AU: Journey to Redemption (Coriolanus Snow)

I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

The doorbell rang, and Aurora didn't want to get up to answer it; she had been too busy lying in the fetal position for the past few days. Still, she imagined it might be important, maybe some news about Coryo, so she found herself obliged to get up.

She glanced at her reflection in the hallway mirror; she looked awful. Her hair was tangled, and dark circles under her eyes stood out. The pajamas she had received last Christmas already had some holes. She had also had a few drinks the night before, and her head was pounding. She ignored it all and opened the door.

"Aria? Nyx??" Her reaction was one of surprise. "You guys managed to get into the school?"

"No, but we found a way," Aria replied with a shrug that could mean anything from 'we broke in' to 'we entered through the front gate.'

"Oh my god, did you get the license plate of the truck that hit you?" Aria asked with her usual monotone. Aurora just waved them in, her dignity hiding in some dark corner along with her will to socialize. Sitting on the couch, Aurora grabbed a bag of chips that had been her mourning companion for two days (probably).

"We were worried about you, Aurora," Nyx added, looking as lovely as ever, making Aurora feel like a cave troll by comparison. "What happened? You haven't answered the phone in days, and you didn't even let us know you weren't going to the orphanage."

"You know what happened? My life is over," Aurora declared, as if announcing the end of a canceled TV show.

"What? Are you crazy?" Nyx asked, surprised.

"You know what, Nyx?" Aurora began, her hands massaging her temples as if trying to squeeze some logic out of her situation. "...And Aria," she added as a postscript. "I got dumped. But it wasn't just that. I got dumped by the guy I hated. I thought there might be some brain inside that head, but apparently not. We had a huge fight. And now he's been exiled FOR 20 YEARS to god knows where!" Aurora's rant was a rapid-fire of words, firing off faster than the girls could absorb.

"Let me see if I got this right. You've been holed up in this cave for days because your friend got exiled?" Nyx tried to summarize, her expression a mix of concern and disbelief.

"In a nutshell, yes. But he wasn't my friend... actually, Sejanus was also... He was my friend, Coriolanus was my ENEMY. ... Yeah, he still is." Aurora was on the verge of losing it with the need to explain the inexplicable. She buried her face in her hands, as if she could disappear.

"Wait, this Coryo is Coriolanus Snow? You've been talking about him all this time?" Aria finally connected the dots, her voice a mix of shock and admiration.

Aurora miserably nodded, without looking up.

Nyx and Aria exchanged knowing looks.

"You hooked up with Coriolanus Snow?" Nyx asked, a mischievous smile dancing on her lips.

"Yeah, so what?" Aurora replied, now staring defiantly at the girls.

"The thing is, the whole Capital fell in love with him during the games. I suspected that thing with him and Lucy Gray was just a show, but I didn't know he actually liked someone else."

"That's the problem, he doesn't like me. We had a fight, and now he's unreachable."

"Well, we can dissect your love life later. We're here to remind you that you have a job to do, and the orphanage is counting on you," Nyx said, taking on a maternal tone.

"That job being you getting a confession out of Clemensia to clear your name," Aria added. Aurora nodded; she had procrastinated life for too long.

"Sorry, girls, I'm lost. I'm a wreck."