed to help her. But that were no enemies to imprison, no sickness to cure, nothing money could fix. Nothing Luna could fix. There was something wrong with Bella, but Luna didn't exactly know what.

But she was here, and Bella was here, and she wasn't scared, so everything was going to be okay.

"Fuck off," someone shouted from beyond the brushes. "Go find someone else to leech off of."

Bella flinched. Distant bushes rustled and the layer of moonlight shattered.

Luna was scared again. Her hands trembled softly but she took Bella's hands and squeezed them. "I'm here," she whispered. But what if that person saw them? What if they said something, and Wyatt would be furious.

Luna froze, her heart beating against her ribcage with the urgency of a caged aroya.

"I'm just trying to help you. You need some more support. Robert would have wanted me to be there for you," came a second voice.

The patter of footsteps came closer. The people couldn't find them here together. Luna glanced around, there was only a single exit – the same entrance she came through. Luna looked to Bella, who kneeled there, unmoving, eyes searching.

Luna needed to go. But Bella needed her. But she needed to leave. "I'm going to go, and see what's going on out there. I'll be back," she promised. Bella gave a single, short, quick nod.

Luna stood up, replaced her glove, patted her hair down, brushed some of the mud off her stained knees, and walked away. With every step away from Bella, she could feel the fear flood back.

She walked through the entrance and back onto the path, Bella was out of sight.

She hurried along the pathway, eyes fixated on her feet, a habit she couldn't quite break. Chin up, be strong, she reminded herself. But she just wanted to curl into a ball and hide. The fear gnawed at her.

The pathway rose over a tree's root growing beneath it and shrunk as trees' branches hung low and streams of purple flowers drifted down to coat the path. Luna ducked beneath them, brushing the flowers out of her hair, to emerge in a narrow clearing. The bushes pulled away from the path, leaving room for fruit trees to grow.

Alyssa marched towards Luna, the bottom of her dress billowing out around her like a wave about to crash. Her eyes were ablaze with fury.

Ezra stood farther down the pathway; arms crossed in a way that reminded Luna of her father a bit too much. His foot tapped against the ground. "You need me. I can help you sort out this mess with your brother."

"Half-brother," Alyssa spat.

"Although, it won't have a been an issue in the first place if you had let me help you, like Robert w-"

Alyssa turned; the wrath of her wave redirected. "My father only put up with-"

"Mrs. Dundragon," Ezra interjected, having noticed Luna at last. She stepped out from the shadow of a tree. Alyssa paused; body coiled.

"Mr. Teinwalker. Ms. Kheborne," Luna greeted. She squeezed her hands together; it hid their shaking well.

"Luna," Alyssa said. She nibbled on her lip. "How good to see you."

Luna. "It's been so long," Luna replied smoothly, "how's everything been going?"

The tapping of Ezra's foot sped up. He smiled, but Luna could see how he flexed his arms, barely restraining himself.

"Do you want to catch up?" Luna asked, glancing at Ezra before bringing her gaze back to Alyssa's eyes. Alyssa paused, following Luna's look at Ezra.

"Oh, of course" Alyssa fretted, "it would be great to talk with you." She smiled, a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, and tugged at the edges of her gloves.

Ezra groaned. "I ... I thought we were in the middle of talking about some rather important matters."

Alyssa frowned and shook her head. "No, we're done discussing that. You can go now."

Before Ezra could protest, Alyssa grabbed Luna by the arm and guided her away. Luna could feel Ezra's eyes running down her back as she walked past him. Luna stumbled alongside Alyssa, desperate to retain any last bit of elegance.

Should she be with Alyssa? After everything with Robert and the human he ran away with, Alyssa's reputation wasn't good. Luna felt a deep ache as she imagined Wyatt's response to learning she spoke to Alyssa. But she had needed help; Ezra could be rather nasty. But Luna needed to be forgettable, even to Wyatt, if she wanted to continue seeing Bella. Luna was tired, tired of all the worrying.

Alyssa sat down on a bench and Luna sat beside her. Alyssa pulled at the layers of her dress, keeping it from the damp ground. Luna could distantly see the party through the trees, the glow of the golden paper lanterns in stark contrast to the previous silver dappled moonlight. People walked all around, gathered in clumps, but they really seemed like blobs blocking out the light shining through the layers of trees. Luna needed to go, to find Wyatt. To pretend that everything was okay.

Alyssa peered at her, eyes slightly narrowed, her eyeliner dark against her sclera. She played with her gloves, pulled at the fingertips, loosening them without pulling them off. Asking without asking.

A strand of the embroidery on Alyssa's gloves was undone, the white string sticking out above the rest. Luna wanted to fix it, to pull the string back through till it was even again.

"Your gloves are gorgeous," Alyssa said. They aren't.

"Thank you." The silence was heavy, so heavy that Luna imagined she could pluck from the air like an apple. She looked to the maze of nature, where she knew Bella was, and to the shifting light of the party, where Wyatt was. She needed to go, but couldn't until she got this over with.

She removed a single glove and rested it on her lap. Alyssa became alive, the entirety of focus upon Luna. Her eyelashes fluttered. She removed her glove, the broken strand of embroidery vanishing from sight.

Luna sighed quietly. Alyssa blinked.