The Pompous and The Prick

Chapter 20: Don't Be Suspicious

"Starfire?" Stolas's voice came through the door, with a tone lilting up at the end. Via knew from years of experience, that it meant he either wanted something or she was in trouble. She immediately closed her laptop and called back, "Yyyeah? Come in." He slowly opened the door. Aw, so she wasn't in trouble . . . at least yet.

"Hi, darling. I was just wondering . . . Have you been writing any letters recently?" He asked, in quite a leading way.

Despite knowing she hadn't written a letter since the invites to her maybe 13th birthday party, she felt nervous at the suspiciousness in his tone, "Noooo? Why?"

"This was slipped through the mail slot. It would be quite of feat of speed to run from there and back here, but you have been improving your portals." His voice lilted upwards again and he held up a plain white envelope with his name on it.

She restrained her eyes, lest they roll in front of her distressed father, "Can I see it?"

He walked over and handed it to her, and as she read it, she quietly whispered, ". . . oh f**k . . ."

"Language, sweetheart! And why would you say that if you had nothing to do with this, hmmm?" He said, raising a quizzical brow.

"Oh, uh . . ." She was actually worried about the text she and Loona had drafted up and sent to him this morning that contradicted some of what this letter said, but she couldn't tell him that so she had to come up with something on the fly, "I-It just is, um, so cool that he wants to meet up with you after the fight you had. I'm just . . . surprised!"

"Mmhmm. So was I. I was also surprised that he used the word 'invincible' and 'capacity' even if they were misspelled. Not to mention spelling the word 'exchange' correctly and 'hospital' with two L's and not an 'el' at the end." He said as a interrogator with a suspect.

"Oh . . . Do you know all his spelling errors?" she asked.

"Yes, well . . . I was quite enamored with him . . ." He trailed off, and surprised himself as he realized he had used the past tense, "At any rate, I don't think Blitz really sent this, and you are not exactly guiltless in meddling in my love life."

She felt a little twinge of shame, "I really didn't do this

But yeah, I'm really sorry, Dad." She took a deep breath and made a boy's scout salute, "I solemnly swear to not mess with your love life . . . unless you really, really need it."

"Octavia." Stolas warned.

"Fine! I solemnly swear to not go behind your back if I do decide to mess with your love life, and will tell you first. How's that?" She put her hand down.

" . . . Better, I suppose." He glared at her with a hint of a smile.

"Aaaanyway, anything else you wanted to talk about . . . ?" This time her voice lilted up, expectantly.

"Oh! Well . . . Blitz did message me. The real one. Ha!" He sat down on the bed with her and laughed to himself, "At least supposedly. It's was his account on Faceless Love. So really, it could be anyone."

Via tried her best to not look visibly nervous, "Oh, and uh. . . What did he say?"

He slumped a little, "He said he didn't want to talk anymore . . ." He sighed, "he wants to spend time reflecting."

Via felt a sense of relief, as it didn't seem like he caught on to her anxious guilt, "Well, that's good isn't it?"

Stolas looked at her like she was insane, "Pardon?"

"Well, yeah. You told him some really heavy shi- . . . stuff last time you talked. So if he's self-reflecting, that means he really heard you, right?" She asked.