Brighter Than the Stars

Nicole - Fear, Pain, and Anger

"I'm going to kill them. Both of them." I yanked the tie to my boots harder than necessary and felt the string nearly rip off in my hands. Annabelle may have been an idiot I wanted nothing more than to yell at for a good hour, but she had been right about one thing–I should probably replace these.

"That's a little hasty," Leo said. "I'm sure they had their reasons–"

"Right now, I don't care if they did it to save your life! They were stupid and they are currently being stupid–their reasons barely count!" I snapped. I kicked my boots in the general direction of my closet. They hit the door with a bang that didn't even satisfy me.

James and Annabelle were reckless, sure. They'd done a lot of stupid things and would probably do a lot more before, if they were lucky enough, finally gaining some common sense and managing to control themselves some of the time. But this–this wasn't even reckless, it was just plain stupid. They hadn't thought it through, that much was clear, and if they had even managed to arrange proper transportation, it'd be a miracle. We'd probably find them dead in a ditch somewhere.

I wished Annabelle was here so I could shake her. Except she wasn't, because she'd decided to take off to head to the front of a war. Annabelle–who hated even training, and preferred to use her magic for practical jokes. Moving James' pastry away from him whenever he tried to grab for it hardly compared to fighting in a war. James I could maybe understand—except for the fact that he'd just left, no rhyme or reason to it, no "Hey, guys, I'm thinking of heading down to the front." Nothing. Just the note in Annabelle's loopy handwriting that explained where they'd run off to.

"They couldn't have waited an hour?" I started pacing my room. "Couldn't have waited to see us–to see anybody, then headed out tomorrow morning? What was the reasoning behind this?"

"I don't think there was any," Leo said. "They're...them. And it was stupid, sure–"

"It was more than stupid! That's just–that's just–!" I trailed off, unable to come up with a word to express the ridiculousness of James and Annabelle's idea. Of this entire situation, really.

I hadn't been gone more than a few hours with Leo. We'd had dinner and that was all–how did somebody decide to go fight in a war in that time? And why–why–hadn't they just told somebody. It wasn't like waiting for an hour would have killed them; in fact, the chances were far higher that they'd die running off like they had then if they'd simply waited.

Leo sighed. "I don't know. It was stupid, reckless, and something only they would have ever thought up. Now we have to deal with the consequences."

"That's not fair." I was aware I sounded like a spoiled child–and also aware that nothing was ever fair. Hadn't I learned that, time and time again? Now was not the time for things to start magically being fair, though it would have been nice.

"I know." He grabbed one of my pillows and propped his chin up on it. "But neither of us got much of a say in the matter, so that's what we'll have to deal with. I guess we should follow them. If we head out within the hour, we can be there maybe just a few hours after, stop and get them to think and plan a little before rushing off some more..." He trailed off, already planning on how to get James and Annabelle to actually think.

I slouched to the ground and rested my head against his knee while he thought. He stared up toward the galaxy painted on my ceiling, mouth moving slightly, but no sound coming out. That was his usual "planning" expression, whether it applied to a heist, a political move, or James and Annabelle's downright stupidity.

"Alright," he said. "The best thing to do would probably be to follow them before they make any more stupid decisions. But that means we have to leave right about...now." I sighed, but didn't lift my head. I was comfortable, and mad at James and Annabelle. Right now, I really wasn't in the mood to go off and attempt to save their lives. Leo absentmindedly spun locks of my hair around his fingers, not bothering to get up, either. Finally, he got to his feet. "We really do need to go now, Nicole."