\\ Aria //
"Can I ask you something?" I glanced over at Jenna, who sat at the edge of my bed, looking paler than usual. She walked in a while after I had woken up, making a fuss after she saw me trying to get up on my own.
"Only if you tell me where Tyler went." I noticed her hand twitch as she sighed.
"Fitting." She smiled. "He left after Arlo spiked up a conversation with me." I stared at her, edging her to continue, but instead she sat there, staring at me with her big, bright blue eyes.
"What did that asshole say to him?"
"Nothing, why?" I raised an eyebrow at her quick response, feeling my anxiety grip and pull at my insides.
"Jenna, if he said anything to him, anything Tyler shouldn't know about, I have to kn–"
"What's your relationship with him?" I froze, my mind going blank after my breathing stuck in my throat.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I struggled to keep my composure, anger filling up the void in my chest where the oxygen was supposed to be. Her eyes widened at my state, slowly realising how annoyed I was.
"N-no, no! I mean, are you guys really, y'know, friends? You seem really close and all, and you seem a little bit softer around him, almost like he's broken down the walls that took me years to push past." I chuckled, shaking my head and reaching out for his chin, forcefully pulling her towards me.
"What does our status have to do with you? Friend, foe, lovers, why is it any of your concern?" She searched my eyes and that's when I felt it; the resentment I had kept buried for so long.
"I was just curious–"
"Curious for what?" I shoved her away from me, watching as she tumbled to the floor. I followed as she crawled backwards towards the far wall, my fists instinctively clenching. "Curious to see if you can tear him away from me like you have everyone else? Curious to see if I'll break and tear myself apart after years of being okay?" I took a step back, satisfied with her silence.
"A–Aria I haven't–" My fist collided with the wall beside her left ear, emitting a squeak from her.
"You can take everything from me, Jenna Elizabeth Black, but I swear to you, if you so much as lay a finger on Tyler Joseph, you're going to regret ever pushing past these walls." I glared down at her shaking body, spinning around and reaching for a pair of flats lying on the floor beside the door. I expected her small voice to call out and ask me where I was going, but instead she sat quiet, and I felt a smile growing on my lips.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs without another interruption, rushing out the front door and to the back of the house, climbing up and over the tall wooden fence that kept the normal civilians out and away from the dark abyss beyond.
"Oh Tyler," I purred, looking up at the tall trees, "you shouldn't need to worry about that whore when you have me, alright? I know how to treat you better than she ever will." I laughed, picking small dandelions on my way to the tree house.
They were small and insignificant, soon to die off without the roots that kept it well fed.
Much like someone who would do fall apart the same way if she kept nosing around in other people's business.
